President Biden does not “believe in” proposals to harden schools against potential gunmen, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said on Tuesday.
“I know there’s been conversation about hardening schools, that is not something he believes in,” Jean-Pierre told reporters at a White House press conference. “He believes that we should be able to give teachers the resources to be able to do their job.”
Jean-Pierre made the comments while speaking about the possibility of bipartisan legislation to address gun violence, in the wake of the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, last week. A gunman killed 19 students and two adults in the shooting at Robb Elementary School.
A bipartisan group of senators, led by Senator Chris Murphy (D., Conn.), was in talks on potential gun legislation, the Associated Press reported last week. Republicans have advocated proposals to strengthen school security, and Murphy said he was “open” to the idea on Thursday, the AP noted.
When asked about the gun control issue on Tuesday, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) told reporters that Democrats and Republicans are “discussing how we might be able to come together and target the problem, which is mental illness and school safety.”
McConnell wouldn’t take questions from reporters. Everyone was wanting to ask him about possible action on guns.
However, before he got in the car, he briefly said democrats and republicans are discussing how they may be able to come together to “target the problem.” @LEX18News pic.twitter.com/uUQiQ8ApGs
— Karolina Buczek (@Karolina_Buczek) May 31, 2022
Jean-Pierre, however, said the U.S. was not the only country whose citizens face mental health problems.
“We are the only country that is dealing with gun violence at the rate that we’re dealing, and other countries have mental health issues. So what’s the problem here?” Jean-Pierre said. “The problem is with guns, and not having legislation to really deal with an issue that is a pandemic here in this country.”
