Nashville school shooting further evidence of America’s ‘soul problem’: Trey Gowdy
WARNING GRAPHIC CONTENT ‘Sunday Night in America’ host Trey Gowdy responds to the horrific shooting at The Covenant School in Nashville, Tenn., which left 3 students and 3 adults dead.
Only a few days after high school shooting in Denver, Colo., a shooter on Monday killed three children and three adults at the Covenant School in Nashville, Tenn., prompting widespread outrage and calls for comprehensive action.
"Sunday Night in America" host Trey Gowdy argued the numerous shootings indicate America has a "soul problem," joining a chorus of enraged Americans demanding lawmakers find solutions to an all-too-familiar problem of mass shootings.
"We've got to have some kind of conversation about what is wrong with the soul of this country that someone would kill a child," Gowdy said on "America Reports" Tuesday. "I don't know the answer. I just know that we have a soul problem in addition to a violence problem in this country."
The Covenant School shooter was identified as 28-year-old Audrey Elizabeth Hale. The victims were identified as 9-year-old students Evelyn Dieckhaus, William Kinney, and Hallie Scruggs as well as Mike Hill, 61, Cynthia Peak, 61, and Katherine Koonce, 60.
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According to the police, Hale, who attended the private Christian school years ago, arrived on campus in her Honda Fit and was heavily armed with three guns that included two AR-style weapons and a pistol.
Surveillance video released by MNPD showed Hale shot her way into the church/school through a set of glass doors at a side entrance of the building.
According to Metro Nashville Police Chief John Drake, Hale fired at the officers who were arriving at the scene from windows on the second floor before they swept the building and found her in a common room.
"The first call to 911 about shots being fired in the building came in at 10:13 a.m. Officers rushed to the campus, made entry, and began clearing the building. Shots were heard coming from the second level. It was on the second floor, in a common area, that a team of officers encountered Hale shooting (she had been firing through a window at arriving police cars). Two members of an officer team fired on Hale and fatally wounded her," Drake said.
Metropolitan Nashville Police Chief John Drake said Officer Rex Englebert and Officer Michael Collazo fired at Hale, fatally wounding her within 15 minutes of Hale's initial shots.
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While police have not yet confirmed a motive, Gowdy explained that "no motive that explains the execution of children."
"There is no why that is going to satisfy us when it comes to the systematic execution of six innocent people, including three children," he said.
Gowdy emphasized the conversation following Monday's tragic event should be about "evidence-based solutions" rather than political talking points. He argued the overarching theme to possible solutions is keeping guns out of the hands of the mentally ill.
Hale, despite legally purchased the arsenal used in the attack behind the family's back, was suffering from serious emotional issues that required a doctor's attention, according to authorities.
"I'm interested in this country having a reckoning with the fact that we talk about every right, all the rights we have except the right for a seven-year-old to learn to read and write without getting murdered. How about that right?" - Trey Gowdy
Praising red flag laws with due process, Gowdy also proposed the legal obligation to inform officials if someone makes threats about mass shootings.
"So I'm interested in red flag laws," he said. "I'm interested in responsibilities to turn people in, and I'm interested in this country having a reckoning with the fact that we talk about every right, all the rights we have except the right for a 7-year-old to learn to read and write without getting murdered. How about that right? How about the right to go to elementary school without being murdered? Where does that fall in our hierarchy of rights in this country?"
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While he noted having police officers and law enforcement present in schools, Gowdy warned a police presence would not be a "panacea" for mass shootings, noting the Metropolitan Nashville Police responded quickly and neutralized the situation in under 15 minutes.
"Everything went as quickly as it could go. And yet we still have three dead children and three dead adults," Gowdy said. "So the cops would be the first to say having a rapid response plan is not enough. We got to do something to keep guns out of the hands of people who have suicidal homicidal ideations, make parents turn their kids in."
Gowdy explained that keeping weapons away from the mentally ill is pivotal to solutions moving forward.
"Crazy people should not have firearms," he said. "Normal people should not try to understand what abnormal people are doing. We just need to keep weapons out of their hands. And the fact that she lawfully [purchased] it is one debate. The real debate ought to be over whether or not she was lawfully possessing it at the time. And I can't imagine someone who has suicidal homicidal ideations. I'd love to hear the argument that, yes, you have a Second Amendment right to possess a firearm even though you are actively thinking about killing other people. I'd love to hear that argument from my friends on the right."
Pointing to the culture at large, Gowdy criticized those who are focusing on political talking points instead of digging into root causes of these mass shootings.
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"If we're the greatest country in the history of the world, we ought to be able to educate children without them being murdered at school," he said. "Instead of having schools where kids go to a quasi-prison, how about we do something about a culture that requires us to have schools for kids to go to that look like prisons."
"No right we have means a damn thing if you are dead. All the other rights we have do not mean anything if you are in a tiny casket."
Fox News' Lawrence Richard contributed to this report.
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