It's not enough to say "we need" to do something about school shootings, but "we need to do something effective, something that will protect our children," Rep. Pat Fallon said on Newsmax on Monday while discussing the demands that are being made after the school shootings in Uvalde, Texas.
"There are several things we can do when you're talking about security, particularly not only in schools but in elementary schools because there are literally are the most vulnerable," the Texas Republican told Newsmax's "John Bachman Now." "Layered security works, [and] we want to look at hardening the schools."
That means having just one point of entry and being sure people can't get past a second door without being cleared, Fallon said.
"All the doors to the classrooms should be like hotel room doors in so much as they shut automatically and lock every time they're opened," he said. "They don't remain open and also that they can withstand a shooter, if you will."
The police response on the day of the shooting in Uvalde must also be examined, Fallon said. Law enforcement waited for reinforcements while considering it to be a hostage situation, rather than entering the classroom at Robb Elementary School and confronting the shooter.
"That, unfortunately, cost lives," Fallon said. "They need to go in and be tactical, and anyone that threatens our children in a school like that needs to be taken out and the threat needs to be eliminated immediately."
There must also be more school resource officers, and training teachers to take action in the event of a shooter must also be considered, Fallon said.
Fallon said mass shootings must not be politicized, but that too many Democrats are calling for new laws rather than making classrooms safer.
Fallon had particularly harsh words for Texas Democrat gubernatorial candidate Beto O'Rourke, who cornered Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, his GOP rival for the seat, at a press conference last week.
"Beto O'Rouke is a desperate, grandstanding clown," said Fallon. "He's going to lose another election and to do that was absolutely disgraceful. It was gutter politics. It was all about him being very narcissistic … he should have said, I want to reach out to my Republican counterparts and to solve these issues and to make all Texas children safer. He didn't do any of that. It was all about him … I think it backfired on him, and that's a good thing."
Fallon also reflected on the Memorial Day holiday, commenting that the day reminds him of the Bible verse of John 15:13, that "greater love has no one than this, that someone laid down his life for his friends."
"I remember when I was serving in the Air Force," he said. "There was a poster and it said, 'All gave some and some gave all,' and we have to remember that about a million and a half American men and women have laid down their lives so we can enjoy these freedoms. We have to remain ever-vigilant, as President [Ronald] Reagan said. Freedom is just a generation away from disappearing if we don't value our republic."