Texas Tragedy: Real Solutions Needed Now

This is Jay Sekulow, a massacre at a Texas elementary school. We need real solutions now.

Keeping you informed and engaged, now more than ever, this is Sekulow. What happened in Uvalde is a horrific tragedy that cannot be tolerated in the state of Texas. And there is swift action being taken by local law enforcement as well as the Texas Department of Public Safety. We want to hear from you.

Share and post your comments or call 1-800-684-3110. When parents drop their kids off at school, they have every expectation to know that they're going to be able to pick their child up when that school day ends. And there are families who are in mourning right now, and the state of Texas is in mourning with them for the reality that these parents are not going to be able to pick up their children. And now your host, Jay Sekulow. Hey everybody, this is a tragic day to come.

We have not issued any public statements at the American Center for Law and Justice. We wanted to address this with our audience on our radio broadcasts and our social media broadcasts. And we're going to focus a broadcast today on what do we do in this situation. I just came from a few minutes ago, some of my grandkids' school where they had an awards ceremony.

And I thank the police officer who is protecting my grandkids for the work he did this year. And I was thinking about the situation in Texas. And we have to stop saying things like, there's no solution to this. There are solutions to this. For you to get into our building, you have to go through what they call a man trap. That is, doors don't just open.

People, Logan, can't even get into this studio that work here. There's technology. We have to start, and this is going to require putting America's interest first, and I don't mean that in the political way, I mean it this way. You do have to evaluate. When Congress says we're going to send $80 billion over to Ukraine, would it be better to spend that on school security in the United States? I mean, we have to start asking those hard questions. I think it's prioritizing what's happening in this country beyond, like you said, beyond politics, beyond what's happening in society. And we discussed this earlier, there is a lot of technology, we can even get into some of it, that would not be that difficult.

Technology has been around for decades, and then brand new technologies happen right now. The global conversation and the country conversation is mass shootings. But maybe our first should be school shootings, and actually say, okay, we may not be able to right now solve everything in terms of mass shootings, as horrible as it is, but maybe we can focus on the most vulnerable being our kids. And if we can do that, then at least there's a small win there in saying, okay, we know there are certain things that can be done. If we are going to have our tax dollars spent somewhere, if we're going to have that happen, I don't think you're going to have a lot of people upset that you're spending it on securing the schools. You can have it being spent on a thousand different things, which is being spent on, I'm sure some of it is, but not on a mass level that could be taken. Or you're going to have to say, your government doesn't care, and people are going to have to step up and start doing it themselves, and you're going to have to have organizations that are going to step in and have to try to solve the problem.

Against political mainstream moves. That's starting to happen. Jordan, go ahead.

Jordan's on location, but go ahead. Yeah, you know, to me it's just, as a parent, seeing that news is incredibly troubling. We talked about the idea of, you know, thoughts and prayers, and that's just not enough. Of course, prayer is powerful, and it's important to do, but that's not how we can answer all these problems.

God gave us a brain to come up with solutions. We see that there's a pattern here, and as a father with three kids in school, this, as you can understand, it shakes everybody to their core. To their core, because there's always one of these kids, or a few of these kids, in the school, in the classroom, who are a little scary, who seem a little dangerous, and a little off. And it seems like no one is, because this, maybe the culture, we're afraid to speak up about them. Yeah, I'm going to, we're going to stay live during the break here, because I want to keep some conversation going here. We'll take calls at 800-684-3110. We'll be back in a minute. But for our social media platforms, we're going to stay live, because I want to follow up on a couple of those points, because I think it's really important.

Welcome back everybody. We are going to be talking about what we think are solutions that could be implemented in this tragedy we're facing. To say our thoughts and prayers are with the people of Texas and those parents, of course they are. But you can't keep saying this. God knows that. But you can't keep saying that. It's not answering the question.

We're taking your calls at 800-684-3110, but I want to start it with this. An 18-year-old gunman goes into an elementary school, goes into a classroom, and kills 19 students and two teachers. In minutes. Initial reports are from the Associated Press that a lone, initially, Customs and Border Patrol agent who had been maligned in the press, arrived on the scene and went inside the building without backup. Now that's still all being verified, but that appears to be what he was shot at and was injured.

He's okay. This happened in a matter of minutes. There was not a security officer. There was not a police officer on site.

There was not a locked door situation. And we're going to be talking about this from a, how do we fix this? And I think as the American people, this is not, we have not, cannot let this become a political issue. It can't be about gun control or about more guns. It's, none of that is relevant to this.

Okay. And it isn't. Now people say, you know, you could pass laws. This guy would have gotten, if you had background checks and more background checks, he would have qualified. Now there were a lot of red flags on his social media.

A lot of red flags. So we've got to figure out, can that be done better? But I think we have to start with the target. Unfortunately, the target is America's public schools and private schools. It's America's schools. And this is, this is the target. Yeah. And if we have to spend a billion dollars to do it, so be it.

