The former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich has responded to this week’s horrific mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas by saying that teachers should be paid an additional $500 to carry guns.

Newsweek reported that Gingrich said that all schools should have people on staff who are trained with guns, and given extra pay to be so. This came after a gunman stormed Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas and killed 19 students as well as their two teachers.

“Every school in the country ought to have five or 10 people paid $500 a month or more extra—that would be a rational federal program—to pay every teacher who’s willing to be trained and armed to protect the children—teachers and administrators,” Gingrich said.

“But we don’t have that kind of conversation,” he added. “We’re all stuck up in some high political baloney led by President Joe Biden who, I think, yesterday made a total disgrace out of what should have been a serious national speech.”

“And so, I’m very happy to have a debate about what would it really take to fix these things, but there aren’t many people in politics who want to get involved in that level of change,” he continued.

Liberals have politicized this mass shooting, using it to call for stricter gun control measures.

“The idea that an 18-year-old kid can walk into a gun store and buy two assault weapons is just wrong,” President Joe Biden said on Tuesday. “What in God’s name do you need an assault weapon for except to kill someone? Deer aren’t running through the forest with Kevlar vests on, for God’s sake. It’s just sick.”

“And the gun manufacturers have spent two decades aggressively marketing assault weapons which make them the most and largest profit,” he added. “For God’s sake, we have to have the courage to stand up to the industry.”

Other lawmakers have called for teachers to be armed. Wisconsin Assembly Speaker Robin Vos told Fox6 that protecting schools with additional police, armed security guards and armed teachers, “should be on the table.”

“It’s not just teachers. It’s making sure that people who are inside of school have the ability to defend themselves,” Vos continued. “But the idea that we are going to take a heinous act like this and find some kind of logical way to prevent it 100% of the time, I just don’t see that occurring.”

Our thoughts and prayers continue to be with the families of the Uvalde shooting victims during this tragic time.

This piece was written by James Sampson on May 27, 2022. It originally appeared in RobManess.com and is used by permission.

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