President Donald Trump offered a solution.
He was headed to Indianapolis for the National FFA Convention last month when the latest national tragedy unfurled: an anti-Semite and racist named Robert Bowers burst into the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh and started firing an automatic weapon.
In the end 11 people were killed, ranging in age from 54 to 97. Police told Pittsburgh station KDKA-TV that Bowers yelled something when he stormed inside: “All Jews must die!” Bowers pleaded not guilty in federal court on Friday.
Trump expressed condolences offering up the traditional national tragedy response of “thoughts and prayers” and then off-handedly remarked that there was something that could have prevented multiple people from getting slaughtered.
If there had been armed guards, he suggested, maybe this could have been avoided. “They had no protection,” Trump said.
The “armed guards” defense is a common refrain from conservatives and gun rights activists after mass shootings. (In this country, they get to say it a lot.)
I’ve have disagreed with them in the past, but maybe they have a point.
In order for us to be safe in America and around the world, all we have to do is put armed guards at:
•Synagogues
•Churches
•Mosques
•Grocery stores
•Las Vegas concerts
•Movie theaters
•Office complexes
•Elementary schools
•Middle schools
•High schools
•Colleges
•Nightclubs
•Strip clubs
•Restaurants
•Jewish community centers
•Newspaper offices
•Military bases
•Neighborhoods
•Homes
(We thank Jon Webb of the Evansville Courier & Press for authoring this column and permitting its re-publication.)
