JD Vance Offers Sympathy After Tim Walz Reveals Son’s Tragic Shooting Experience

Trigger Warning: This article contains themes of gun violence that some readers may find distressing.

Political opponents JD Vance and Tim Walz recently put aside their campaign jabs targeted at one another. As opposed to this, they were cordial most of the time during the vice presidential debate. In one such incident, Walz shared a personal story about his 17-year-old son Gus witnessing a heartbreaking community shooting. When Vance heard this, he expressed his disappointment. Walz and Vance later got together to speak about the persistent problem of school shootings.

Walz said, “I got a 17-year-old, and he witnessed a shooting at a community center playing volleyball. Those things don’t leave you.” When Vance heard this, he shook his head in disappointment and said, "Awful." Walz shared the incident while pushing for stronger gun control, as reported by HuffPost. He added, “I 100% believe that Sen. Vance hates it when these kids — it’s abhorrent, and it breaks your heart. I agree with that, but that’s not far enough when we know there are things that work." When it was Vance's turn to speak, he expressed his sympathy to Walz and his son.

Vance said, “Tim, first of all, I didn’t know that your 17-year-old witnessed a shooting. I’m sorry about that and I hope he’s doing OK. Christ have mercy. It is awful.” He pointed out that much of gun violence involves illegally obtained weapons. Donald Trump's VP pick then suggested that stricter measures against illegal immigration might help reduce gun-related crime. He said, “We know that thanks to Kamala Harris’s open border, we’ve seen a massive influx in the number of illegal guns run by the Mexican drug cartel. So that number then, the amount of illegal guns in our country, is higher today than it was three and a half years ago.”

According to the New York Post, Vance urged schools to boost security to help prevent future tragedies. Vance said, “We have to make the doors lock better. We have to make the door stronger. We’ve got to make the windows stronger, and of course, we’ve got to increase school resource officers. Because the idea that we can magically wave a wand and take guns out of the hands of bad guys, it just doesn’t fit with recent experience.” The Ohio senator added that tackling the mental health crisis could help lower the number of school shootings.

“I don’t think it’s the whole reason why we have such a bad gun violence problem, but I do think it’s a big piece of it,” Vance said. Although Trump once backed universal background checks and red flag laws for gun control, his campaign has since moved away from those policies. Meanwhile, Vance's sympathy for Walz's child during the most recent presidential debate was a rare display of civility in contrast to the more contentious ones of late. Throughout the debate, both political contenders made it clear that they had some similarities. However, Walz also pointed fingers at Trump's previous government for several issues, and Vance attacked the Harris administration.

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