Trump talks school safety with governors

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump met with state governors Monday in a wide-ranging discussion that focused largely on school safety and the president’s push to encourage “very gun-adept” teachers to carry concealed weapons.

Reacting to reports that one or more deputies lingered outside during the school shooting in Parkland, Florida, that left 17 dead, Trump condemned the deputies for “frankly disgusting” behavior. Trump added that he believes he would have charged into the room to confront the Parkland shooter — even if he didn’t have a weapon.

“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,” Trump told the governors.

“That’s interesting coming from someone who got out of military service based on bone spurs,” said Kris Brown, co-president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence.

During his 22-minute introductory remarks, Trump repeated the menu of changes he has chosen to champion in

SAFETY

there, saying they “weren’t exactly Medal of Honor winners.”

If he had been present, Trump said, he would have raced into the school during the attack even if unarmed.

Peterson’s attorney, issuing his first public statement about the attack, said it is “patently untrue” that the deputy failed to meet sheriff ’s department standards or acted with cowardice on Feb. 14. He resigned after Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel said he felt sick to his stomach over his deputy’s failure to intervene.

“Let there be no mistake. Mr. Peterson wishes that he could have prevented the untimely passing of the 17 victims on that day, and his heart goes out to the families of the victims in their time of need,” attorney Joseph Diruzzo said in the statement.

The sheriff ’s account of Peterson’s actions that day was a “gross oversimplification,” the attorney said.

The sheriff ’s office declined comment, explaining that Peterson’s conduct is being investigated by its internal affairs division.

Peterson’s statement said he and a security specialist ran to the scene at first word of the shooting, a report that mistakenly said firecrackers were being set off near one building. He then heard gunshots “but believed that those gunshots were originating from outside of the buildings.”

Following his training to seek cover and assess the situation in the event of outdoor gunfire, he “took up a tactical position” between two nearby buildings while alerting dispatchers and initiating a “code red” lockdown of the campus, the

statement said.

“Radio transmissions indicated that there was a gunshot victim in the area of the football field,” adding to his belief that the shooting was outside.

Gov. Rick Scott’s office asked the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to investigate the police response, and the agency confirmed it would begin the probe immediately.

Meanwhile, a state Senate committee approved a bill Monday to raise the age for buying a gun from 18 to 21 and imposing a three-day waiting period for all gun purchases. The bill also would allow teachers to carry guns in schools if their school district approves and the teachers undergo law enforcement training and are deputized by the local sheriff ’s office. About 300 gun safety advocates packed the room, and dozens pleaded with senators to include an assault weapons ban in the bill. That idea was rejected on a 7-6 vote.

Elsewhere, a wounded student who has undergone three surgeries and still has bullet fragments in her body thanked the doctors and first responders for helping her make what she says will be a full recovery.

Maddy Wilford, 17, said at a hospital news conference that it’s times “like these when I know that we need to stick together.”

Rescuers thought Wilford was dead when they found her inside the school. Pale and unresponsive, she was bleeding heavily from bullet wounds to her chest, abdomen and arm. A fire-rescue lieutenant was under orders to take her to a hospital 30 miles away but made what doctors called a life-saving decision to bring her instead to a closer hospital that had practiced an active shooter drill months earlier.