Lee’s prayers come roughly nine months after he announced he did not support restricting firearms or stronger gun control laws, according to the Associated Press. After 19 kids and two teachers were killed in Uvalde, Texas, in May 2022, Lee told reporters that his focus was on security at schools.
In June 2022, he signed an executive order, along with other Republican governors, calling for enhanced school safety measures, but the executive order didn’t mention “guns” once. Lee didn’t immediately respond to BuzzFeed News’ request for comment.
The executive order noted that Tennessee had invested more than $100 million “to support improvements in school safety, hiring of school resource officers, and building security.”
“We’re not looking at gun restriction laws in my administration right now. There’s one thing to remember, criminals don’t follow the laws. Criminals break laws,” Lee said, according to the AP. “We can’t control what we can’t control.”
Lee wasn’t the only state official to mention prayer after the mass shooting on Monday. David Rausch, director of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, told reporters he sent his “heartfelt prayers” to the community.
“Now I know there will be people who want to criticize us for prayers, but that’s the way we do that in the South, right,” Rausch said. “We believe in prayer and we believe in the power of prayer, & so our prayers go out to these families.”
When contacted by BuzzFeed News, a spokesperson for Rausch said he had nothing to add.
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