Trump says teachers could be armed
Donald Trump has suggested that arming teachers could help prevent school shootings like the one that claimed 17 lives in Florida last week. Mr Trump voiced support for the idea during an emotional “listening session” at the White House with pupils who survived the massacre. He told the pupils: “If you had a teacher who was adept at firearms it could very well end the attack very quickly.” Mr Trump said one fifth of teachers could be armed in the plan.
DONALD TRUMP said he is considering backing proposals for teachers in schools to be armed in the wake of America’s deadliest ever high school shooting.
Mr Trump said the plan would mean about one fifth of teachers receiving special training and carrying concealed weapons. He was also looking at the idea of having former members of the US Marines, Army and Air Force stationed in schools.
The US president appeared to express support for arming teachers during a White House “listening session” with survivors of mass shootings, including six teenagers from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, where a gunman killed 17 people last week.
Mr Trump said the average school shooting lasted three minutes while police response times average from five to eight minutes. He said: “This only works when you have people very adept at using firearms, of which you have many, and it would be teachers and coaches.
“It’s called concealed carry. A teacher would have a concealed gun on them. They’d go for special training and you would no longer have a gun free zone. Gun free zones to a maniac, because they’re all cowards, it lets them go in and attack because bullets aren’t coming back. It’s certainly a point we’ll discuss, concealed carry for teachers.”
He added: “Let’s say you had 20 per cent of your teaching force, that’s pretty much the number. If you had a teacher adept at firearms it could very well end the attack very quickly. We’re going to be looking at it very strongly.”
Mr Trump added: “You have a lot of people, they be armed, they be professionals, they may be people that left the Marines, Army, Air Force, and are adept. You’d have a lot of them and they’d be spread evenly through the school.
“I really believe if these cowards knew the school was well guarded I think they wouldn’t go into the school to start with. I think it could very well solve your problem.” Mr Trump said a lot of airline pilots now carry guns.
He said: “Things have changed a lot, people aren’t attacking the way they would routinely attack, and maybe you have the same situation in schools.”
At the listening session Nicole Hockley, whose six-year-old British-born son Dylan died in the 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting, told Mr Trump: “I implore you – consider your own children. You don’t want to be me. No parent does. You have the ability to save lives today. Please don’t waste this.
“After Sandy Hook they said we wouldn’t let this happen again. How many more deaths can we take as a country? Don’t let that happen on your watch. This is not difficult. These deaths are preventable.”
She said she did not support arming teachers.
Mr Trump has also indicated he may be in favour of raising the minimum age for buying a semi-automatic assault rifle from 18 to 21.
Samuel Zeif, 19, a student at the Parkland school, broke down in tears as he told Mr Trump: “If you can’t buy a beer, you shouldn’t be able to buy a gun.”
The White House said raising the minimum age for buying semi-automatic weapons was “certainly something that’s on the table”. But any move to restrict gun sales would set Mr Trump on a collision course with the National Rifle Association.