Republican vice-presidential nominee JD Vance is facing the ire of Democrats after he lamented school shootings as a “fact of life” and argued for heightened security rather than stricter gun control.
“If these psychos are going to go after our kids we’ve got to be prepared for it,” Vance said at a rally in Phoenix, Ariz., just one day after a school shooting in Georgia left four dead.
“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.”
When asked by a journalist what should be done to end school shootings, the Ohio senator dismissed the Democrat-backed argument for tighter gun laws, saying that shootings happen in states with both lax and strict laws. Instead, he said efforts to give schools more money for security makes more sense.
“I don’t like that this is a fact of life,” Vance said. “But if you are a psycho and you want to make headlines, you realize that our schools are soft targets. And we have got to bolster security at our schools. We’ve got to bolster security so if a psycho wants to walk through the front door and kill a bunch of children they’re not able.”
Vance said he doesn’t like the idea of his own kids going to a school with hardened security, “but that’s increasingly the reality that we live in.”
His comments were immediately seized upon by Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign team.
“It doesn’t have to be this way. We can take action to protect our children—and we will,” a post to X from the Democratic presidential nominee read, with a clip of Vance’s comments.
Harris’s running mate, Gov. Tim Walz, also weighed in, posting “This is pathetic. We can’t quit on our kids — they deserve better.”
The Democratic National Committee also slammed Vance in a statement, writing: “Let’s be clear: no matter what Donald Trump and JD Vance say, tragedies like this do not need to be a ‘fact of life,’ and we don’t just have to ‘get over it’ when Americans, including young children, are violently murdered.”
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Vance, however, doubled down on his Phoenix comments, posting on X: “Kamala wants to take security out of our schools instead of protecting our children. Instead of addressing her own failures, she lies about what I said. More desperation from the biggest fraud in American politics.”
He called the shooting in Georgia an “awful tragedy,” and said the families need prayers and sympathy.
Vance spokesperson William Martin also defended the politician’s comments by criticizing the Associated Press for a headline that did not include the full context of Vance’s statement, telling Fox News “this is yet another case of the fake news media brazenly lying about a Republican politician.”
The Associated Press later corrected its initial headline — “JD Vance says school shootings are a ‘fact of life,’ calls for better security,” — to read “JD Vance says he laments that school shootings are a ‘fact of life,’” and wrote on X that they updated their file “to add context to the partial quote from Vance.”
The father of the 14-year-old suspect accused of killing four people at Apalachee High School in Winder, Ga., has been arrested and charged with two counts of second-degree murder.
State authorities announced the charges against Colin Gray, 54, on Thursday. He was also charged with four counts of involuntary manslaughter and eight counts of cruelty to children.
Officials said on Thursday the charges were laid because the father “knowingly” allowed his son, 14-year-old Colt Gray, to possess the military-style rifle used in the shooting.
“His charges are directly connected to the actions of his son,” said Chris Hosey, director of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, during Thursday’s evening news conference.
If convicted on all counts, Colin could face a maximum prison sentence of 180 years.
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