Sen. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee went on air to explain a truly remarkable plan for school safety. Recent mass shootings at elementary and secondary schools have sparked conversation about how we should go about securing school safety. Sen. Blackburn told Kayleigh McEnany of Fox News that grandparents could be recruited as armed guards for schools because “they know how to use weapons.”
According to the Huffington Post:
McEnany, Donald Trump’s former White House press secretary, was rapt as Blackburn promoted her SAFE Schools Act, which would supply $900 million to “harden schools” with more security.
“To have this grant pool and to allow local school systems and local law enforcement to work together to bring in veterans and retired law enforcement to serve as a security officer at a school — they know how to use weapons,” Blackburn said. “They know to de-escalate situations. I’ve talked to a lot of them. They like this idea. They are grandparents like we are — my husband and I are grandparents — and they want to be there to help protect children.”
Blackburn said she proposed something similar after the 2022 school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, that killed 19 students and two teachers. In that case, hundreds of law enforcement personnel were slow to act while the shooter carried out the massacre.
Do you support this plan to hire responsible and trained gun experts to protect America’s children? Many people may not realize that some grandparents can be as young as 50-years-old so criticism of Blackburn’s plan may be taken out of context. What Blackburn does get right is that schools need better security to protect our youth.
