Is This the Most Inappropriate Reaction to Sandy Hook School Shooting?

In an email sent to several school superintendents in his district on the day of the Newtown, Conn., shooting, Oregon state Rep. Dennis Richardson said that if he had been a principal or a teacher at the school, most of the kids who were killed that day “would still be alive.” Of the 28 people who died in Friday’s massacre, 20 were children.

“The Sandy Hook shootings are another heart breaking failure of school personnel to ensure the protection of innocent children and adults. Sadly, most of the deaths could have been prevented,” the email, obtained by Gawker, read. “If the school district did not preclude me from having access to a firearm, either by concealed carry or locked in my desk, most of the murdered children would still be alive, and the gunman would still be dead, and not by suicide.”

He continued: “When will our school officials open their eyes to the reality that law enforcement officers, in such instances as these, can respond only after the unfettered killings have occurred, and that our children’s safety depends on having a number of well-trained school employees on every campus who are prepared to defend our children and save their lives?

The email prompted Gawker writer Hamilton Nolan to nominate Richardson as a candidate for the “Most Inappropriate Reaction” to the Sandy Hook deaths. Some other potential nominees to add to that list: Mike Huckabee, for saying a reason for the shootings was because we “removed God from our schools,” and Texas Rep. Louie Gohmert, who suggested that the way to prevent mass killings is to arm more Americans.

— Posted by Tracy Bloom.