Texas official responds to Santa Fe shooting by calling for fewer school doors

Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick said security guards are unable to protect all exits and entrances

Texas’s lieutenant governor reacted to a deadly school shooting by suggesting schools have too many doors.

“We may have to look at the design of our schools moving forward and retrofitting schools that are already built. There are too many entrances and too many exits”, Dan Patrick said during a press conference after a gunman killed at least 10 people at a high school in Santa Fe, Texas.

In a familiar ritual, official updates on the toll gave way to vows from public officials to prevent a similar massacre. Texas Gov Greg Abbott said “it’s time in Texas we take action to step up and make sure this tragedy is never repeated ever again”, saying he would work with legislators to find as-yet-unidentified “solutions”.

While some reacted to the bloodshed by calling for tougher gun control laws, Mr Patrick emphasised what he called a hazardous number of entrances and exits to schools

“There are not enough people to put a guard in every entrance or exit”, Mr Patrick said, adding that “maybe we need to look at limiting the entrances and exits into our schools so that we can have law enforcement looking at the people who are coming”.

His remark swiftly drew a wave of rebuttals. Among those pushing back was California Lt Gov Gavin Newsom, a staunch gun control advocate and frontrunner to become the state’s next governor.

“Updated @GOP talking point: guns don't kill people, doors kill people”, Mr Newsom tweeted in response to a clip of Mr Patrick’s remarks.

A mass shooting at Parkland, Florida’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School earlier this year failed to produce any concrete policy changes on the federal level, but it did push the state’s Republican-controlled legislature and governor to alter gun laws.

Gov Rick Scott signed into law measures that raised the minimum age for buying a firearm to 21, allows courts to strip guns from people who pose a threat to themselves and others and authorise schools to arm qualified teachers. The National Rifle Association immediately sued to overturn the new age requirement.