JD Vance criticized for dismissing school shootings as a ‘fact of life’

JD Vance

, running mate to Donald Trump, is facing significant backlash after his response to Wednesday’s mass shooting at Apalachee High School in Georgia. The shooting, which resulted in four deaths and nine injuries, has ignited fierce debate over

gun control

and school safety.
During a rally in Arizona on Thursday, Vance described

school shootings

as a grim "fact of life" and criticized Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris for her gun control stance.

"Now look, the Kamala Harris answer to this is to take law-abiding citizens’ guns away from them," Vance remarked. He further stated, “I don’t like this. I don’t like to admit this. I don’t like that this is a fact of life.”
Vance suggested that increasing

security at schools

is the only viable solution, albeit reluctantly. “We’ve got to bolster security so that if a psycho wants to walk through the front door and kill a bunch of children, they’re not able to,” he said. His fatalistic view has drawn criticism for being dismissive of the root causes of gun violence and overly simplistic.

The Harris campaign seized on Vance’s comments, with Harris herself posting a rebuttal on X (formerly Twitter). “School shootings are not just a fact of life,” she wrote. “It doesn’t have to be this way. We can take action to protect our children – and we will.”
Vance’s remarks were also scrutinized for their inconsistency. He admitted that he doesn’t support increased security around schools for his own children, yet he proposed it as a nationwide solution. “As a parent, do I want my school to have additional security? No, of course I don’t,” Vance conceded.
The controversy has also drawn reactions from other political figures. Tim Walz, Governor of Minnesota and Harris’s running mate, described Vance’s comments as “pathetic” and emphasized the need for better protection for children.
In contrast, Trump addressed the shooting at a Fox News town hall, emphasizing a need for societal healing without directly engaging with policy specifics. “It’s a sick and angry world for a lot of reasons and we’re going to make it better,” Trump said.