Last month, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) suggested that schools could prevent mass shootings by hiring more armed officers, as banks do.
On Monday, ten days after the senator’s tweet, a man armed with an AR-15 rifle killed five people and wounded at least eight others at the Old National Bank in Louisville, Kentucky. He bought the gun legally, according to authorities.
Cruz — who has received hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign support from the gun lobby during his political career — sent the tweet in the wake of last month’s private school massacre in Nashville, Tennessee. The shooter in that incident was also armed with an assault rifle, as well as two other firearms, all legally acquired.
“When you go to the bank and deposit money in the bank, there are armed police in the bank. Why? Because we want to protect the money we save. Why the hell do we protect a bad deposit more than our kids? cruz he wrote in his March 31 tweet promotes a “school safety” bill he had reintroduced.
“Right now we have an opportunity to double the number of campus police officers and keep kids safe,” he added.
Cruz is famous for advocating for more guns in the wake of news of a mass shooting. After the horrific massacre at Uvalde Elementary School in his home state, which left 19 children and two teachers dead, Cruz suggested there should be only “one door to get in and out of the school” with armed officers on guard .
Despite the presence of dozens of officers from local, state and federal agencies who responded to Uvalde’s shooting, it took authorities more than an hour to remove the gunman, who was also armed with a rifle style AR-15, which he had legally purchased.
The shootings in Nashville and Louisville have renewed calls from Democrats and gun reform advocates for gun control legislation like “red flag” laws to keep firearms out of the hands of people deemed a risk to themselves or others, a ban . on assault weapons and stricter background checks.
Cruz was flayed on social media this week when his tweet made the rounds again after the Louisville bank attack.
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