Republican Senator Rick Scott of Florida has suggested an “automatic death penalty” for those responsible for school shootings, in response to the devastating shooting incident in Nashville, Tennessee. The perpetrator, a 28-year-old female who identified as transgender according to police chief John Drake, killed three children and three adults.

“We need to consider an automatic death penalty for school shooters. Life in prison is not enough for the deranged monsters who go into our schools to k*ll innocent kids & educators. Pray for all facing the unimaginable in Nashville. This is horrible & must stop,” Scott tweeted.

We need to consider an automatic death penalty for school shooters. Life in prison is not enough for the deranged monsters who go into our schools to kill innocent kids & educators.

Pray for all facing the unimaginable in Nashville. This is horrible & must stop. https://t.co/PbCkJsSddE

— Rick Scott (@SenRickScott) March 27, 2023

Before being elected to the United States Senate, Scott was Governor of Florida from 2011 to 2019. During this time, he signed legislation raising the minimum age required to purchase guns from 18 to 21 years old in the wake of another mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland which left 17 people dead. Though the perpetrator of that attack was given life imprisonment instead of the death penalty, Scott expressed his feelings that such a brutal crime warranted more severe punishment than what had been issued.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis similarly commented that if there is a death penalty at all it should be applied in cases such as these where individuals are massacring innocent victims with premeditated intent and complete disregard for human life. “I think that if you have a death penalty at all, that that is a case, where you’re massacring those students with premeditation in utter disregard for basic humanity, that you deserve the death penalty,” DeSantis said.

Senator Scott’s advocacy for an automatic execution provided for those committing mass shootings serves both as a reminder of how devastating these events are and as a plea for greater consequences for those committing them. I would imagine that most of us probably have similar thoughts as well as how justice should be served.