Harold Ford Jr. weighed in on how public officials should respond following the Texas school shooting on "Special Report."

HAROLD FORD JR.: One of the things public officials have to—be it law enforcement or those elected to public office—have to ponder at this moment is what can be done differently and what can be done as fast as possible. First, we need to get to the bottom of what happened here in this situation.  

UVALDE, TEXAS SCHOOL SHOOTING: 14 STUDENTS, ONE TEACHER KILLED, SUSPECTED SHOOTER DEAD, GOV. ABBOTT SAYS 

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I think we have to be willing to confront the conversation around guns and figure out if there are things, sensible things that we can do. Of course, it's a hard charge and highly politicized conversation at times, but one thing we know for certain and I think that your last guest, the former D.C. police detective, said it early, there are too many guns on the streets. This is not a statement about the Second Amendment.  

This is just a statement that..too many of the wrong people have guns in their hands. And how are homeless people and others getting guns in their hands when they can't feed themselves and can't support themselves, but somehow or another can find the money to buy a gun? Again, we need to get to the bottom of all this. 

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There's a lot of heartfelt condolences and other things that are going out to these families in this community and I certainly don't want to interrupt that, but those in public life shouldn't shirk their responsibilities. We have these hard, uncomfortable conversations about what we can do to prevent these kinds of things from happening going forward.