Outspoken Chicago rapper and social critic Vic Mensa is unsurprisingly against the idea of arming teachers, calling it “asinine and backwards” in an interview with TMZ. He also reiterated his belief that AR-15s should be banned, pointing out that “you don’t need an AR-15 to kill a deer.” In his most controversial statement, he even flips a common conservative talking point about gun violence in Chicago, stating, “At least we don’t have school shootings.”
A product of the Chicago Public School system, Vic believes that proponents of arming educators are disconnected from the realities of public education and under-informed to make decisions affecting the 81.5 million students in US public schools.
“Giving guns to teachers, it’s absolutely asinine,” he says, “It’s so backwards. Anybody saying that has clearly never been to a public school. And it’s all just a diversion from big money lobbyists with the NRA. It’s not a real logical solution. It’s not even an idea. It’s just a distraction, so that people can keep making money off of these kids getting killed.”
“You know what’s f*cked up about it?” he continues. “As many problems as we have in Chicago, we’re sitting in Chicago like, “Thank God we don’t have school shootings.’ You motherf*ckers are killing yourselves.”
Regarding his suggestion to ban semi-automatic rifles for sale in the US, Vic says, “It’s the people they’re voting for that are making money off of them getting killed… Point blank you gotta ban AR-15s. You don’t need an AR-15 to kill a deer … It’s being made a much more complicated issue than it really is. It’s not complicated. America is built off of blood and greed. And that’s they way it’s always been. Does that mean that’s the way it always has to be? No.”
