School safety, not gun control, solution to shootings: Sandy Hook victim’s brother

Making school safety a priority over gun control

J.T. Lewis, brother of Sandy Hook victim Jesse Lewis, on the steps to preventing school shootings.

The gun control debate has returned to the limelight this year after two devastating, mass school shootings, but according to the brother of a Sandy Hook victim, the best way to prevent shootings in schools is to increase security.

“After shootings, there’s a strong push for gun control,” J.T. Lewis told Neil Cavuto during a FOX Business interview on Thursday. “We’ve seen this in the 19 years since Columbine. And really, what laws they’ve passed have not prevented any of the current shootings.”

Lewis’s six-year-old brother died in the 2012 shooting that left 26 dead, most of whom were elementary school students. Afterward, it was revealed that the shooter, Adam Lanza, displayed warning signs, including a fascination with mass violence.

Likewise, the FBI had been warned about Nikolas Cruz, the alleged suspect in the massacre that left 17 dead at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, in February.

The federal agency came under fire after it was revealed it had ignored investigative protocol regarding a tip from a person close to Cruz who warned that he was a gun owner, desired to kill people, displayed erratic behavior, posted disturbing social media posts and had the potential to conduct a school shooting.

“It’s something that can be prevented, because they both had warning signs,” Lewis said, an advocate of crafting gun laws to prevent people who could become violent from obtaining weapons.

Those are the types of laws, Lewis said, that could be passed in a hyper-politicized climate, where no one can seem to agree on gun laws or how to prevent shootings.

“In the Sandy Hook shooter’s case, and the Parkland shooter’s case, there were warning signs for years,” he said. “It wasn’t just a snap one day. The Parkland shooting, the videos just released show he was planning for months. He wanted to kill 20 people. And he built up to it.”

FOX BUSINESS