President Trump Supports Proposal to Arm Teachers
- Updated Feb 22, 2018
President Donald Trump says arming teachers could help stop school shootings.
Teachers with concealed guns could stop shootings “very quickly,” he said.
The proposal is supported by the NRA lobby and comes after the Valentine’s Day shooting at a Florida school that killed 17 people.
“It’s not going to be talk like it’s been in the past,” Trump said of background checks on gun buyers.
This week, President Trump welcomed about 40 students, teachers and families into the White House’s state dining room, where he listened to them discuss gun reform.
Outside the White House, hundreds of area Washington, D.C. teenagers rallied for support to arm teachers.
Andrew Pollack, whose daughter died in the Florida school shooting, told Trump that current gun laws aren’t working.
“We, as a country, failed our children,” he said.
Meanwhile, Mark Barden, whose son was killed in the 2012 school shooting in Connecticut, said he didn’t believe more guns were the answer.
"Schoolteachers have more than enough responsibilities right now, than to have to have the awesome responsibility of lethal force to take a life," he said.
A 2013 poll by the National Education Association found that only 22 percent of teachers said they liked the idea of arming staff. Nearly 70 percent opposed the idea.
Photo courtesy: ©Thinkstock/Wavebreakmedia Ltd
Publication date: February 22, 2018
