President Donald Trump suggested arming teachers as a solution to preventing school shootings and then lied about it the next day.
On Thursday morning, Trump took to Twitter to dispute that he called for arming teachers, only to repeat his suggestion to arm them and then fully endorsed the idea by arguing that school shootings would end if teachers had guns.
I never said “give teachers guns” like was stated on Fake News @CNN & @NBC. What I said was to look at the possibility of giving “concealed guns to gun adept teachers with military or special training experience – only the best. 20% of teachers, a lot, would now be able to
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 22, 2018
….immediately fire back if a savage sicko came to a school with bad intentions. Highly trained teachers would also serve as a deterrent to the cowards that do this. Far more assets at much less cost than guards. A “gun free” school is a magnet for bad people. ATTACKS WOULD END!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 22, 2018
….History shows that a school shooting lasts, on average, 3 minutes. It takes police & first responders approximately 5 to 8 minutes to get to site of crime. Highly trained, gun adept, teachers/coaches would solve the problem instantly, before police arrive. GREAT DETERRENT!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 22, 2018
….If a potential “sicko shooter” knows that a school has a large number of very weapons talented teachers (and others) who will be instantly shooting, the sicko will NEVER attack that school. Cowards won’t go there…problem solved. Must be offensive, defense alone won’t work!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 22, 2018
Trump’s remarks followed his Wednesday meeting with parents and students from Parkland, Florida, where a gunman killed 14 students and three faculty members at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School last week. Trump said:
“If you had a teacher who was adept with the firearm, they could end the attack very quickly.
This would be obviously only for people who were very adept at handling a gun, and it would be, it’s called concealed carry, where a teacher would have a concealed gun on them. They’d go for special training and they would be there and you would no longer have a gun-free zone. Gun-free zone to a maniac — because they’re all cowards — a gun-free zone is ‘let’s go in and let’s attack because bullets aren’t coming back at us.'”
Here’s the video via YouTube.
Not only do most educators oppose guns in schools, so do law enforcement veterans. In fact, both groups see more guns in school as just another tragedy waiting to happen.
A former police officer in the United Kingdom recently explained that training teachers to use guns is simply not the answer to prevent shootings because it gives unstable students access to a weapon in the classroom. The officer said:
“The pupil’s not armed now, but he can now access that teacher’s weapon. Does the teacher then shoot the pupil or do they also have to carry non-lethal weapons like tasers to use in case the pupil is about to overpower them and take their gun? It does not work. You don’t solve the gun problem in schools by introducing more guns into schools.”
The United Kingdom understands this issue well. Instead of arming teachers, a gun ban was passed in the wake of a school shooting in 1996. There hasn’t been a school shooting in the UK since. The same goes for Australia.
Also, training a teacher to shoot does not make them ready to use it in a combat situation. Plus, shooters can prepare for teachers to have guns. They’ll just target the teachers first.
Bill Bond, a school safety expert who has experienced a school shooting, also opposes the idea, as do a majority of National Education Association members. He said:
“Giving teachers and principals guns, training them as armed guards, is not how we should be focusing our resources to improve school safety. Teachers are in schools to teach. When you ask them to be security guards, you are distracting them from their jobs. Not one minute of the school day will go by when that teacher isn’t thinking about that weapon he or she is carrying. And what kind of message are we sending the kids? Educators are often their ultimate role model. Some students may think that carrying a weapon is the right thing to do.”
And that’s not to mention the astronomical cost of arming teachers and training them, which will be paid by taxpayers if Trump seriously wants 20 percent of teachers at every school to carry a gun. Legislation banning assault rifles and tightening restrictions on who can own a gun would be far more effective and less expensive. Taxpayer dollars should be focused on improving education, not filling the NRA’s pockets.
And that’s really what Trump’s suggestion is all about. Taxpayer dollars would be funding it, and the NRA would be the organization financially benefiting from it since it just so happens to provide gun training.
And when arming teachers doesn’t work, you can bet that the NRA and their Republican puppets will suggest arming kids next. It’s a cycle that won’t end unless voters demand that Congress do something concrete to prevent gun violence in this country because more guns are not going to do it.
Featured Image: YouTube screenshot
