OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
SiriusXM podcaster Megyn Kelly didn’t hold back her frustration and anger at renewed calls for gun control and gun bans in the wake of the Nashville school shooting during her Tuesday program.
At one point, she reflected on the horrific incident which saw 28-year-old biological female Audrey Hale shoot and kill three 9-year-old students and three adult teachers before she herself was shot and killed by responding Metropolitan Nashville Police officers.
“Three nine-year-olds were shot down yesterday by one sick person in addition to the three school administrators,” Kelly, a former Fox News host, began the segment.
“There’s something wrong with our society, and I, for one, am f**king sick of the knee jerk — ‘It’s the guns. Get the guns.’ We have 330 million guns, maybe over 400 million by some counts in America. They’re not going away. We could do an assault weapons ban tomorrow. They’re not going away. All right? We have to take a serious, honest look at what’s wrong with us,” Kelly added.
She went on to rip the lack of real change following incidents like school shootings.
“We can take a look at what’s going on in the case of this particular woman — trans person, she’s a biological woman, and figure out what made this person crack. But we go through this every time. We try to figure out the issues that led to this person to do it or that person to do it, and then we change nothing. Okay? We change nothing,” Kelly said, adding that it is past time for American society to take a “hard look” at mental health.
“And I realize it’s a big country and it’s a free country and you’re never gonna be able to stop them all. But that shouldn’t lead to just the constant shoulder shrugs… I for one, think we really need to take a hard look at yes, mental health and also institutionalization,” she said.
“Institutionalization. We need to make it easier to civilly commit people who are showing signs, red flags, that they may be the next school shooter,” she noted further, adding that at the time, Hale’s mental state has not been publicly revealed.
Meanwhile, Fox News host Tomi Lahren said on Tuesday that she believes that the United States needs to have a national conversation about anti-Christian bigotry after the Nashville Christian school shooting.
“We hope that his story in Nashville continues to get coverage,” she said on Fox News, due to the fact that the shooter was transgender and the narrative would not work for Democrats.
“We also need to talk about the anti-Christian, anti-religious rhetoric that is so popular and mainstream right now, really cheered by the left,” she said, adding that it’s “irresponsible and reckless” to blame the entire transgender community for the actions of one person.
“There also needs to be a discussion about how we’re gonna protect our schools moving forward,” she said.
WATCH:
Earlier, the Metropolitan Nashville Police Dept. released stunning bodycam footage of officers engaging and killing suspected shooter Audrey Hale.
“Monday’s shooting at the Covenant School in Nashville, Tennessee, unfolded over about 14 minutes, according to police, and spanned two floors of the private Christian elementary school. Metropolitan Nashville Police released surveillance video showing the moment the shooter — who authorities said had three firearms — arrived at the school, shot through glass doors, and climbed through to get inside. The video goes on to show the suspect walking through the hallways, pointing an assault-style weapon,” CNN reported.
“Police got the first call about an active shooter inside Covenant school at 10:13 a.m. local time, police spokesperson Don Aaron said and rushed to the scene. The first five responding officers heard gunfire coming from the second floor,” the outlet added. “Metro Nashville Police Chief John Drake commended the five officers for their quick response.”
They went upstairs and confronted the shooter, who “had been firing through a window at arriving police cars,” police said in a news release. Two officers then opened fire, killing the shooter at 10:27 a.m. local time, Aaron said.
