United States President Donald Trump on Wednesday suggested that school teachers should be armed to deter future mass shootings. He was speaking at a session at the White House with survivors of last week’s Florida school shooting, where 17 students were killed, and other people affected by gun violence. He also promised to improve background checks and mental health checks on people who buy guns.
Claiming that allowing airline pilots to carry and conceal guns had shown the move’s success, the president suggested that teachers and coaches who are “very adept at using firearms” should also have concealed weapons, The Guardian reported.
“It only works when you have people very adept at using firearms, of which you have many,” Trump said. “It would be teachers and coaches.”
“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,” Trump said. “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’.”
The president added that an attack has lasted, on average, for about three minutes, and it takes about five to eight minutes for the first responders to come in to assist. “If you had a teacher who was adept at firearms, they could very well end the attack very quickly.” Acknowledging that it is a controversial topic, Trump said that he would discuss it seriously.
Meanwhile, students across the United States walked out of schools to protest against gun violence and demand that stricter laws are brought in.
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