Dozens gather at gun rally in Santa Fe to find solutions for school safety

SANTA FE, Texas – People gathered at Runge Park in Santa Fe on Saturday to discuss ongoing efforts to make schools safer.

The event “Carry for our Kids" was hosted by This Is Texas Freedom Force. Members of the group and other supporters said that they would like to see teachers have the option to carry guns to stop any potential threats.

"We should keep attackers out of our schools and we can keep attackers out of the school," said former educator Kari Hillier. 

David Amad with Open Carry Texas said that he believes teachers should be trained and equipped with the handguns if they choose to be. 

“If you are going to fight off a gunman, you need (to be armed) because nothing else will do it," Amad said.

The safety debate follows the deadly shooting at Santa Fe High School that killed eight students and two teachers.

Santa Fe resident Steve Johnson said that he supports the option but doesn't believe this is the answer to the serious issue.

“No one answer is going to fix this; however, we need to look at all of these different solutions and find out what is the good point of these and bad points of these and that will give us our best options to protecting our children," Johnson said.

In May, Gov. Greg Abbott announced 40 recommendations to try to stop school shootings including reducing the number of entrances and exits and increasing visible law enforcement and more armed school marshal training.


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