FILE - State Sen. Doug Mastriano, R-Franklin, a Republican candidate for Governor of Pennsylvania, speaks at a primary night election gathering in Chambersburg, Pa., May 17, 2022. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)

After the Robb Elementary School shooting in Uvalde, Texas, Pennsylvania GOP gubernatorial nominee Doug Mastriano blamed President Joe Biden, unarmed teachers and gun-free school zones for school shootings, despite evidence to the contrary.

Mastriano told Newsmax on July 1 that schools are a “soft target” for mass shooters because of their gun-free policies. He also falsely attributed then-Senator Biden’s 1990 crime bill for how the concept became law.

“…Actually, going back about 40 years, it was one of Joe Biden’s great ideas to have, you know, gun-free zones,” Mastriano said. “Like, you know, ‘If we declare this a gun-free zone, therefore, nothing bad’s gonna happen here,’ and we see how ridiculous that is. That’s like the Wizard of Oz kind of talk there. It’s nonsense. And so we need to harden those targets.”

The gubernatorial nominee made similar comments in 2018 as a state Senate candidate by provoking both sides of the Israel-Palestine debate, as originally reported by The Forward in May. During a debate, Mastriano contrasted gun-free schools with American and European airport security measures in the 1970s after attacks by the Palestinian Liberation Organization. He also compared gun control to Nazi policies of confiscating privately owned guns from Jewish citizens and political opponents. 

“We saw Lenin do the same thing in Russia. We saw Hitler do the same thing in Germany in the 30s,” Mastriano said at the 2018 debate. “Where does it stop?”

Multiple studies from the 2010s contradict Mastriano’s comments about schools being soft targets. A 2013 analysis by Mother Jones that tracked 30 years of mass shootings could not find one instance out of 62 where a mass shooter targeted an area specifically because it was a gun-free zone. Mother Jones also found in 2012 that most school shooters choose the school because they have personal connections to them. And a study published by Everytown For Gun Safety in 2016 showed that between January 2009 and July 2015, only 13 percent of mass shootings took place in gun-free zones.

Mastriano is also a major proponent of arming teachers. In May, he advocated for using state funds for arming teachers, and Mastriano said in June that he would introduce a measure in the state Senate to permit teachers and trained citizens to enter schools while armed.

But armed teachers “frequently” mishandle guns, according to a report by the Giffords Law Center published last December. The report found nearly 100 cases of mishandled guns in schools between 2016 and 2021.

“Our comprehensive analysis finds there have been nearly 100 publicly reported incidents of mishandled guns at schools in the last five years, including: A teacher’s loaded gun falling from his waistband during a cartwheel. A student grabbing an officer’s gun while the officer attempted to subdue the student. A teacher unintentionally firing a gun in class during a safety demonstration,” the report stated.

Two such incidents occurred in Pennsylvania, both of which involved students finding mishandled guns. In 2016, several Cumberland Valley Christian School students found a loaded gun on top of a toilet in a school bathroom that was misplaced by a teacher, leading to child endangerment charges. And in 2018, a student of Russell Byers’ Charter School found the gun of a middle school teacher after bumping into the teacher’s bag in class.

Pennsylvania’s state teacher union, the Pennsylvania State Education Association, directly opposed Mastriano’s plan to arm teachers last month.

“The problem we have right now is a direct result of people bringing guns into schools,” Rich Askey, president of the PSEA, told WFMZ. “The last thing we need is more firearms in our classrooms creating even more opportunities for students and staff to be injured or killed.”