Senator Josh Hawley is asking the FBI to open a hate crime investigation into the shooting at a Nashville Christian school as Senator Rick Scott said shooters should receive an “automatic death penalty” after a trans shooter killed six people Monday killed.
The White House, meanwhile, is charting a different course of action — President Biden is urging Congress to take action against an assault weapons ban after it is discovered that the shooter was carrying semi-automatic rifles.
“We need to think about an automatic death penalty for school shooters. Life in prison is not enough for the deranged monsters who enter our schools to kill innocent children and teachers,” Scott, R-Fla., wrote on Twitter.
Scott was governor at the time of the 2018 Parkland shooting that killed 17 at a high school. That shooter was sentenced to life in prison.
Senator Josh Hawley asks FBI to open a hate crime investigation into the shooting at a Nashville Christian school
Senator Rick Scott said gunmen should be given an ‘automatic death penalty’ after a trans gunman killed six people on Monday
The gunman in Nashville was shot on the spot by police.
“Police report that the attack here was ‘targeted’ — targeting, that is, against Christians,” Hawley, R-Mo., wrote in the letter.
“The full resources of the federal government must be deployed to determine how this crime occurred and who may have influenced the deranged gunman to commit these heinous crimes,” he continued.
Gunman Audrey Hale, 28, opened fire at The Covenant School, killing Evelyn Dieckhaus, Hallie Scruggs, and William Kinney, all aged 9, Cynthia Peak, 61, Katherine Koonce, 60, and Mike Hill, 61. According to the school’s website, Koonce was Covenant’s principal.
Nashville Police Chief John Drake said Hale, an alum of the small, private Christian school, carefully planned the attack and wrote a manifesto.
“We also found that maps of the school had been drawn with detailed security entrances. At one point she was at that school,” he said at a press conference on Monday. “There was a vehicle nearby that gave us a clue as to who she was.”
Children from the Covenant School hold hands as they are taken to a reunion site
Six people were killed when a gunman opened fire at Covenant School on Monday
Robin Wolfeden prays in front of a makeshift monument at the entrance to The Covenant School on Tuesday, March 28, 2023 in Nashville
Drake said he recovered the manifesto and map during a search of Hale’s home. He said his team is still “going through” the writings and gave no details.
“There’s some belief that there was some resentment because you had to go to that school,” Drake told NBC News’ Lester Holt Monday night. “I don’t have all the details yet and that’s why this incident happened.”
According to police, Hale was equipped with at least two assault weapons and a handgun at the time of the attack.
Asked if he would describe the shooting as a “targeted attack,” Drake said, “There’s a theory behind that.”
Hale is a biological female who used masculine pronouns on social media.
Police said Hale did not have a police record or a mental health record and they are in contact with the suspect’s father.
And while Congress took bipartisan action on gun control last year, the White House insists more needs to be done.
Texas Republican Senator John Cornyn, who helped push through the most comprehensive gun legislation in years during the last Congress, said there was little point in doing more legislation in the wake of more shootings.
“I would say we went as far as we could unless someone identifies an area that we haven’t addressed,” Cornyn said. He was specifically asked about taking additional background check steps for gun buyers.
Jean-Pierre rejected that attitude in a separate interview on CNN. ‘We shouldn’t say there’s nothing else to do. We should try to find out what else there is to do,” she said.