Twenty billion. I mean, I mean, and it's not that difficult, as you said, most universities now, most private businesses, I mean, think about going on vacation. If you go to, we're talking about this, you go to Walt Disney World, you got to wear a wristband that they track everywhere you are and you scan it and you're not allowed in everywhere. You know, it doesn't, it's not like the access point gets you everywhere.

And maybe that's how it needs to be. There needs to be situations like that, where your kid has a wristband or some kind of card that gets them into the rooms that they need to be able to get into and not other places. Because sometimes this does happen, obviously happened in Columbine and some of these others where it's students within the school.

So you have to be able to have other points as well. You have to be able to stop them. You said, whether it's, there's a new kind of metal detectors where you walk through. I mean, look, during COVID, my kids would walk through a detector that as we all live, I mean, I watched the security do it live. It checked your temperature as you walked in. Like there was no someone sitting there with a little, you know, thermometer. This was active, live, checking your temperature as you walk through an archway.

You didn't know what you're walking through. If we have that kind of technology, we certainly have the technology to secure the, you know, the entry points to these schools and secure, like you said, in the next step, then secure the individual classrooms. Who, in what good does anyone have who is not meant to be in a classroom who can't knock and go, you know, go in essentially if it's locked? You know, think about it that way. Like what bad would that be if your kid had a wristband that could get them into their, their classroom and they could get into the bathroom and they could walk the halls, whatever they need to do.

But then a kid from another class or honestly, another staff member couldn't even necessarily access that, but they could knock on the door and the teacher could come talk to them. These aren't, you know, people are saying to me, is this too far? Does it hurt? Is it a police state? Does it come like a prison?

So be it. You know, if this is a situation where it makes you feel... It doesn't become a prison. It becomes a more secure environment.

You're not complaining about it. Look, I don't think people come into our offices and complain that they go through a security checkpoint. Which you have in our offices on both levels of our offices.

Yeah. You do it in a lot of different places. And then you, again, like you said, we have doors within doors within doors. Some for safety, some for a lot of different things.

Expensive equipment. It's not all just security. A lot of our staff can't get into where we are right now. I'd say 80% of them cannot.

The people who work on their show can. And that's okay. That's the way it should be. Jordan? Yeah. I think that you don't have to look at it as a police state.

That's different. What you look at is how do you protect people in vulnerable situations. We know that people at airports when they're standing in line are in vulnerable situations. So we have armed guards while they're going through security because they're in a vulnerable situation because they're standing in line kind of crammed together. We also know that most office buildings and most people that I'm talking to right now that work in a big office building, you've got the security.

Why shouldn't your kids while you're at work have that similar or even more security because they are children? And again, I think that there are ways to do this using local law enforcement, using retired veterans. We can get into the specifics of this. But the truth is this plague on our country. And I want to send this out because I'm a supporter of the Second Amendment and I know our listeners are.

But these go on too many times and we're going to be on the losing side of that issue. So let's make sure let's make sure we do support common sense legislation to secure our schools so that we are able to protect our constitutionally given rights. There's no nothing in the Second Amendment that says you just have to let guns be everywhere and you can't have any security. You can have as much security as a school can afford. And listen, I think about it every single day, even before these incidents, because the previous incidents, what would happen, the schools walk you through the schools. My kids go to walk the parents through about how they lock down this section and lock down that section. So I know as a parent, I mean, I saw last night, I mean, we're nearly in tears. We're traveling right now and someone in tears just seeing this news because you look at your own kids, you look how helpless they are in those kind of situations.

And you realize there were not enough people there to help them. No, I mean, you know, I'm going to take it one step further on that. I want you to put yourself in the position of a seven, eight, nine-year-old who's going through drills on what to do when the bad person comes to their classroom.

And I want to say, let's not let the bad person come to the classroom. And I don't think that's wishful thinking. We are the United States of America.

We send money all over the globe, billions and billions, trillions of dollars all over the globe. We have a comment from Erica Rumble who says, with all the money that the government's been passing out over the last few years, it feels like this could happen with a stroke of a pen. Literally, a stroke of a pen.

I think there's resources already available. Let's go ahead and take a call. This is an interesting one. Line five. Okay, let's go to Renee in North Carolina. Line five, you're on the air.

Hello, thank you for all you do. I heard an interview with Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton barely an hour ago. He stated that in 2013, Texas had passed a law and set aside funding to allow local school districts to both vet and train volunteers and school staff to conceal carry on school grounds so these children could be protected. And the local school districts had failed to take advantage of the funding and the law. Yeah, so what we have to do is then get new school boards.

And that's, I don't want to get too political on it, but I know that does happen and states have done that. And by the way, you've got retired police officers, you have retired military that have been trained, that can be retrained or have retraining going on, and it could not be an option. It could be mandatory. Why is it an option? Why can't we?

