Trump government determined to put guns in US schools

▶ Urges states to follow Florida and seek help in training teachers to shoot

President Trump has followed the gun lobby’s campaign to increase armed security presence in schools across the US

President Donald Trump’s government will increase aid to states that want to arm school employees after the massacre of 17 people in Florida.

The idea to put weapons in schools, which has drawn little support from educators, is part of a “pragmatic plan to dramatically increase safety and to take steps to do so right away”, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos said on Sunday.

“We are committed to working quickly because there’s no time to waste,” said Ms DeVos, who will chair a federal commission on school safety.

Among other measures, states are being urged to follow Florida in passing temporary “risk protection orders”, said Andrew Bremberg, a presidential assistant who leads the Domestic Policy Council.

The court-issued orders allow law-enforcement officers to remove guns from people who pose a demonstrable threat and to temporarily stop those people from buying guns, “all while still protecting due process rights”, he said.

A national gun control debate was revived by survivors of last month’s massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, where 14 students and three staff were shot dead by a youth armed with a semi-automatic rifle.

Chuck Schumer, the Senate Democratic leader, on Twitter dismissed the administration’s measures as “baby steps designed not to upset” the National Rifle Association gun lobby.

“The administration will be working with states to provide rigorous firearms training to specifically qualified, volunteer school personnel,” Mr Bremberg said.

A senior government official said there were already programmes where school personnel are trained by state or local law enforcement.

The government, along with the Department of Justice, will increase its assistance for such initiatives, the official said.

Lily Eskelsen Garcia, president of the National Education Association, the largest professional union in the US, has said that parents and teachers overwhelmingly reject the idea of arming school staff.

The NRA has long argued for more armed security in US schools, a plan that Mr Trump has advocated.

Last Wednesday, Florida legislators approved funding for a programme to allow some teachers and school employees to be armed.

The measure came in a bill that raises the minimum age to buy firearms to 21 from 18, bans modifications that allow a semi-automatic weapon to fire faster, and increases mental health funding.

Mr Bremberg said the White House also wanted more of a focus on mental health care and would conduct “a full audit and review” of the FBI hotline, after criticism of the bureau for missing warning signs about the Florida shooter.

The senior official said “the first step” is for Congress to take action.

Mr Trump is urging the House of Representatives and Senate to pass bills that would strengthen criminal background checks for those buying guns, and would implement violence prevention programmes.

The safety commission to be chaired by Ms DeVos will include teachers and other experts.

They will examine “the issue of age for purchasing firearms” and related matters before making recommendations to the president, the senior official said.

Mr Schumer tweeted that America’s gun violence epidemic “demands giant steps be taken. Senate Democrats will push to go further: passing universal background checks, actual fed legislation on protection orders and a debate on an assault weapons ban”.

Mass shootings are the highest-profile type of firearms violence in the US, where more than 30,000 people die from wounds inflicted by guns each year.