There have been at least 50 school shootings across the United States in 2024, according to data from the Gun Violence Archive. But the Republican presidential ticket doesn’t seem to have any solutions for preventing future violence.
Instead, JD Vance transparently dodged a direct question Tuesday from a reporter with The Michigan Daily, the University of Michigan campus newspaper, on the sensitive topic, choosing instead to ramble extensively about paltry school rivalries.
“Why should students in Michigan cast their vote for the Trump-Vance ticket, and additionally, how will your administration support students specifically concerning gun violence when you have rejected calls for tougher gun laws and bans on bump stocks?” the student reporter asked, to jeering and booing from the MAGA crowd. “Essentially, why should students concerned about their safety on campus vote for you?”
It quickly became clear that Vance had no intention of actually answering the question.
“First, let’s be honest here, I don’t know if an Ohio State graduate is the best messenger to University of Michigan students,” Vance said to cheers. “In fact—maybe, we should just get a clip of me saying something nice about Kamala Harris out to the University of Michigan because maybe then they’d all vote for Donald J. Trump if you just told them I was a Buckeye.
“I’m always a little nervous about injecting myself into the OSU-Michigan rivalry,” he continued, still skirting any mention of taking legitimate action to halt the senseless violence.
“All kidding aside, look, we all care about the country,” Vance said. “And that’s why I think every person in this room is going to help me make Donald J. Trump the next president of the United States.”
Vance then attempted to lure in listening students with promises of creating more jobs in their hometowns and vaguely addressing the housing crisis—though that baseless future wouldn’t help their situation if they found themselves in the crossfire of another shooting.
Minutes later, Vance actually did have some words to share about the topic at hand.
“What I have said is that upwards of 90 percent of the gun crime that’s committed in this country is committed using an illegally obtained firearm,” Vance said.
In reality, a 2023 report by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, or ATF, found that the vast majority of guns used in crimes—roughly 99 percent—were purchased legally from a dealer, pawnbroker, or direct from a gun manufacturer, even if they were stolen and used in crimes later.
Vance has been endorsed by the National Rifle Association, which spent nearly half a million dollars in Ohio to help elect him to his Senate seat in 2022. The MAGA Republican has also promised to abolish the ATF, which oversees the $9 billion gun industry.
Ultimately, according to Vance, the “best way to reduce gun crime” has nothing to do with limiting the amount of weapons in the country, no matter how destructive or army-ready they are. Instead, the obvious solution is the retroactive one: to “lock up people who are committing violence against their fellow citizens.”
“That’s the most important thing,” Vance told the jubilant crowd.
JD Vance in response to a question about gun control: “The best way to reduce gun crime in the United States in America is to lock up people who are committing violence against their fellow citizens.” pic.twitter.com/c5aW9Dr2Te
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 8, 2024
