By: Teresa Mull

Survivors of the Santa Fe, Texas school shooting are not, for the most part, reacting to the tragedy in a manner in keeping with fellow victims of recent shootings.

“I don’t think guns are the problem — I think people are the problem,” Alex Carvey, a 16-year-old student at Santa Fe High School, told NBC News. “Even if we did [have] more gun laws, people who are sick enough to do something like this are still going to figure out a way to do it. So it doesn’t matter.”

Fifteen-year-old Nora Tulo echoed her classmate’s views.

“No matter how many laws there are, you can always break them,” Tulo said.

Tulo pointed out to NBC that the Santa Fe shooter was able to get his hands on a gun and kill nine students and a teacher despite being legally too young to buy a firearm.

“In contrast to the immediate aftermath of the Feb. 14 massacre in Parkland, Florida, when student survivors kicked off a national call for tougher gun control laws on social media and in street protests, there are few calls for new gun laws in Santa Fe,” NBC reported.

Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick has come under mainstream media fire for failing to call for expanded gun control. Patrick responded in support of his pro-gun constituents on Meet the Press by saying law enforcement personnel do a great job, but they respond after the fact, and, “You have to be able to defend yourself.” Patrick told Chuck Todd myths perpetrated about open and concealed carry laws are “propaganda by those who either don’t like guns or are afraid of guns.”

“Two days after the nation’s latest school shooting, Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said Sunday guns are not the problem but ‘are part of who we are as a nation,’” USA Today reported. “Instead, Patrick offered a list of other options to curb gun violence: arming teachers, analyzing bullying and video games, staggering school start times, and altering the layout of the state’s 8,000 schools to limit the number of entrances and exits.”

“We cannot sit back and say it’s the gun,” Patrick told George Stephanopoulos on his weekly show.

Teresa Mull is editor of Gunpowder Magazine. Contact her at [email protected].

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