MSNBC’s Hugh Hewett Absurdly Calls For Ban On Trench Coats Instead of Guns In Schools

Last updated on May 25th, 2018 at 06:54 am

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Sometimes Republicans say such ridiculous things that you wonder if they are kidding or not.  Usually, though, they are deadly serious, and often put forth proposed solutions to our problems that are nothing short of preposterous.

The latest of these is conservative commentator and MSNBC host Hugh Hewitt‘s suggestion on Monday that the Santa Fe, Texas school shooting happened because the shooter was allowed into the school wearing a trench coat. And because he used a shotgun and a .38 revolver belonging to his father, Hewitt said that none of the changes to gun laws proposed by Democrats would have stopped the massacre.  

Hewitt’s comments were made on “The Hugh Hewitt Show” on Salem Radio Network on Monday.  The clip was posted online by Media Matters.

Hewitt said that measures like universal background checks and a ban on assault-style weapons likely would not have prevented the Texas shooting which was committed by 17 year old Dimitrios Pagourtzis.

Here is a transcript of what Hewitt had to say about how to prevent massacres in schools:

“Point being, this is about identifying and segregating individuals away from guns who are not in the position to own them with due process protection. To the teachers and administrators out there, the trench coat is kind of a giveaway. You might just say no more trench coats. The creepy people, make a list, check it twice. And be aware of your social media activities. And ask people, the old cliche does apply, ‘see something, say something.”

“There’s a pattern, pattern recognition is important here. And people need to put down the rhetoric and pick up the study. And read, listen, pray, think, not just shout. That’s the easiest thing to do, just to shout.”

What Hewitt had to say is similar to the suggestion made by Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick who said after the Santa Fe shooting that shootings could be prevented if schools had fewer doors. “Had there been one single entrance possibly for every student, maybe he would have been stopped,” Patrick said.

For Republican gun lovers like Patrick and Hewitt massacres never happen because of guns or gun laws — there is always some other explanation they come up with that strains credulity.  After the Parkland, Florida shooting that killed 17 people Trump, the NRA and other Republicans called for arming and training teachers, as if by adding more guns to schools they would be made safer, which is ridiculous.

Perhaps the next suggestion by these people will be to ban schools altogether, since it is the schools themselves that cause school shootings.  If there were no schools, there would be no school shootings — problem solved!

This is not as far fetched as it may seem because Betsy DeVos and the Trump administration seemed to have declared war on the nation’s public schools.  We should never be surprised at what ridiculous solutions people like them come up with next because their goal is not really to solve problems, but only to gain political power and make money.

Leo Vidal

I am a lifelong Democrat with a passion for social justice and progressive issues. I have degrees in writing, economics and law from the University of Iowa.