California Republican Assemblyman Bill Essayli reintroduced a bill on Thursday that would require at least one armed school resource officer (SRO) on every public school campus in the state. Essayli is pushing the bill again after a crazed man shot and wounded two kindergartners in Oroville, California, on Wednesday. Essayli’s introduction of Assembly Bill 68 comes after Democrats on the Assembly Education Committee shot down the same legislation earlier this year. The Republican assemblyman told The Daily Wire in a phone interview that he wants lawmakers to spend more time focusing on protecting children in schools. “Every time one of these shootings happens, it just becomes a 24-hour news story and then goes away. We don’t ever do anything,” he said. “And then the two sides just blame each other. You’ve got Democrats blaming Republicans for not having more strict gun laws and then Republicans just not offering up any solutions.” “This is not a time for empty rhetoric. This is a time, as policymakers, to look at what can we do to prevent this from happening again,” Essayli added. “I strongly believe in school resource officers. I think they’re specially trained, they carry a weapon, and they’re able to neutralize a threat immediately on campus. Otherwise, if someone comes up and starts shooting, you have to wait minutes or longer for police to respond and dozens of kids can die in the meantime.” While AB 68 would not apply to private schools like the Seventh-Day Adventist school that was targeted on Wednesday, Essayli told The Daily Wire that he wants the legislation to “set the standard on what we expect at schools and the type of safety and protection we expect for our kids.” He added that if parents begin to expect to have armed guards protecting their children at public schools, private schools would soon follow “the lead as well if that becomes the standard.” “I do think it’s a state responsibility. The state should pay for the SROs. Right now, the local jurisdictions have to bear the costs of hiring and employing those officers,” Essayli added. “We should protect our kids. I believe our kids should have just as much protection, if not more, than the politicians have up here in Sacramento.” The Republican lawmaker acknowledged that the bill faces an uphill battle in California, arguing that what should be common sense legislation is often stopped by “backwards logic.” “It’s upside down world,” he said. CHECK OUT THE DAILY WIRE HOLIDAY GIFT GUIDE The man who shot and critically wounded two kindergartners at Feather River Adventist School on Wednesday wrote that he was seeking out “child executions” in response to “America’s involvement in Genocide and Oppression of Palestinians.” The young victims were identified as 6-year-old Roman Mendez and 5-year-old Elias Wolford. Mendez was shot twice, resulting in internal injuries, and Wolford was shot once in the stomach, also resulting in internal injuries. Both boys “successfully” made it through surgery on Friday, but remain in critical condition, according to the Butte County Sheriff’s Office. According to authorities, the 56-year-old shooter scheduled an appointment with the principal to discuss enrolling his grandson. The appointment, however, appeared to be “a ruse,” and after the meeting, the man opened fire on the Christian schoolchildren. Authorities said that the shooter had mental health issues and a lengthy criminal record dating back to the early 1990s.