During a Tuesday afternoon presser, President Donald Trump suggested allowing a “small percentage” of teachers to be armed for classroom defense.
During the presser, which was aired live on FOX News, Peter Doocy asked him about school shootings and the possibility of sending “an armed national guardsman to every school.”
Trump responded by saying, “We have a big problem with school but we also have thousands and thousands of schools that run perfectly.”
He then talked about things that can be done “construction-wise” to make schools safer and harder to enter illegally or illegitimately, but then pointed out that some of the construction-related things can actually hamper police entry too. In the end, Trump worried that that approach may “make it safer for some of these lunatics we’re dealing with.”
Trump then brought up armed teachers, saying, “We have great teachers that love our children. The parents love the children and teachers love the children too, and if you took a small percentage of those teachers that were in the military, that were distinguished in the military, that were in the National Guard, etc., etc., you let them carry…They’re trained, they know about weapons…I always thought that would be an alternative.”
On December 13, 2018, just months after the Parkland, Florida, high school shooting, a commission investigating that incident voted 13 to 1 in favor of arming teachers for classroom defense.
Teachers were not armed on February 14, 2018, when the shooting occurred, and 17 people were killed.
Breitbart News noted that Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri led the commission and indicated the investigation into the tragedy changed his views on armed teachers: He went from opposing the idea to supporting it. He noted, “People need to keep an open mind to it as the reality is that if someone else in that school had a gun it could have saved kids’ lives.”
AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio, a member of Gun Owners of America, and the director of global marketing for Lone Star Hunts. He was a Visiting Fellow at the Russell Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal in 2010 and has a Ph.D. in Military History. Follow him on X: @awrhawkins. You can sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange. Reach him directly at [email protected].
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