The state needs to pass a law that doesn't just say we have funding available, it says we are requiring, and we've allocated the funds for it, that every school in Texas, Tennessee, wherever it is, utilize these funds to hire this many security resource officers, train this many volunteers that can carry weapons to secure the campus, and to put the technology in place. Not saying we have it available if you'd like it, you have to do it. Yeah, I don't feel like that's too much to ask at all. And it's something we can get done hopefully rather quickly and maybe try to come up with some of these things.

Again, sometimes you feel like you have to step up and do stuff yourself, which is unfortunate. That's because all of this becomes politicized immediately from both sides of the aisle, immediately jump to there are two separate sides and start arguing. Instead, we need to put our biases aside, you need to put your politics aside and say, okay, no one's in favor of mass shootings. No one's in favor of school shootings. So if we can all agree on that, maybe that's the first step.

There's one thing we can agree on as a nation, politically, privately, everything. Nobody wants this to happen. So if nobody wants this to happen, there has to be solutions. Yeah, and people say, well, solutions are so hard, but the reality is solutions aren't that hard.

Even if they are hard, it doesn't mean you don't try. It may not prevent everyone, by the way, right? Of course not. It may not prevent everyone, but we shouldn't just say it's available. It should be, this is required.

Jordan? Well, I think here's the issue. We support this, right?

Seems common sense. The teachers unions, though, are going to say ban weapons. And see, so right after Logan's point of the one part of unity that we get is that we don't want to have this in our country, it's unacceptable. The second point, we can't have the conversation yet, unfortunately.

We can have it through our own broadcast, but we cannot have this conversation yet with the other side. They've got to catch up and realize there is a second amendment, it's not going away. So stop, you've tried to take it away in courts. The courts have said no, not just this recent Supreme Court, but previous Supreme Courts. So that's not going anywhere.

So you've got to talk to us, too. You've got to talk to both sides of the issue to come up with the solutions that we all agree on. But we've got to get past the unions, got to get past the interest groups. That's why you've got to make the state, you have to mandate that the state's laws are in place, that the states have to comply. There's a comment on YouTube real quick that says it feels like the school board meetings now have more security than the schools themselves.

Yeah, well they do. Everything has more security than the schools themselves. How about we start with the next segment on that? Think about that for a moment. Can you think of a place that has less security than a school?

Maybe the grocery store? Maybe. That's not what you've got to think about. And we're sending our kids there.

And we'll take your calls at 800-684-3110. I mean, the horror of this is just so unspeakable. The parents had to bring in DNA material because the way in which this crazed gunman did this crime, horrific act, made some of the kids unrecognizable. This is just – what we want to do on this broadcast today is talk about – because I'm sick of hearing – there are three things I'm sick of hearing. There's no solution to this because there are. It doesn't mean the solution will prevent everyone, but there are solutions. Number two, make it a priority, like Logan said. Let's start with the schools. And we have the resources.

We may have to reallocate those resources from other places. But I mean, please, number two. And number three, if there are red flags with somebody, you've got to speak up and say something. CeCe, how's joining us now?

I want to get CeCe, your reaction to this. I think, you know, as a parent, this is every parent's worst nightmare. My children are in college now, but I spent the whole time when they were in school, elementary school, just worrying about their safety.

You do worry about safety. And I can think, you know, one of my issues was always, can we have locked doors? Just something simple as making sure that every door is locked and that people can't get in to the school and to these children without having to go through some process of being vetted before they can come in.

And so I think there are some practical things that could happen. And I don't know all the specifics yet of what happened here. I think they're still trying to determine how he got in the school. But a lot of times these people just walk in and that is not acceptable to me as a parent. Evidently he was engaged in a car accident and there was maybe some police engagement there, but then he walked into the school.

There's video of him walking into the school and apparently the door was open and he walked in. I mean, it was just, you know, and you got to harden the targets. It's as old fashioned as that. And I think that's what we've got to recognize here. Logan, you said the technology has really improved drastically in the last few years. Yeah, tracking technology, security technology, detectors. A lot of that has changed magnetic locks. There's a lot that's gone into it.

Trust me, I know when we built this facility, we worked a lot on it. And that was five plus years ago. And it's probably outdated.

It's outdated, but there's certainly more. And a lot came out of COVID, a lot of security and protocols, those kind of things. As you said, those all got implemented. All of the COVID protocols got implemented very quickly in the schools to get kids back in a lot of places. Look, I know a lot of places they didn't. But in states like we're in, they were implemented fairly fast.

Even the ones that were very strict. So we know that technology can get there and that we can move to the next spot. You had, you know, when you think about the even just the temperature checks that were happening. At one point in our schools when they first started back, every kid in the carpool line door was open, temperature was checked, then they got to go in. By the time we got sort of to midway through the pandemic, they had these incredible technology cameras that were built on sensors that by the time you walked in the door, everyone who walked in, their temperature was being taken.

