Texas GOP Lt. Governor Dan Patrick on Friday proposed reducing the number of doors schools have as a means of eliminating school shootings.
“We have to look at the design of our schools moving forward, and retrofitting schools that are already built,” Patrick told reporters after Friday’s mass shooting in Texas, this one taking the lives of 10 people, including nine students, at Santa Fe High School.
“There are too many entrances and too many exits to our over 8,000 campuses in Texas,” Patrick said in an afternoon press conference (video below.)
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“There aren’t enough people to put a guard at every entrance and exit,” the Lt. Governor said, suggesting the state would need to hire up to 40,000 people to guard every entrance and exit in all the school buildings.
Patrick suggested schools should be run like office building, saying, “maybe we need to look at limiting the entrance and exits into our schools so that we can have law enforcement looking at the people who come in one or two entrances.”
“We’re going to have to be creative. We’re going to have to think out of the box,” Patrick urged.
“Had there been one single entrance for every student, maybe he would have been stopped,” Patrick said. “Now that will take a lot of work and a lot of money, but maybe we need to do the work and do the money to protect children the best we can.”
Patrick, who has worked hard to raise his national profile, added that “as a nation, we should look at the design of these schools right now.”
As a Lt. Governor Patrick in some respects wields more power than Governor Greg Abbott, because he also controls the state Senate. That gives him authority over over spending bills, and over which bills will be voted on, and which lawmakers will chair which committee.
Patrick has a 100% approval rating from the NRA.