‘I’d run in there’
Trump imagines unarmed heroics
US President Donald Trump, who has been highly critical of the law enforcement response to the Florida school shootings, says he would have rushed in, unarmed, if he’d been there.
Speaking to a roomful of governors at the White House, Mr Trump said: “You don’t know until you’re tested, but I think I really believe I’d run in there even if I didn’t have a weapon, and I think most of the people in this room would have done that, too.”
Mr Trump’s heroic hypothetical vividly demonstrated his frustration at the way the deadly events unfolded at the school in Parkland, Florida.
His session with the governors, in Washington for their annual winter meeting, was heavily focused on finding ways to address the massacre of 17 students and teachers in a Valentine’s Day shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.
It was the latest gathering in which the President spoke of a need to enact new gun-control measures as well as act to improve school safety.
Mr Trump said his recent calls for the arming of many teachers wasn’t a universal one, instead likening it to taking advantage of educators with athletic talents to provide additional protection within schools.
“The headline was ‘Trump wants all teachers to have guns. Trump wants teachers to have guns’. I don’t want teachers to have guns,” Mr Trump said. “I want highly trained people that have a natural talent, like hitting a baseball or hitting a golf ball or putting.”
Mr Trump repeated his disappointment in officers who didn’t stop the gunman, calling their performance “frankly disgusting.” “They really weren’t exactly Medal of Honor winners,” he said.
He renewed his criticism of former Broward County Sheriff’s deputy Scot Peterson, though Mr Peterson’s lawyer Joseph DiRuzzo said the armed school resource officer didn’t enter the high school because it sounded like the shooting was happening outside the building.