TRUMP: TEACHERS SHOULD CONCEAL GUNS
US prez endorses raising minimum age to buy a range of weapons to 21, Florida senator Marco Rubio roasted in town hall meet
US students took to the streets on Wednesday and Thursday, demanding stricter gun laws after a shooter gunned down 17 people in a Florida school last week.
There is a new urgency to the debate around gun reforms after aggressive activism by students across the country, who are marching to state capitals, staging walkouts from school and passionately arguing at public events and to television cameras.
They have had enough, they say.
At 10:30 am on Wednesday, hundreds of students walked out of Montgomery Blair High School in Silver Spring, Maryland, escorted by police officers on motorcycles as part of a gun-control rally.
Hundreds of miles away in Mesa, Arizona, dozens of students at Mesa High School walked out of class around noon, calling for a reform of gun laws.
Needville, Texas, warned students of a three-day suspension to prevent its children from participating in the nationwide surge.
More marches and rallies are planned for the next coming days.
US President Donald Trump, who has championed gun rights and was endorsed by the powerful gun lobby National Rifle Association during the 2016 campaign, on Thursday said he will push for comprehensive background checks and raise the legal age to purchase firearms to 21.
“I will be strongly pushing Comprehensive Background Checks with an emphasis on Mental Health. Raise age to 21 and end sale of Bump Stocks! Congress is in a mood to finally do something on this issue - I hope!” he tweeted.
The current federal minimum age for buying or possessing handguns is 21, but the limit is 18 for rifles including assault-type weapons such as the AR-15 used by the shooter in the Florida school.
The previous day, Trump held an hour-long meeting with students who survived the shooting and a parent whose child did not. He said arming teachers and other school staff could help prevent future mass shootings, voicing support for an idea backed by the NRA.
“If you had a teacher ... who was adept at firearms, they could very well end the attack very quickly,” he said, while acknowledging the proposal was controversial. Some of the meeting participants indicated support. Others were opposed.
Mark Barden, whose son was killed in the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Connecticut, said his wife, Jackie, a teacher “will tell you that school teachers have more than enough responsibilities right now than to have to have the awesome responsibility of lethal force to take a life”.
Trump’s focus on gun violence came as NRA leaders offered a vigorous defence of gun rights during the Conservative Political Action Conference, urging enhanced — and armed — security at schools.
“Evil walks among us and God help us if we don’t harden our schools and protect our kids,” said NRA executive vice president and CEO Wayne LaPierre. “The whole idea from some of our opponents that armed security makes us less safe is completely ridiculous.”
The NRA officials didn’t address whether the federal government should raise the age limit for young adults to buy weapons, accusing Democrats and media outlets of exploiting the Florida shooting.
Meanwhile, students attacked Florida’s Republican senator Marco Rubio relentlessly at a town hall hosted by CNN on Wednesday, pushing him to commit to a ban on assault rifles and to not take contributions from the NRA.
Rubio agreed to neither, and was constantly booed and jeered as he tried to defend typically Republican positions on gun reforms. He also came under fire for saying the problems could not be solved by gun laws alone, but added that he would support a law that would prevent 18-yearolds from buying a rifle as well as a ban on “bump stocks”, an accessory that enables a rifle to shoot hundreds of rounds a minute.
“We would like to know why do we have to be the ones to do this? Why do we have to speak out to the (state) Capitol? Why do we have to march on Washington, just to save innocent lives?” asked Ryan Deitsch, a student.
Ashley Kurth, a teacher in the Florida school who protected more than 60 people in her class, questioned Rubio about Trump’s proposal to arm teachers. “Am I supposed to get extra training now to serve and protect? ... Am I supposed to get a Kevlar vest? Am I supposed to strap it (the gun) to my leg or put it in my desk?”