Father of slain Parkland teen slams 'incompetent' Betsy DeVos for ignoring the role of guns in school shootings

On Tuesday, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos informed senators that the commission to study school safety—launched in response to the Parkland massacre that killed 17—will not study the role guns play in mass shootings.

"That is not part of the commission's charge per se," DeVos told a Senate subcommittee, the Associated Press reports.

“We are actually studying school safety and how we can ensure our students are safe at school.”

Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont) noted the absurdity. “So you are studying gun violence, but not considering the role of guns.”

Fred Guttenberg, whose 14-year-old daughter Jaime Guttenberg was killed at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, is also not impressed by DeVos' leadership on the issue of school safety.

"Why would you look at guns?," he tells Raw Story sarcastically. "Is it too soon to say she's the most incompetent secretary of education ever? Or even the most incompetent official in this entire administration?"

Guttenberg tells Raw Story that DeVos inability to  do her job—and the entire administration's fealty to the gun lobby and the NRA—should inspire Americans to vote.

"She just gave this country the reason they need to show up to the polls in record numbers," Guttenberg says.

"She just gave this country the reason to know that right now we have a government that doesn't care about our safety. They care about the NRA and gun lobby but they don't want to really talk about safety."