The teenage survivors of the Parkland rampage want sensible gun safety laws to prevent future school massacres, but according to Jason Chaffetz, what they really need is more Jesus. That's what the former Utah Republican Congressman said Tuesday on Fox News' "America's Newsroom."
As the students of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School returned to school for the first time Wednesday, where their friends, classmates and teachers were gunned down, Chaffetz said, "they need something more."
"We need more good news, more good message, more of the good word reaching out to America," he added, reflecting on lawmakers pausing their workday to honor the late evangelist Billy Graham.
Chaffetz continued, "I think of those kids who went back to school today after that horrific shooting, and they need something more. They need a belief in God and Jesus Christ. I think that would help. And this is a historic moment."
The school and community is reportedly 40 percent Jewish, according to the Orlando Sun-Sentinel.
It sure sounds like Chaffetz followed the tried-and-true Republican "thoughts and prayers" approach used after mass shootings — though most politicians never explicitly pointed to one single religion in their statements. But beyond his proposal of Christ to help students heal, his statements went completely against what the Parkland survivors have been saying since their school turned into a shooting ground. They have been saying that "thoughts and prayers" are insufficient; they're advocating for gun control, and they're calling for lawmakers to introduce and pass gun safety laws that will help keep children and Americans at large safer.
Maybe, if they pray hard enough, it will happen.
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