On Sunday’s broadcast of NBC’s “Meet the Press,” former Education Secretary Bill Bennett suggested that arming certain school employees might prevent future atrocities such as last week’s mass shooting in Newtown, Conn.
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“And I’m not so sure — and I’m sure I’ll get mail for this — I’m not so sure I wouldn’t want one person in a school armed, ready for this kind of thing,” Bennett continued. “The principal lunged at this guy. The school psychologist lunged at the guy. Has to be someone who’s trained. Has to be someone who’s responsible.”
Bennett’s suggestion goes against the tide of calls for more gun control that have come in the wake of the tragedy.
During the same “Meet the Press” episode, Democratic California Sen. Dianne Feinstein said that she plans to introduce a bill in the Senate that will ban assault weapons.
“It will ban the sale, the transfer, the importation, and the possession, not retroactively but prospectively,” said Feinstein. “And it will ban the same for big clips, drums, or strips of more than ten bullets. So there will be a bill. We’ve been working on it now for a year.”
Bennett noted during the program that a ban on assault weapons existed in the United States from 1994 to 2004.
During that time, at least seven mass school shootings occurred. At least 29 people were killed and scores more were injured. The Columbine High School Massacre, which had been most infamous mass school shooting in American history, happened in 1999, when the assault weapons ban was in effect.