And they didn't even know. That exists for other things. That exists for infrared scanning. That exists for magnetic locks and for IFT.

The main thing that feels like the most simple is if some sort of badge or pass that you would have, like you said, I had a college 20 years ago, which says that door you can get in, that door you can't. And someone assigns it. And that's it. I mean, it's not that hard.

And that was 20-year-old technology. We're going to take a call in a minute. But Jordan, the fact of the matter also is we're really saying make it a priority, harden the target, and don't make this optional with schools. Don't say these resources are available. Say you've got to use these resources.

Yeah, that's right. Tulsi Gabbard is a good friend of ours, a Democrat from Hawaii and a Special Forces member of our U.S. Armed Forces. She wrote, we grieve for the 21 who were killed in Texas today, but grieving is not enough. We could have and must now take common sense actions to prevent these tragedies, like things we've been talking about today, establishing single points of entry into schools, armed guards, trained staff, and mental health services. I mean, so, again, this multi-pronged approach.

But you look at it. Can you can you get your school down to a single entry, especially once the school day begins? You know, I know that's how that works at my kid's school is that there might be multiple points of entry during drop off and pick up because you've got different age groups coming out. But during the school day, there is one door and that's it. And that's where the security officer is. All the other doors are already locked. So, I mean, right away there, that's something that these schools could make sure is done.

I know some of these are huge schools or done at least at a multiple entry level. And in each of those entries, you have armed guards. And I think the second point that is we might have to look at more of an Israel model where the guns are showing, the guns are drawn.

And I know that's a different situation that we're used to. But but honestly, handguns are tough to fight against assault weapons. And if you're someone who wants to keep your Second Amendment rights, including assault weapons, then you might realize that it might be that we want law enforcement officials like we saw after 9-11 on the streets of New York with those weapons.

Like we see outside our office right now in Washington, D.C. in preparation for the Roe vs. Wade decision with with not just handguns at the ready, but assault weapons at the ready. And again, it's a change for the country, but we have to change as a country. We're growing as a country. We keep getting bigger as a country. And we know this is a plague on our country. And it is scary parents across the country.

It is very scary to go to bed to this news, to wake up to this news, to think about all the moments of the day your kid is in a similar situation. Yeah, I want to take caller number one because I have an answer to that question. All right. Tony's calling in Texas on line one. Tony, welcome. Welcome.

How are you? All right. Go ahead. OK, let me first. All right. Here we go.

There's several things we talk about, first of which is as far as most. I keep hearing myself in background anyway. You're listening. This is what we're going to do because this is making it tough for everybody.

I think you're hearing your radio. Let's put Tony on hold. Check back up on her. Make sure we'll get her back on the air in just a minute. In the next segment.

OK. And part of this is, Cece, what I'm saying, Logan and Jordan, everybody, we can't make this optional for school boards. It has to be the states and the federal government working together and saying, here are the resources, they have to be put in place. Right.

And it needs to be a priority. Like you do at the courthouse. Yes. At the airport.

That's exactly right. We have to have the same safety measures and protections in place to protect our children when they are at school. We have a Transportation Safety Administration.

You asked that last night, Logan. We set up a TSA to secure the airports. We need to do the same kind of thing, maybe on a state level, for the schools. Maybe on a state level. I mean, I don't know how that all works and how we need to lay that out. But we have so many issues in terms of school boards and the situations there that maybe it needs to be state, maybe it needs to be federal, maybe it needs to be private.

I don't know. It needs to be someone stepping up and saying that this can be done. In most schools, hopefully your school system will say, yes, if the resources were available, we would take it. And for those that won't, as you said, it needs to be mandatory. I don't think the optional thing works.

Why does it not work? Why do schools, why would they say no? Well, what Jordan said. It could be the teachers unions. It could be saying we don't want that in the schools.

They think it creates other risk. The truth of the matter is bad people can get weapons. As much as you'd like to say that doesn't happen, bad people can get weapons. Bad people get weapons. You have to meet that with a security threat like you would at the airport, like you would at our studios, like you would at a courthouse. With other people that are trained that have weapons to protect those that are inside. And you don't say to the airports, it's not an option.

Okay. It's not an option that you have to have security protocols at the airport. It's not an option at courthouses that you have armed.

There's usually sheriff personnel protecting the courthouse. That's not an option. That's the law. And I think that's what we've got to get back to. All right. We'll be back for the second half hour of secular. If you don't get us on your local radio station, if you're listening over the air, we are broadcasting live right now on all social media platforms.

Facebook, YouTube, rumble. You can also find us on aclj.org right there. Just go find it live and on the ACLJ app.

