A Fox News panel discussion Wednesday featured a former secretary of education suggesting that what’s missing from efforts to prevent mass shootings are exorcists.
Former Reagan Cabinet member Bill Bennett said that more needs to be done on various fronts to recognize warning signs in troubled individuals and prevent them from gaining access to firearms.
“I think you could strengthen red flag laws. Certainly people need to pay attention to them. It’s hard when parents aren’t doing their job for any red flag to make up for it. Also, the police need to pay more attention, and the schools need to pay more attention,” Bennett told Bret Baier.
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The 21-year-old suspect who allegedly killed seven and injured dozens more at a Fourth of July parade outside Chicago had a history of worrisome behavior. Yet despite a suicide attempt and threatening to kill his family, he was approved for a state gun permit after his father signed his application, and the suspect legally bought online the semi-automatic rifle police believe he used on Monday.
“I’m not sure we are going deep enough,” Bennett continued. “Yeah, I think you need police. You need parents for sure. You need schools. You need to clean up social media. You need all that. But you know, you may need an exorcist, too.”
“Before your audience shakes its head on that, if you look at these boys, these men, these young men, they have deeply spiritual problems. Deeply. Few go into the labyrinthian caves of the internet way down, and I don’t recommend it. It’s ugly stuff,” Bennett said, echoing Tucker Carlson’s Tuesday lament about the influence of social media, video games, and porn on young men. “Where are the ministers? Where are the rabbis? The priests?”
“I don’t want to suggest something that would seem farcical to a lot of your audience, but I do think that the domain of religion ought to be involved here,” Bennett continued.
“It’s a deeply spiritual void, I think, that these young men have in their hearts and their souls, and I think it needs to be addressed. And I don’t think we get at it, frankly, with these externalities, as important as some of them may be. And they may be. We need to do it all, but we need to do more.”
