- The Washington Times - Sunday, July 24, 2022

Former Vice President Al Gore said Sunday that those who deny or question the science behind climate change are comparable to the law enforcement officials who failed to take down the shooter who killed 19 elementary students and two teachers in Uvalde, Texas, in May.

“You know, the climate deniers are really in some ways similar to all of those almost 400 law enforcement officers … who were waiting outside an unlocked door while the children were being massacred,” Mr. Gore told NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “Confronted with this global emergency, what we’re doing with our inaction and failing to walk through the door and stop the killing is not typical of what we are capable of as human beings.”

His remarks came in the wake of damning reports that nearly 400 law enforcement officials waited more than an hour before confronting the shooter and amid an international heat wave that has engulfed much of the U.S. and Europe.

Mr. Gore suggested that the “democracy crisis” will have to be fixed in order to “solve the climate crisis.”

“The same reason that it’s seemingly impossible for the Congress to pass legislation banning these weapons of war, these assault rifles that are being used to murder children in classrooms and create hundreds of mass-casualty events already this year, and that’s getting worse; the same reason we can’t pass legislation to, for example reinstate the ban on assault weapons; is the same reason that we can’t pass climate legislation,” he said.

• Ramsey Touchberry can be reached at rtouchberry@washingtontimes.com.

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