Texas lieutenant governor: ‘It’s not about the guns, it’s about us’

Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick (R) on Sunday said the slew of mass shootings in the U.S. should not be attributed to guns, instead pointing to the people who use them as the reason behind the shootings.

“It’s not about the guns, it’s about us,” Patrick told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos on “This Week,” citing the influence of bullying and social media. 

{mosads}”Gun control, I believe, starts at home,” he continued. “Every person who owns a gun must be accountable for the guns at home.” 

Patrick went on to support taking precautionary measures at schools, including the possibility of arming teachers. 

“We have our schools that are not hard targets. We’ve done a good job since 9/11 of protecting government buildings, and airports, and private buildings, but we have not done anything to harden the target at our schools,” he said. 

“We still have this gun debate, George, of whether or not teachers should be armed or not. I believe, and the parents of the students I’ve talked to in Santa Fe since Friday believe they should be.” 

Texas Lt. Gov. @DanPatrick points to violent media and desensitization as part of cause for deadly school shooting Friday, says schools need to be ‘hard targets.’

“We still have this gun debate, George, of whether or not teachers should be armed or not.” #ThisWeek pic.twitter.com/AdsUT4jR7q

— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) May 20, 2018

Patrick also appeared Sunday morning on CNN’s “State of the Union,” where he advocated for arming teachers and redesigning schools to prevent future shootings. In the wake of Friday’s shooting, Patrick has suggested the incident was worsened because there were too many entrances and exits in the building.

“We need to get down to one or two entrances into our schools,” Patrick said on CNN. “We have to funnel our students into our schools so we could put eyes on them.”

“Schools weren’t designed and built, you know, 40 and 50 years ago to deal with today’s issues,” he continued. “So we can harden those targets and make it more difficult.”

A gunman opened fire at a high school in Santa Fe, Texas, on Friday killing 10 people and injuring 13.

The aftermath of the shooting has given new life to the ongoing debate on gun control in the U.S. 

The massacre comes just three months after another shooting at a Parkland, Fla., high school left 17 people dead.

President Trump called for arming teachers after the Parkland shooting in February, among other proposed measures, many of which did not make it into the final draft of his gun control proposal.

–Brett Samuels contributed to this report, which was updated at 10:12 a.m.