We'll be right back. For decades now, the ACLJ has been on the front lines, protecting your freedoms, defending your rights in courts, in Congress and in the public arena. The American Center for Law Justice is on your side. If you're already a member, thank you. And if you're not, well, this is the perfect time to stand with us at aclj.org where you can learn more about our life-changing work. Become a member today, aclj.org. I'm talking about freedom. I'm talking about freedom. We will fight for the right to live in freedom. Keeping you informed and engaged, now more than ever, this is Sekulow.

And now your host, Jay Sekulow. So here we are again at the end of the school year because we're getting ready to celebrate the beginning of summer vacation and we have another mass shooting at an elementary school with 19 dead fourth graders by an 18-year-old with a weapon. And on most media broadcasts, you're hearing debates about the Second Amendment. You're hearing debates about what we're giving you.

You know what? No debating. Let's talk about reality. There's three realities here. Second Amendment's in the Constitution, so that's number one.

It's there, so it's not going away. Two, not everybody should have guns. Okay?

You got it? There should be requirements. We know that.

Three, bad people that shouldn't have guns can still get them. And that's just the reality. So then what do you do? What's the practical solution of what you do? When our airlines and airports were under attack after 9-11, we harden the target. So what we need to do here is harden the target. Now, I was at my grandkid's school today and I'm thinking the same thing that everybody on our broadcast is thinking right now, and that is, what's the protection like?

What is it? I'm thinking of my, what would it be like as, could you imagine? You think about that there. Most people, most parents think about that every day. So you're thinking about that once when you go there for grandparent's day or whatever it is. Most of us drop our kids off at school and think of it every morning.

And it is the first thing and the last thing you do as they get out of the car, it crosses your mind. And it has now, for people probably for the last 20 years, 30 years almost now, since Columbine, really. But as they become a regular with Parkland and with Sandy Hook, those things start happening and it's hard to not think about that every single day. And truthfully, my kids are in elementary school, when picking out a school, maybe the number one thing we looked at was how will security be here? Beyond how are the athletics and how is this department, will I feel comfortable letting my kid get out of the car and going into this building for half the day when I'm not there?

Right. And my kid, Logan, you're totally right, my children are older, they're in college, but I'm exactly right there with you. Every day that they were in a school, I worried about their safety. And you do wonder what's going to happen and hope and pray that they're protected. And I think parents really just need to get involved and engaged. Go to your school board meetings, ask what the safety policies are. And if they don't have ones that are sufficient, then push for the efforts to protect your children. I think we need to treat it, I think it has to be here are the safety efforts, not let them start thinking of them.

I mean, I think you've got to put them in place, Jordan, they got to be mandatory, just like we are in the airports, we can do the same thing in a school. Yeah, I want to go to Tim in Virginia on Line 6, because a former police officer, I think he agrees with a lot of what we're talking about, is utilizing former police officers, offering tax credits and incentives like that to volunteer once a week with your weapon to protect the school. Hey, Tim.

Hey, appreciate you guys. Listen, you're making more sense than I've ever heard in my 50 years of this. You're right, we do have a right, the Second Amendment. And I heard a guy on the radio last night, he said that guns have killed 40-some thousand people, blah, blah, blah.

We've got to stop this. My question is to these folks, he said there are more gun shops than there are Starbucks coffee shops. So my question to these folks is, respectfully, when are you going to get a gun and exercise your Second Amendment right to protect yourself? But here's the thing, we have a minute here, Tim, look, I'll be honest, I think a lot of people see what happens and then their mind does jump there. They do jump to, well, if I'm unprotected now, then more guns get in the system and it becomes a whole other problem. And that isn't something we shouldn't think about.

I don't think that anyone logically goes through any of these things and doesn't think about it. They're not a gun owner and go, well, do I need to be now? Are we living in a society where it's a necessity?

And sadly, sadly, that's how it feels. Yeah, a friend of ours in law enforcement said the only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is with a good guy with a gun. And in the school, I mean, what else would have stopped this? Was a good guy with a gun stopped this, unfortunately?

Better security could have possibly. Yes, and technology. So we're going to get into all that. We'll take your calls as well at 1-800-684-3110. Back with more in a moment.

Welcome back to the broadcast, everyone. Look, we've got to harden the target. That's the ACLJ's position. You've got to make the schools safe.

It can't be an option. We need to utilize, in my mind, there's three or four things that can be done. Number one, technology to control the doorways, the entry points.

We have a thing called a mantra. You open one door, unless you've got a pass that's electronically done, you open one door, you can't even get into the second door until that door is closed. You don't get into that door until you're cleared in.

And then you're met by armed sheriffs that take your information before you go forward. I mean, that's just how we do it. And schools could be told that's how it's going to be, and we're going to have to allocate the resources to do that. But we can't make it optional. I mean, there is this problem you're going to have with the school, with the unions on some of this.

But look, the unions don't want this kind of tragedy either. So there's common sense here. Harry Hutchinson's joining us. Harry, I wanted to get your kind of, you're the director of policy here, get your oversight of this situation as tragic, as horrible as it is.

