National Rifle Association board member Ted Nugent endorsed stationing armed security at “every entrance of every school in America” after 10 people were shot dead Friday at Santa Fe High School near Houston, Texas.
The rock guitarist and adamant Second Amendment defender called for arming school personnel across the country during an interview with right-wing media personality Alex Jones conducted following Friday’s mass shooting in Galveston County.
“If we want to stop the slaughter of innocents, one armed security guard for 1,400 students will not cut it,” said Mr. Nugent, an NRA board of directors member since 1995. “You’ve got to have armed security at our schools like we do banks and the airports and at sporting events and racetracks. We have to have an armed, prepared, trained security individual, preferably undercover without a uniform on, at every entrance of every school in America.”
Vetted school officials could easily double as armed security personnel, added Mr. Nugent, 69.
“I know there are parents and teachers and administrators and janitors and coaches out there that not only are ready, willing and able to be armed to stop evil perpetrators,” Mr. Nugent continued, “but they already have concealed weapons permits, but they’re invalid in those arenas where they’re the most desperately needed.”
“It’s not like we’re pulling this out of our ass. The evidence is irrefutable. If you are unarmed and helpless, you are unarmed and helpless,” said Mr. Nugent. “What a tragic, irresponsible, embarrassing condition to allow yourself to become.”
SEE ALSO: Multiple fatalities in Texas school shooting, gunman in custody
Ten people were killed and another ten injured after a gunman opened fire at the high school Friday morning, according to authorities.
Police have arrested the suspected shooter, Santa Fe student Dimitrios Pagourtzis, 17, and charged him late Friday with capital murder of multiple persons and aggravated assault against a public servant. Dimitrios confessed to the shootings, according to authorities, and is being held without bond.
Dimitrios opened fire armed with a shotgun and a .38-caliber owned by his father, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said at a news conference.
According to Mr. Nugent, however, the specific weaponry involved wasn’t a factor in Friday’s massacre.
“Once again, this is not about hardware — it’s about heart-ware; it’s about spirit,” Mr. Nugent told Mr. Jones. “This is a manifestation of a cultural deprivation of the abandonment of accountability and discipline in our world.”
“This is an issue of sick, twisted freaks,” reacted Mr. Jones.
• Andrew Blake can be reached at ablake@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.