Michael Jr., a popular Christian comedian, has offered a suggestion on how fathers can actively help protect children from gun violence after the nation was recently hit with another school shooting.
In a three-minute video published to his YouTube channel Sunday, Michael Jr. warned viewers that he would be taking on a serious subject, as opposed to soliciting laughs.
The married father of five explained at the start of the video: “I have some stuff on my chest that I really want to talk about and I want to share it with you in hopes that you would share this with other people and maybe they can take action where they are.”
Explaining his belief that a father’s primary responsibility was to take care of his family, Michael Jr. suggested that men who have the flexibility to work remotely or be stay-at-home dads should consider working from schools.
Having 12-15 men on the school campus who are simply there to offer protection could also have a positive impact on students’ psyche, he suggested.
The stand-up comic admitted that he didn’t have the details all worked out, but offered general guidelines on how these men would be screened to be allowed to be at schools and if these dads would themselves be armed.
Watch Michael Jr.’s impassioned plea in this video.
On Friday, May 18, 10 people were killed and at least 13 wounded when a teen gunman opened fire at Santa Fe High School in Texas.
The alleged shooter, Dimitrios Pagourtzis, 17, was charged as an adult with capital murder and aggravated assault on a peace officer. He reportedly planted explosives on campus, and used a pistol and a shotgun in his selective shooting of victims.
The shooting at Santa Fe High School was the deadliest such shooting since February of this year, when a former student killed 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. Nikolas Cruz, 19, confessed to authorities that he had committed the crime. He used an AR-15 semi-automatic style weapon in his assault at the Florida school.
Michael Jr. was not the first person to offer ideas, outside of tightening gun laws, to help bring an end to school shootings. Ideas have ranged from giving guns to teachers and even students in some cases, to arming students with rocks. Others have suggested, however, that introducing students to classes on emotional and social skills, monitoring their social media use, and having more school counselors would be better approaches to preventing school shootings.
