Vance says school shootings are ‘fact of life’, too weak to lead

Any politician who says anything other than “it doesn’t have to be this way” is evading their responsibility to keep Americans safe. To keep our children safe.

Following the deadly Georgia school shooting, J.D. Vance, a Republican who wrongly believes he is qualified to be vice president of the United States, told a rally Thursday night, “We don’t have to like the reality that we live in, but this is the reality that we live in.”

Excuse me, what? The 14-year-old student is suspected of using an assault rifle — reportedly a gift from his father — to shoot and kill two Apalachee High School students his age and two teachers, and wound nine others. As with any school or mass shooting, there are victims who go far beyond those shot and their families, children and adults whose lives are forever shattered by the trauma.

And Vance’s response the day after this tragedy is “this is the reality we live in”? Forgive my attempt at vulgarity, but Vance can (expletive) leave right now if he is ready and willing to accept armed children committing routine acts of slaughter in American schools as a reality that simply must be accepted.

Vance calls school shootings ‘fact of life’ day after Georgia tragedy

At a rally in Arizona, the senator said, “I don’t like that it’s a fact. But if you’re a psychopath and you want to make headlines, you know our schools are easy targets. And we need to beef up security in our schools. We need to beef up security so if a psychopath wants to walk in the front door and kill a bunch of kids, he can’t do it.”

The psychopath here — to borrow Vance’s crude term — is the so-called politician who looks at a school shooting like the one in Georgia on Wednesday and says, “Well, that’s just the way it is. What can we do but staff our schools with armed guards and install bullet-proof glass doors and metal detectors and the like?”

Buddy, we can do so much more and you know it.

There are many things we could do to stop the wave of school shootings.

We can ban AR-15-style rifles like the one police say was used in the Apalachee High School shooting. These rifles have been used in mass shootings in Uvalde, Texas; Buffalo and Dayton, Ohio; El Paso; and Pittsburgh. They are a deadly favorite of mass shooters.

You can advocate for safe storage of firearms, which Georgia does not. You can require mandatory background checks, which Georgia does not. You can require permits to purchase firearms, which Georgia does not.

You can provide funding that makes mental health care more accessible to all Americans. And yes, you can strengthen school safety.

But to give up and say that school shootings are simply the reality we live in? That’s weak. That’s garbage. And it’s far from leadership.

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Harris wisely said, “it doesn’t have to be this way”

Compare Vance’s verbal shrug to what Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris said the day of the Georgia school shooting: “It’s just a senseless tragedy on top of many senseless tragedies, and it’s just outrageous that every day in our country, in the United States of America, parents have to send their children to school, worrying whether their child is going to come home alive. It’s senseless.”

She continued: “We have to stop this and we have to end this epidemic of gun violence in our country once and for all. You know it doesn’t have to be this way.”

Exactly. Any politician who says anything other than “it doesn’t have to be this way” is evading their responsibility to keep Americans safe. To keep our children safe.

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People who say “Too early!” clearly don’t mind giving up

Republicans routinely bash liberals for talking up gun laws after school shootings — “Too soon!” they shout — but I don’t think they mind that their vice presidential candidate stood up the day after two students were shot to death and said, “So what are you going to do?”

Vance has proven himself to be a moron and a terrible retail politician before he started commenting that school shootings are a “fact of life.” But now… oh my god. This jerk has no right to even be a step away from the presidency.

And he certainly shouldn’t tell us that the unprecedented atrocities of school shootings are something we’ll just have to come to terms with.

To hell with it.

And honestly, to hell with him.

Follow USA TODAY columnist Rex Huppke on X, formerly Twitter, @RexHuppke and on Facebook facebook.com/RexIsAJerk