WASHINGTON ( Associated Press) — Education Secretary Miguel Cardona On Thursday he said he was embarrassed that the United States was “being insensitive to the killing of children” and that action was now needed so that more lives were not lost in school shootings, such as those in Uvalde, Texas.
Cardona spoke on the House Education and Labor Committee after a two-day hearing when a gunman armed with an AR-15-style rifle broke into an elementary school and killed 19 children and two teachers., Massacre, after which 10 people were shot dead This month a grocery store in Buffalo, New York, has restarted the debate over gun control.
On Thursday, the chairman of the committee, Rep. Bobby Scott, D-VA, began the hearing by observing a moment of silence in memory of those killed in Texas.
While the hearing was on the Education Department’s budget and priorities, Cardona began his testimony by addressing the shooting.
Cardona said, “After Columbine, after Sandy Hook, after Parkland, after each of these and other massacres, we as teachers did our best to look in the eyes of the parents and assure them that we are their Will do everything to protect the children.” School shootings in Colorado, Connecticut and Florida.
But he added that all actions taken in response to those first school shootings — including active shooter drills, online early detection tools and more secure building entrances and perimeters — are “no match for what we are up against.”
Giving no details, he said “we need to act now” to protect America’s children. “Let’s not normalize it,” he said. “Let’s use every influence we have to make something happen to help prevent this from happening again.”
Cardona told lawmakers that he “would be failing you as Secretary of Education if I didn’t tell you that I’m ashamed, I am, that we as a country are being insensitive to the killing of children.” If I don’t use this platform to say that students and teachers and school leaders are scared, I will fail you as Secretary of Education.”
Cabinet members didn’t even go to their boss, President Joe Biden, in an emotional address Said on Tuesday, “When in the name of God are we going to stand in front of the gun lobby?”
Biden has previously called for a ban on assault-style weapons, stricter federal background check requirements and laws aimed at keeping guns out of the hands of people with mental health problems.
The fight over guns is largely divided along party lines. Senate Republicans on Thursday Blocked a Domestic Terrorism Bill This would have triggered a debate on gun safety.
Instead of regulating guns, some Republicans have proposed arming teachers to prevent school shootings.
Cardona rejected it.
“And the solution to arm teachers is, in my opinion, disrespect to a profession that is already in crisis and is not feeling the support of so many people,” he said.
Scott, in his opening remarks, called school shootings in the US “too common for an incident”.
“We could have prevented a lot of this if elected leaders valued children and families more than guns,” he said. “Instead, from time to time, Congress has failed to implement any sensible or widely supported resolutions to respond to these tragedies and prevent another from happening.”
But Representative Virginia Foxx of North Carolina, the top Republican on the committee, cautioned against a quick rush to action.
“We need to be thoughtful about how we discuss and handle school safety and mental health issues,” Foxx said. “Federal changes should not be made in haste.”
,
Associated Press writer Carolyn Thompson in Buffalo, New York contributed to this report.
,
More on the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas: https://apnews.com/hub/school-shootings
,
