Current GOP candidate for President Asa Hutchinson‘s Twitter feed may hint that the former Arkansas Governor lives a bit in the past — his main image is a photo of him as a young man with the late President Ronald Reagan.
But Hutchinson has plans for the future too, and one of them is to protect children from murderous AR-15-wielding attackers who target schools. Hutchinson is tweeting today about his answer to this tragic problem, on which he began collaborating with the NRA since shortly after the nation-searing school shooting in Newtown, CT in 2012. Hutchinson’s solution is largely to train and arm security protection at schools.
The ‘NRA School Shield’ plan, which Hutchinson helped create, says it is “committed to addressing the many facets of school security, including infrastructure, technology, personnel, and training.”
Protecting our kids has to be a top priority and I’ve actually put the work in to do it. Thanks to the @NRA for stepping up to bring real solutions to the table to safeguard our schools all while protecting our Second Amendment rights. https://t.co/gGDUZ7z8Pf
— Gov. Asa Hutchinson (@AsaHutchinson) June 5, 2023
The timing of Hutchinson’s boast is unusual, especially since the Second Amendment debate isn’t prominent in the news right now. (Gun Violence Awareness Month is June, but as Hutchinson’s own study proves, every month deserves the title.)
Whether Hutchinson’s NRA association — and the ultimate effectiveness (of ineffectiveness) of his NRA plan — are a big help in the crowded GOP field is hard to assess.
It’s unlikely to provide him with distinction — every GOP candidate will back the NRA — and the specific ideas Hutchinson devised don’t look particularly effective on the evidence. As journalist Judd Legum wrote last year:
“The primary recommendation of the School Shield program is to place more armed law enforcement officers at schools. But mass shootings at Uvalde, Columbine and Virginia Tech all took place despite the presence of armed officers on campus.”
Judd Legum
NOTE: Hutchinson’s aforementioned political hero was a strong NRA booster too, despite — or because of — having been shot in an assassination attempt. In a speech below that Hutchinson is familiar with, Reagan asserts that gun control laws are ineffectual because those who would do harm don’t heed them. Reagan then glancingly refers to the attempt on his own life, saying “I happen to know this from personal experience.”
