Childrearing
During Listening Session With Stoneman Douglas Survivors, Trump Floats Arming Teachers as the Answer to Keeping Kids Safe at School
During a “listening session” with parents and students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, President* Donald Trump suggested arming teachers as a way to combat school shootings. He didn’t stop there, either. He also floated the idea of removing the “gun-free zone” designation from schools, and putting “troubled” students in mental institutions. So. All in all, it went about as you’d expect it to go!
The absurd idea of giving teachers guns has long been pushed by the gun lobby as a solution to school shootings. It’s not at all surprising that Trump suggested arming teachers. It’s HORRIFYING, but not at all surprising.
Do any of you know a teacher? I’m sure a good chunk of you are teachers. So, tell me: are you prepared to carry a gun and shoot a student? Or throw yourself in the fray, bullets flying, with your own weapon cocked and ready? How many of you have every actually fired a weapon? Have you fired one in a life-or-death situation? Are you comfortable with the immensely heavy responsibility of potentially ending someone else’s life? There weren’t a lot of answers during the listening session, and very few gun proponents have ever been able to offer satisfactory solutions to the MANY problems this would create.
Why would anybody become a teacher if your $30,000 job includes paying for your kids’ school supplies AND training to be a paramilitary fighter expected to face down homicidal maniacs spraying the school with assault rifles? What kind of armed camp country do these people want?
— Joy Reid (@JoyAnnReid) February 21, 2018
Parents and student who’ve just lived through one of the most horrific experiences you can imagine went to the president and asked for gun control. His answer? More guns.
Of course, Trump walked back his comments today, because quite honestly he has no fucking idea what he’s talking about. During the listening session, he said, “”If you had a teacher who was adept with the firearm, they could end the attack very quickly.” This morning, he tweeted a denial that he said what he said, and then basically repeated verbatim what he denied saying.
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