Thanks, Jay. First, I would say, and this shouldn't have to be said, some people are simply evil. That said, there are a number of common sense measures that we can and we should take to protect society's most vulnerable. And we should do it quickly. We should not wait. If we can find resources to send abroad, we should begin to reallocate those resources to our most vulnerable population.

And so I think hopefully we can reach common ground on at least that particular point. So yes, we should harden the target. We should control entry doors. We should require armed and trained guards.

And I agree, we should not make these measures optional with school boards. And we should make it a priority. And I think the big problem with respect to all of the mass shootings in society is that we don't make this a priority. It becomes basically a news story for 24 hours, 48 hours, 72 hours, and then virtually nothing happens. And I also think society should have a deeper conversation about how our society has been destabilized, particularly the family structure and how we have failed young males in our society.

But that is secondary to the, I would call it the emergency situation of protecting the most vulnerable right here, right now. Let's go to the phones. We've had some people waiting a long time to talk.

And Karen, you're on the air on Line 4 in Kansas. Okay. Hi.

It's been interesting to listen. And I don't disagree with anything that's been said, but my, my career was spent in education as a school psychologist. And I know firsthand that when we had tornado drills and fire drills, that some small children were affected by those. They were upset. They didn't sleep well for several nights. And so Jordan or whoever made the comment about the drills that have to do with what do you do when the bad guy comes?

We can't control fires and tornadoes, but by golly, we can stop the evil at the door. And the other thing that needs to be remembered is, um, these drills that occur probably regularly scheduled learning is impacted in the classroom. I'll guarantee you because when anxiety goes up, learning goes down. When these events occur, there are other children who are going to suffer PTSD going forward. And that's, that should be common ground for any conversation about our schools need to be safe so the children can come and learn. And if the teacher unions have issues with that, then I question their motives.

And Karen, to bring up the point, it's interesting. I have two different age children. I have three different children, but I have two sets. I have a twins and I have an older son. When my son started, they kind of started to implement.

He's now getting close to 10. They started to implement maybe in his kindergarten, first grade, second grade, these drills and the drills about, you know, again, the evil intruder kind of drill. And they were very careful with it, but it became a topic of discussion very quickly. Now, my daughters who came in three years later, it is very commonplace for them. They don't even tell us if it happens. A lot of times the school doesn't tell, they'll tell you late school will often say, Hey, we're doing this today. Uh, actually they usually will say after the fact, cause they don't want kids to be even aware beforehand. Um, they'll let you know after it's happened, but my daughters are kind of numb to it because it's just like a tornado trail.

It's just like a fire trail. It's just that. So those, yes, you are right. But sadly, you're going to also have a whole generation of kids that grow up with that's normal. The inevitability of something like this happening, just like the inevitability of a bad storm. But we, you know what, where she's absolutely right. I can't stop. We can't stop a tornado, but you know what? And Jordan, you talked about this earlier. Can't stop a tornado, but we can secure the facility.

That's right. We need to make these high secure facilities, not treating kids like prisoners, but if they're supposed to be in the school during a certain period of time, they're not supposed to be outside the school. So make it where there's a single entry point. If a parent needs to come and the schools that my kids attend, that's how it works. If you need to come, you got to ring the bell.

Okay. Then they'll talk to you, confirm your identity. Then you go into an entryway where there's security. That's well before you've gotten anywhere near classrooms. I'm talking about preschool and kindergarten here. So I mean, I'm not talking about the big schools, but they've already done that. And so I think that what all these other schools need to do is realize, listen, if you've got someone who is really motivated by evil to kill, it might not be that one security officer is enough. The schools may be too large for one person.

And in this case, that security officer was taken out immediately by this shooter. So to me, it is a plague on the nation and it is a plague on our children because they need to learn. For us to compete as a society, our kids must be educated.

And at the top of their mind is, will I survive the day? They're not going to be able to compete with kids in other countries of the world education-wise. No, you're right. Yeah. And those are common sense measures, Jordan, what you said of just making sure it's not so easy to get in a school. That's what we've been talking about all day. Those are just common sense, simple measures that can be implemented immediately.

And then, and Jay, you're right too. This should not be an option. Children should be a priority and their protection should be a priority. And it should be mandatory that our children are protected. Yeah.

And you see, I'm sorry, go ahead. No, so you see comments on social media, follow all of them, people going back and forth, and some people are having their own conversations that have nothing to do with this, but you have a lot of people who are saying, we're going too far. Maybe they're saying that you don't need to be doing this in the schools. Maybe you are making it a jail for them and you're not letting there to be these freedoms. I mean, on the other side, you're the same people, a lot of them that are saying, you know, build the wall and maintain our, you know, protect the country.

