Former President Donald Trump expressed his condolences for the victims of last week’s Iowa school shooting and then urged them to “get over it.”
“It’s a very terrible thing that happened,” Trump said at a campaign event in Iowa on Friday. “And it’s just horrible to see that happening. It’s just horrible. It’s so surprising to see it here, but you have to get over it. You have to move forward. We have to move forward. But to the relatives and all of the people who are so devastated right now to a point they can’t breathe, they can’t live, we are with you all the way.”
On Jan. 4, a sixth grader was killed by a 17-year-old suspect at a school in Perry, Iowa. Five others were wounded, including the school’s principal.
Trump, who is running for president in this year’s election, called himself “pro-gun” during the NRA’s annual meeting in April and vowed to be the most “pro-Second Amendment” president ever. A month later, Trump spoke at the NRA’s convention in Dallas and proposed that teachers should carry guns in an effort to discourage mass shooters.
“There is no sign more inviting to a mass killer than a sign that declares that this school is a gun-free zone,” Trump said at the Dallas convention.
According to the Gun Violence Archive, there have been five mass shootings in 2024 and eight school shootings.