JD Vance doesn't like that school shootings are 'a fact of life,' calls for more security

JD Vance said Thursday in Phoenix that he doesn't like that school mass shootings have become "a fact of life" and called for increased campus security.

Speaking at the Arizona Biltmore resort, Vance called the school shooting in Georgia that killed four people Wednesday a "tragedy."

"I don't like this. I don't like to admit this. I don't like that this is a fact of life," Vance, the Republican nominee for vice president, said. "But if you are a psycho, and you want to make headlines, you realize that our schools are soft targets and we have got to bolster security at our schools."

Vance, a GOP senator from Ohio, said that school shootings happen in states with strict and lax gun laws, although the researchers at the National Library of Medicine found in 2019 that states with more permissive gun laws and greater gun ownership see more mass shootings.

“Clearly, strict gun laws is not the thing that's going to solve this problem,” Vance said.

Ammar Moussa, a Harris-Walz campaign spokesperson, compared Vance's remark to Harris saying Wednesday that "it doesn’t have to be this way" in response to the school shooting.

“Yesterday, Vice President Harris said ‘it doesn’t have to be this way’ in response to another senseless school shooting. Donald Trump and JD Vance think school shootings are a 'fact of life' and ‘we have to get over it,'" Moussa said. “Vice President Harris and Governor (Tim) Walz know we can take action to keep our children safe and keep guns out of the hands of criminals. Donald Trump and JD Vance will always choose the NRA and gun lobby over our children. That is the choice in this election."

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Dan Nowicki is The Arizona Republic's national politics editor. Follow him on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, @dannowicki.

Stephanie Murray is a Republic national political reporter. Follow her on X @stephanie_murr.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: JD Vance calls for more security on school campuses after Ga. shooting