Buttigieg called blaming mass shootings on school design the 'definition of insanity'

After the Uvalde elementary school shooting, some lawmakers proposed changing school design.
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said it's insane to say school design is to blame.
Democratic lawmakers have pushed for stricter gun control in the aftermath of the shooting.

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said it was insane to blame mass shootings on the design of schools.

"And the idea that us being the only developed country where this happens routinely, especially in terms of the mass shootings, is somehow a result of the design of the doorways on our school buildings, is the definition of insanity if not the definition of denial," Buttigieg said during an interview with ABC's George Stephanopoulos that aired Sunday .

The former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, said if he was mayor during a local mass shooting, like the one recently in Uvalde, Texas, the worst part would be having to talk "to families of people who have lost their loved ones and knowing that nothing you can do will bring those loved ones back."

"We have a horrific scourge of gun violence in this country and you know, as mayor -- as every mayor is doing around the country, you take the steps that you can to reduce community violence, to invest in partnerships, to make sure that you've taken the steps you can locally," he said.

In the aftermath of the shooting in Uvalde, where an 18-year-old gunman barricaded himself in a classroom at Robb Elementary School killing 19 children and two adults, some GOP lawmakers suggested mass shootings are a result of faulty school designs or not arming teachers.

During an interview with Fox News' Jesse Watters, Sen. Ted Cruz said adding bulletproof doors and glass to schools would keep them safe.

"Have one door into and out of the school and have that one door, armed police officers at that door," Cruz argued. "If that had happened, if those federal grants had gone to this school, when that psychopath arrived, the armed police officers could have taken him out and we would have 19 children and two teachers still alive."

Many Democratic lawmakers have pushed for stricter gun control measures as more and more mass shootings rattle the country.

Other lawmakers have said resolutions like those Cruz proposed are not useful.

Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas told Politico he didn't want to revive ideas that haven't worked.

"What we do not need are solutions that have already been tried and done," he said on CBS' "Face the Nation. "I visit schools every day in Kansas City. Almost all of them are fortified. Most of them have armed guards these days, at least one. So these types of solutions they keep saying have been done."

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