Pittsburgh Mayor: Armed Security Wrong Answer to Attacks on Vulnerable Places of Worship

Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto (D) reacted to the Saturday synagogue attack by stressing his belief that armed security is the wrong answer to attacks on vulnerable places of worship.

He also used the occasion to stress his stance against having good guys with guns in schools to protect teachers and students.

During a Sunday appearance on Meet the Press, Peduto said, “I don’t think that the answer to this problem is solved by having our synagogues, mosques and churches filled with armed guards or our schools filled with armed guards.”

Peduto made his comments in reaction to President Trump’s statement that the attack on Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life Synagogue could have ended differently if armed security had been present. Trump said, “If they had protection inside, the result would have been far better. This is a dispute that will always exist, I suspect, but if they had protection inside the synagogue maybe it could have been a very…different situation.”

Peduto explicitly cited his disagreement Trump’s position and shifted the conversation to the Michael Bloomberg-founded gun control Mayors Against Illegal Guns.

The synagogue attacker did not use illegal guns.

AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News, the host of the Breitbart podcast Bullets with AWR Hawkins, and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com. Sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange.