Pete Buttigieg slams Ted Cruz’s obsession with doors in the wake of school shooting

Out Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg slyly called out Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) for his focus on doors as a way to prevent mass shootings like the one that happened in Uvalde, Texas and left 19 kids and two adults dead.

Shortly after the massacre in late May, Sen. Cruz said that the problem at Robb Elementary School was that it had too many doors, and that schools should have fewer doors so that shooters can only enter in one place (although it would also make it much harder to evacuate a school in the case of a fire).

Related: Chilling terror threat against Pride event thwarted by police

Cruz made the argument repeatedly in the wake of the shooting to have something to point to that isn’t gun regulation.

Never Miss a Beat

Subscribe to our newsletter to stay ahead of the latest LGBTQ+ political news and insights.

Sign Up

Daily

Weekly

Good News

Promotions (occasional)

Buttigieg responded on ABC’s This Week this past Sunday.

“We have a horrific scourge of gun violence in this country,” Buttigieg said when asked by host George Stephanopoulos what he would have done when he was mayor of South Bend, Indiana if a shooting like this happened there. “As mayor – as every mayor is doing around the country – you take the steps that you can to reduce community violence.”

“But you’re also looking at Washington to say, ‘Will anything be different this time? Will we actually acknowledge the reasons why we are the only country – the only developed country – where this happens on a routine basis?'”

“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.