Democrats For Years Rejected Arming School Personnel. Armed Security Just Prevented Massacre At Synagogue

Several Democrats rejected arming security and school personnel prior to armed security killing an attacker at a Michigan synagogue Thursday.

Armed security guards at the Temple Israel synagogue in West Bloomfield, Michigan, fatally shot a Lebanese migrant who drove a truck into the building, saving the lives of children and staff . While both Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan and Democratic Sen. Elissa Slotkin of Michigan praised the armed security on Friday, Democrats have often opposed armed security at schools.

Democrats have opposed efforts to place armed security in schools to address school shootings like those in Uvalde, Texas, Parkland, Florida and Newtown, Connecticut, instead demanding bans on so-called “assault weapons” and other gun-control measures.

“Those are some of the stupidest proposals I’ve heard in all my time as an educator,” Biden administration Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona said during a June 2022 appearance on “The View” when asked about arming teachers by co-host Sunny Hostin, instead demanding unspecified “sensible legislation” following the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde.

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In July 2024, Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut introduced a resolution in the Senate opposing arming teachers and school staff to protect students, but it failed to advance beyond committee. Murphy also introduced legislation to remove school resource officers (SROs) from K-12 education campuses in 2020, claiming the armed law enforcement personnel were “contributing to a civil rights crisis,” but that legislation also was never enacted.

Murphy introduced the legislation again in 2023, where it again failed to advance.

Democrats in Maryland vociferously criticized Tennessee lawmakers and Tennessee Republican Gov. Bill Lee after they enacted laws allowing for teachers to be armed in the wake of the March 2023 shooting at the Covenant School, Capital News Service reported.

“Some legislators continue to press for policies like this one in Tennessee to allow for concealed carry for handguns on school grounds,” Democratic Sen. Chris van Hollen of Maryland claimed. “It’s a misguided and dangerous approach that undermines the safety and well-being of both students and educators.”

Shortly after the attack on Covenant School, former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe dismissed the notion that armed security at schools could prevent or mitigate active shooters.

“It shows the myth behind this idea that if we get more heavily armed and, you know, more police and be in more places quicker, that we are going to stop this,” McCabe claimed. “Law enforcement alone cannot solve this problem.”

An armed police officer in 2018 stopped an armed student at Great Mills High School in St. Mary’s County, Maryland, moments after the student wounded two students, the New York Post reported. The shooter ended up being the only fatality in the incident.

“I just want to reiterate, I think it’s clear that if it were not for the private security and the staff at Temple Israel and then the first responders first on the scene, local law enforcement, if they had not all done their jobs almost perfectly, we would be talking about an immense tragedy here today with children gone,” Slotkin said during a Friday press conference. “This could have been much, much worse, so I give incredible credit to law enforcement and the people who were in the room.”