President Trump took issue Thursday with media reports declaring that he is advocating arming all teachers in schools, clarifying that he supports a move to arm only teachers who have specialized training.
Referring to gun free schools as a “magnet for bad people,” Trump hit out at CNN and NBC, charging that those networks were misrepresenting his comments.
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
Trump made the comments during a sit down listening session Wednesday with survivors of last week’s Florida school shooting.
After a parent raised the idea of arming teachers and administrators with concealed guns, Trump said it was “certainly a point we will discuss.”
President Trump on concealed carry for teachers: "If you had a teacher who was adept at firearms, they could very well end the attack very quickly." pic.twitter.com/ashuxSUYFl
— MSNBC (@MSNBC) February 21, 2018
“If you had a teacher who was adept at firearms, that could very well end the attack very quickly,” Trump said.
“We’re going to be looking at that very strongly. And I think a lot of people are going to be opposed to it. I think a lot of people are going to like it.”
The full listening session can be viewed below:
Continuing to address the media via Twitter, the President added that “highly trained, gun adept, teachers/coaches” would be an effective deterrent to prevent future deadly incidents.
….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
Trump declared that ‘cowards’ would avoid targeting schools if they knew that there was no chance of them being able to attack defenseless people.
….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
The Emergency Election Sale is now live! Get 30% to 60% off our most popular products today!