TRUMP WANTS TEACHERS ARMED
He suggests training teachers to carry concealed weapons
UNITED States President Donald Trump suggested arming teachers to deter mass shootings as he faced broken voices, tears and demands for action at a meeting on Wednesday with survivors of the gun rampage that killed 17 people at a Florida high school.
He also promised “very strong” background checks on gun owners during the “listening session,” in which he heard firsthand accounts from bereaved parents and friends, and schoolchildren who narrowly escaped with their own lives.
But his proposal to arm educators received a cool response from a teacher who survived the shooting, as well as the local sheriff at a town hall meeting in Florida.
“A gun-free zone, to a maniac is ‘Let’s go in and let’s attack’,” Trump said.
“If you had a teacher who was adept at firearms, they could end the attack quickly,” he said, suggesting that 20 per cent of a school’s teachers could be trained to carry concealed weapons.
“This would only be for people who are very adept at handling a gun.”
The televised White House meeting came as students staged street protests across the country to demand stricter gun laws following the murder of 14 teens and three teachers at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.
Holding signs reading “Never Again” and “Be The Adults, Do Something”, survivors of last Wednesday’s shooting rallied outside the Florida state Capitol in Tallahassee.
“No longer can I walk the halls I walked millions of times before without fear and sadness,” Stoneman Douglas student Florence Yared told a crowd that included thousands of supporters.
The White House meeting was attended by Stoneman Douglas students, their parents and parents of victims of the Columbine, Sandy Hook and other shootings.
Andrew Pollack, whose daughter Meadow, 18, was among the Stoneman Douglas victims, told Trump he was there “because my daughter has no voice. She was murdered last week”.
“We protect airports. We protect concerts, stadiums, embassies,” Pollack said. ”I can’t get on a plane with a bottle of water. But, we leave some animals to walk into schools.”
Justin Gruber, a Stoneman Douglas student, 15, said “there needs to be significant change in this country”.
“People should be able to feel safe when they go to school,” Gruber said.
Samuel Zeif, who lost a close friend at Stoneman Douglas last Wednesday, said it was important to “be strong for the fallen who don’t have a voice to speak anymore”.
“Let’s never let this happen again. Please.
“I don’t understand why I can still go in a store and buy a weapon of war.”
Urgent calls for action following the 2012 Sandy Hook massacre, which left 20 children and six teachers dead in Connecticut, failed to break the national deadlock on gun control.
But students have vowed to make the Parkland tragedy a turning point, with youth inspired on social media by their peers who staged walkouts from high schools in Florida and elsewhere on Wednesday.
Students are planning a march here on March 24, with sister rallies planned across the country.