Well, again, sure. But then let's take that step one more and say, well, let's first start with protecting just our kids. Okay, but here- And then beyond that, then you can take that broader to other things of figuring out the laws because having security at the door and having a magnetic door lock and- Doesn't make you feel like you're in prison. Well, yeah, it's not exactly the same.

It's not the same situation. We have a large office here and we've got all these security measures in place and it's the, we have protocols in place. And Harry, we follow the protocols. And like you said, there are systemic problems that are also, and symptomatic problems here, but there is the basic of you got a target that is pierced easily.

Protect it. And to me, that's not hard. I don't think it's hard, but I think what makes it difficult is everything gets politicized so quickly in our society so that we virtually solve nothing and we then are back to square one.

Everyone is scoring points against the other side. And I think at the end of the day, the most vulnerable citizens in our country, they suffer again and again. And one wonders how to cut through this political maze where one side is attacking the other side and the mass shooters are escaping our scrutiny as a society.

It's got to be multiple layers. I mean, there's reports now that there was a school security guard that may have been actually shot. Yeah.

I mean, this is where this conversation gets a lot harder. This just broke. That's why we have the security at the door.

You don't get in the facility. This is what's being reported. I think we might as well just say it. There's a lot of things being reported on this, including that there was multiple engagements with this perpetrator of this crime outside the school at the car wreck with multiple police officers. Everybody got away. None of this makes sense to me, by the way. And can I say something else? How is it, you know, 18 hours later we don't know that what happened? I mean, from the police officers that were on the scene? I mean, this is what, you know, I know it's a small police station, but the Texas Rangers are there. All this is there. You would think they could do it. Jordan, go ahead. We've got less than a minute.

Yeah. I just think that as a nation, this is a time we can't let these moments pass and we might as the conservatives have to fight really, really tough here because we are up against unions whose whole idea is very politicized. So they're like, well, if you're not going to ban assault rifles a hundred percent, then we're not going to, we're not even going to have the conversation with you. That's the problem in America right now is that those Americans who support the second amendment understand the rights in our constitution need to be able to have discussions about school security with people who may disagree. We can't just start off by saying, well, we disagree on that, so we're not going to talk about it at all.

That's not very American. This is about protecting kids, not Republicans or Democrats, kids. And that's going to be our number one priority in America is protecting our children. All right. We come back from the break. We're going to take your calls 800-684-3110. We'll be back with more in a moment. Hey, welcome back to the Broadcaster.

I'm going to take your phone calls in order of how you've called, but let me first welcome to the program, Colonel Wes Smith, who's also an Episcopal priest. And Wes, as we've done with one of our panelists today, we want to get your kind of your thoughts up front. Yeah. Heartbreaking. I think all of us felt deep, deep heartbreaking emotion when this came across the news yesterday. So much, so much. I think that there are a number of things we can do sometimes with all due respect to our elected political leaders.

They want a quick answer that doesn't cost much, that doesn't require sacrifice. Addressing this problem, as you've mentioned today, Jay, is going to require intentional action and some sacrifice. I agree with you that schools need to have the same kind of security that we have at courthouses and the airport and all the other places.

I mean, every level, elementary, middle school, high school, the whole thing. The other thing I think that's not being addressed does not apply in this case, but it did in Buffalo, is the whole mental health issue and mental illness and domestic violence. I know in the military, if any soldier was convicted of even minor domestic violence, they were forbidden to be issued a military weapon and therefore their career was over. We need to take that kind of approach in society with people who are violently mentally ill or who are who are convicted of domestic violence so they can't legally get a weapon.

That will not keep them from getting one illegally, of course. But you know, you and I were talking before radio today. I still think, and this is the long fix that's probably there is no fix, but I think as American society, we have a spiritual, societal, cultural problem. We allow so much hateful speech and things to go unchecked. We are often, especially with the advent of social media, unkind to each other. And in our education system, nihilism is impacting us.

This idea that we live in a value neutral culture, that there are no moral absolutes, you know, no objective truth. I think even though that's not directly related to gun violence, it impacts who we are as a people. So the fixes to this, other than I think we can quickly, it will be expensive, but we need to spend the money. The quick fix right now is to harden our schools, make them a hard target.

But beyond that, I think we need to address some of the other wider issues in our culture. All right, Logan, let's take some phone calls. Yeah, we'll just go in the order that they called in. Let's go to Mike in Kentucky on line five. Mike, you're on the air. Hey, glad for taking my call. And hey, I've been beating my brains out from the first shooting that happened into the school about putting a two door system in.

It works and it will work. But what about the $40 billion we sent overseas that we could have used here in our own country to protect our kids? You know, Mike, I said the same thing this morning, and it's not to denigrate at all the situation in Ukraine, but you've got to have priorities. And by the way, $40 billion, we've got, I mean, there's $102 billion of COVID money for schools that's not been utilized.

There's lots of billions of dollars. I mean, Jordan, that's part, you know, part of the Washington problem here is, you know, is getting it allocated. But then it's got to be, I really think we have to make this not optional. I think we have to, whether it's state legislation or federal legislation, we need to be thinking about that from a legal standpoint.

