Inevitably, Twitter was littered with the “thoughts and prayers” of lawmakers and elected officials from across the country. Tennessee Republican Gov. Bill Lee led the prayer warrior charge by pushing send on a post saying he was monitoring the developments at Covenant before ending the tweet, of course, with “As we continue to respond, please join us in praying for the school, congregation & Nashville community.”
As shallow as such a sentiment likely felt in the moment for his constituents, the Tennessee governor’s post was a deep well of warm and trusted leadership compared to Republican U.S. Congressman Tim Burchett, who represents the district in which Covenant Church resides.
In a clip that caught viral fire the moment it was posted on Monday evening by video journalist Brennan Murphy, Burchett said the quiet part out loud when he told reporters, “We’re not gonna fix it, criminals are gonna be criminals,” before later adding that his military father once told him “Buddy, if somebody wants to take you out and doesn’t mind losing their life, there’s not a whole heck of a lot you can do about it.”
Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN) on school shootings:
— Brennan Murphy (@brenonade) March 28, 2023
"We're not gonna fix it." pic.twitter.com/yZZCbJleUA
Plenty of notable names responded to the video of Burchett’s statement with quote tweets expressing their disbelief and outrage. Prominent gun control advocate David Hogg, one of the survivors of the 2018 Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School mass shooting in Florida, and the Texas PAC Mothers Against Greg Abbott were among them.
Lawmakers from Texas got in on the action as well. On Tuesday, Democrat Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett of Dallas, Burchett’s colleague in the U.S. House, took issue with his apathy, writing “Speak for yourself @RepTimBurchett. @HouseGOP may have given up on saving our children, but @HouseDemocrats will never stop working to end school shootings in America.”
Brett Cross, whose son, Uzi, was killed in the Robb Elementary mass shooting in Uvalde last May, has been an outspoken critic of the state government’s view on additional gun legislation. He reminded people about Gov. Abbott’s comments immediately following the Uvalde shootings by offering up a Twitter poll to his nearly 55,000 followers, asking “Who was worse? @GregAbbott_TX saying 'It could have been worse.' Or @RepTimBurchett saying 'We aren’t going to fix it'?"
Most of Burchett’s conservative colleagues weren’t among the throng of people attacking his lethargic take. But comments from Republican Sen. John Cornyn on Monday after the Nashville shooting suggested that helpless white flag-waving might be the GOP company line. Several outlets reported that Cornyn told reporters, “I would say we’ve gone about as far as we can go — unless somebody identifies some area that we didn’t address,” in response to questions about legislation that addresses gun violence in schools.
Cornyn’s fellow U.S. senator from Texas, Ted Cruz, took a different approach in his response to the Monday killings at Covenant. Instead of claiming to be without answers, Cruz tweeted that his Democrat colleagues wouldn't listen to what he says would fix the problem.
“The Covenant School shooting was horrific. For everyone who says “thoughts & prayers aren’t enough,” I AGREE. Ask why EVERY SINGLE SENATE DEM voted against my bill doubling police officers in school. One armed officer could have stopped this lunatic, BEFORE a child was killed.”
If you’re keeping score at home, that’s at least one Republican senator from Texas and a Congressman from Tennessee saying nothing more can be done, and one Republican senator from Texas saying, sure, something can be done, but it involves more guns.
