Radio Host Hugh Hewitt Proposed a Trench Coat Ban in Response to Santa Fe High School Shooting

In the aftermath of the shooting at Santa Fe High School in Texas — where 10 people were killed and more than a dozen were injured — a number of people are trying to politicize the shooting as being related to anything other than gun control.

Among them is radio host Hugh Hewitt. According to Media Matters, the conservative pundit claimed on his radio show on Monday that the suspected shooter's attire was part of the problem. After saying that universal background checks "wouldn't have had any impact on [school shootings]," he went on to try to give teachers advice about warning signs in students' clothing.

"To the teachers and administrators out there, the trench coat is kind of a giveaway," he said. "You might just say, 'No more trench coats.' The creepy people, make a list, check it twice."

Unfortunately, this isn't the first time that we've seen this type of rhetoric around school shootings. In 1999, after the shootings at Columbine High School in Colorado, many people called for a trench coat ban because the two shooters were part of what was called the "trench coat mafia." Though nothing came from it officially, the rhetoric around the garment was apparently used to target students who wore them and mark them as high-risk.

There are certain details about the shooter that are important to discuss, including the fact that a female victim reportedly rejected the suspect the week prior to the shooting. In fact, the shooting suspect who attacked Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, and the shooting suspect who shot and killed his ex-girlfriend at Great Mills High School in Maryland both had a history of violence against women; they're far from the only examples of dating violence serving as an indicator of gun violence. And legislature allows for what is known as the "boyfriend loophole," which still allows convicted stalkers to buy and own guns. Discussing both stricter gun control laws as well as how people address teenage domestic violence is key; politicizing a trench coat is not.

Attaching this kind of stigma to an item of clothing is not only dangerous, it takes away from important discussions about what can be done to stop school shootings in the future. Wearing a trench coat does not make a person a school shooter, but lack of gun control, toxic masculinity, and domestic violence can.

Teen Vogue has reached out to Hugh Hewitt for comment.

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