But it's got to be, here's what you have to do. Schools to be built, this is the safety and security requirements that will be required for you to operate just like we have a TSA for the airports. Yeah, so I think there could be protocols put in place for new schools, like you're talking about for any new schools that are going to be built, and then how to retrofit the old schools. And that's what you call it, retrofitting, so that they meet the standards of the new schools.

That's where it costs more money. But Dad, as we know, when we're spending billions and billions of dollars in a war in Eastern Europe, when we pass these massive spending bills with lots of pork in it, we can, I guarantee actually probably right now, we could find this money without having to pass new legislation. We'd have to have it redirected, but we could probably find this money in the federal budget right now that would secure our schools. What it would take is Republicans and Democrats putting aside the gun debate issue and the Second Amendment issue, which is a constitutional right, put that aside, and let's start with, as Logan said, securing our schools. And if they are unwilling to have that conversation, then shame on the left.

Shame on the left. All right, let's move on. Let's get to the next call. Let's go to Brian, who's calling in Missouri Line 1. You're on the air. Hey, how you guys doing today? All right, Brian, go ahead.

I just want to thank you, man, for everything you do. Listen, we have the top military in the world, and there's a lot of men and women sitting on bases all across this nation that are not busy. And they need to deploy them to these schools to protect my grandkids, your grandkids, and everybody else's grandkids in a way that we can stop this mess. The other thing is, we're gun toters here in Springfield, Missouri, but we definitely know we need to change some laws so these younger people who turn 18 to think they have to have an AR is not possible yet.

Yeah, no, I totally, totally get that. Let me go to West Smith on that. So, they've talked about retired military, talked about retired police. Yeah, they brought up current military. And current military, that's an issue of police importance, of the posse comitatus, there's legal issues on that. There are tens, if not hundreds of thousands of veterans who are trained in weapons. We can give them refresher courses. And I think many veterans would volunteer. You don't even have to pay them.

They will volunteer to provide security at schools as a service to the community. And I do agree with the caller. If you can't buy beer, you shouldn't be able to buy a rifle at 18 years old.

That's not a popular thing to say, but it's how I feel. And the counter to that is though, our military men and women are 18 when they're in the military and they're given weapons. Yes, and... But they're controlled access. Right, and there are some states that will allow them to buy beer because they're in the military too, and that's okay.

Maybe if you join the military, you can buy a beer and a gun. Yeah, well, I mean, maybe, but you know what the problem is? The problem is we cannot, this cannot be Sandy Hook and we don't do anything for the next 10 years.

Exactly. Okay, or Parkland, and we do nothing for 10 years. We can't do this.

This is an horrific tragedy. Let's try to get another call. All right, yeah, let's try to get the last couple of calls. Jack in Texas, you're on the air. Hey, thanks for taking my call.

I just wanted to share with you, I'm actually calling from Frisco, Texas, which is just a little bit north of Dallas proper. And I just wanted to share that our school district actually has security cameras and whatnot already in place, but they have the ability, the local police department has the ability to... They have a dedicated team, I should say, that monitors all schools, so if something were to happen, they can dial in really quick and see what's going on to effectively get the police there in a timely manner. Here's the thing. I think that's great. It should be part of the system, but you know that lag time between when the incident happens and when the shooter is shooting?

It can be seconds, minutes. You've got to prevent them getting in like we do at the airport. You don't get past the terminal. Right. If they're not there, then a whole classroom can be gone.

That's exactly what happened. We have to make it difficult to get into a school. Yeah, so I think all those security monitors are great and the resource officers are great, but you can't... You know what it needs to be? Sorry, you can't just walk into the school. There's got to be, like we have, the traps, the door traps.

You can't get into the schools. All right, I don't know if we have time for this last call. Should we try? We can get Jessica to Pennsylvania very quickly. Sorry, we're out of time. Go ahead, Doug. Quick, Jessica.

Hi, my name is Jessica. I'm calling from Pennsylvania and I have been a high school teacher for 13 years. I'm also a paramedic and I taught biology and chemistry. So what I saw when I was a teacher is that in those years that I taught, we had one active shooter training class.

One. And you know, we want to focus on education, but we also have to have these teachers supplied with the tools that they need to be able to figure something out here. Because even a Stop the Bleed kit in the classroom or a first aid class or something that we need to do because a lot of these issues can be taken care of very quickly.

You're absolutely right and this is all part of it. Yeah, it has to be comprehensive. It's got to be comprehensive and it can't be just a discussion. We have to take action. That's why we didn't say anything yesterday other than grieving with the rest of the country on this and wanted to save it for today so we could have an hour long, intelligent conversation on a tragic situation. But folks, let's take action on this. We're going to propose some specific items. We'll talk to you tomorrow.