Don’s half-cocked idea: Pay to arm teachers SMITH & LESSON
Ralph Peters: Ban assault rifles instead
President Trump on Thursday repeated his call to arm qualified teachers and school staffers to prevent mass shootings — saying that as many as 40 percent of them could pack heat to keep kids safe.
“I want certain highly adept people, people that understand weaponry, guns, if they really have that aptitude, because not everybody has an aptitude for a gun,” the president said during a White House meeting with administration and local officials, including Mayor Christine Hunschofsky of Parkland, Fla.
Fourteen students and three educators were gunned down at Marjory Stoneman Douglas HS in Parkland last week by a 19year-old former student armed with an AR-15 assault rifle.
“Frankly, you have teachers that are Marines for 20 years, they retire and become a teacher. They’re Army, Navy, Air Force, they’re Coast Guard, They’re people who have won shooting contests for whatever, this is what they do. They know guns, they understand guns. So I would like to see true people with great talent at guns.”
Trump also said educators and staffers should be issued concealed-carry permits — and be paid bonuses for their efforts to protect students.
“I think a concealed permit for teachers and letting people know there are people in the building with a gun, you won’t have, in my opinion, you won’t have these shootings. Because these people are cowards. They’re not going to walk into a school if 20 percent of the teachers have guns. It may be 10 percent, it may be 40 percent.
“Now, what I’d recommend doing is the people that do carry, we give them a bonus, we give them a little bit of a bonus.”
Gun-free schools are an open invitation to school shooters, the president said, adding that school defenses needed to be hardened.
“We have to harden our schools, not soften them. A gun-free zone to a killer or somebody who wants to be a killer, that’s like going in for the ice cream. And they see that, it’s such a beautiful target. They live for gun-free zones,” he said.
Mayor de Blasio and the head of the city teachers union quickly panned the idea.
“There’s nothing more terrifying than the notion of putting more guns in our children’s schools,” the mayor said.
And Michael Mulgrew, head of the United Federation of Teachers, said educators “should be marking papers, not being trained in marksmanship.”
Trump lamented the closing of mental hospitals that leave would-be patients to wander the streets and pose a threat to lawabiding citizens.
“Part of the problem is we used to have mental institutions. We had a mental institution where you take a sicko like this guy, he was a sick guy, so many signs, and you bring him to a mental-health institution,” the president said of Parkland shooter Nikolas Cruz.
“Those institutions are largely closed because communities didn’t want them, communities didn’t want to spend the money for them, so you don’t have any intermediate ground,” Trump continued.
“So we’ll be talking seriously about opening mental-health institutions again.”
Trump singled out his home state of New York for criticism.
“The governors in New York did a very, very bad thing when they closed our mental institutions, so many of them,” he said.
The president mentioned banning bump stocks, beefing up background checks and raising the minimum age for legal firearm purchases to 21.
“It should all be at 21 . . . and the NRA will back it,” Trump said, although a spokeswoman for the gun-rights group said the opposite.
“Legislative proposalsposals that prevent law-abidinging adults aged 18-20 years old from acquiring rifles and shotguns effectively prohibits them for purchasing any firearm, thus deprivingng them of their constitu-tutional right to self-pro-rotection,” NRA spokes-eswoman Jennifer Bakerr said in a statement this week.
The president also offered some rare praise for Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who attended the meeting along with Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, Chief of Staff John Kelly and aide Kellyanne Conway.
“You’re doing a great job on the gangs,” he told Sessions before ripping the violent street gang MS-13 and hailing Border Patrol agents.
THE ISSUE: President Trump’s suggestion that we let teachers be armed after last week’s school shooting.
After another school massacre in Parkland, Fla., protesters are calling on President Trump to stop gun violence. But no laws can stop someone from getting a gun (“Kids take it to the top,” Feb. 22).
Any change needs to be made at a local level, namely within the boards of education. They are the first level of school safety.
In my township, all the school doors are generally kept locked, and you have to go to the main entrance, buzz in (while on video), be announced and then escorted. Parkland had one armed guard, who could not be in more than one place at a time. Brenda Calandrillo Mahwah, NJ
No state or federal laws will stop gun violence. Baltimore and Chicago have tough gun laws and are shooting galleries.
We can never completely stop crazies like Florida shooter Nikolas Cruz, but teachers who are trained and licensed with guns would reduce the carnage. Joseph J. Santora Manhattan
Teachers should not be armed. They are there to teach and nothing else. JR Cummings Manhattan
At a 2015 Garland, Tex., art exhibit, two heavily armed would-be killers intended to slaughter over 200 innocent people. Yet no one was hurt.
Why? A well-trained, vigilant and armed security guard stopped him. Garland proves beyond a doubt that public spaces can be fully protected by armed and well-trained security personnel. Richard Sherman Margate, Fla. We could stop school crime immediately if there were two full-time security guards at every school.
Gun control is silly. If you outlawed guns, there would still be gun-related crime. Morris Resner Edison
Trump’s suggestion to prevent school shootings — gun-toting teachers — is horrific.
Even if they were welltrained and able to carry concealed weapons, we would risk seeing “To Sir, With Love” become “Do you feel lucky, punk?”
The role of teachers is broad, but it should be positive in all respects. Dennis Fitzgerald Melbourne, Australia
The Israelis have eliminated school-related shootings by placing armed guards in all schools with more than 100 students — kindergarten through college. Maybe the United States should follow their lead. Ed Quinlan New Hyde Park
Does Trump truly believe that those educating our children should carry guns? That’s his response to solving mass shootings in our schools?
He’s now passing to teachers the responsibility of not only educating our children, but also keeping them safe. I’m truly speechless.
Will the new curriculum for those studying education include classes such as, “how to choose the proper ammunition for your firearm?” Matthew Fleisig Huntington
There’s a reason why mass shooters don’t target police precincts. Maybe it’s time to let our teachers carry more than chalk? Johnny T. Sollitto Brooklyn
For any parent, there is nothing more important than keeping your child safe. No gun control in the world is going to stop bad guys from committing acts of violence.
How about schools hiring retired cops? They’re trained at spotting trouble and may notice strange behavior in a student.
Maybe these attacks can be stopped before ever happening. What parent wouldn’t feel better knowing there was a cop on school grounds? I know I would. Jamie Mitrani Congers
Some have suggested arming members of the school faculty who volunteer to be trained, but my suggestion is to develop an app for students, showing all the safety features that the school provides.
It would detail the clear paths to emergency exits and show a safe assembly point outside the required perimeter for the first responders.
We have an urgent need to ensure our faculty and students are well-protected from future active shooters. Bob Sweeney Warwick, RI