“Vice President Harris and Governor Walz know we can take action to keep our kids safe and keep guns out of the hands of criminals,” said the Harris campaign.

Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz said children across the United States “deserve better” than his Republican opponent JD Vance’s response to the latest school shooting, after the GOP senator from Ohio said at a rally that Americans must simply accept that gun violence is a threat present in the country’s schools.

Speaking in Phoenix, Arizona on Thursday evening, Vance suggested there is nothing the U.S. government can do to stop “psychos” from attacking schools with AR-style rifles and other firearms.

“We don’t have to like the reality that we live in, but it is the reality we live in. We’ve got to deal with it,” said Vance. “I don’t like that this is a fact of life, but if you are a psycho and you want to make headlines, you realize that our schools are soft targets.”

Vance’s comments were the latest Republican pitch to voters about bolstering security at schools instead of passing broadly popular gun control reforms, such as universal background checks—backed by 86% of Americans in McCourtney Institute for Democracy survey last year—and banning the sale of semi-automatic and automatic weapons, the guns of choice for mass shooters due to their ability to rapidly fire multiple rounds of ammunition without reloading. Nearly two-thirds of U.S. voters support that kind of ban, according to the same poll.

Walz, the governor of Minnesota, called Vance’s comments—made one day after two 14-year-old students and two teachers were fatally shot at Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia—”pathetic.”

This is pathetic. We can’t quit on our kids — they deserve better. https://t.co/ozYdvpDJ4u

— Tim Walz (@Tim_Walz) September 6, 2024

In a statement, Vice President Kamala Harris‘ presidential campaign linked Vance’s remarks to advice Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump gave to a grieving community in Iowa earlier this year, days after a shooting shooting that killed a sixth-grader: “We have to get over it.”

“Vice President Harris and Governor Walz know we can take action to keep our kids safe and keep guns out of the hands of criminals,” said the campaign. “Donald Trump and JD Vance will always choose the [National Rifle Association] and gun lobby over our children. That is the choice in this election.”

Walz’s state has recently passed several gun control reforms including universal background checks and laws blocking gun purchases for domestic abusers under restraining orders.

Prior to telling parents across the country that gun violence in schools is something they must accept, Vance has made headlines for numerous comments he’s made about Americans’ decision-making over whether or not to have children—criticizing so-called “childless cat ladies” and teachers who don’t have kids.

Based on the Republican senator’s remarks on Thursday, author Amber Sparks suggested Vance’s vision for the country is that “all women should have children but also serenely accept that they might be shot at school.”

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