This morning Trump sought to set the record straight from what CNN and NBC reported about his comments on allowing teachers to be armed.
Here’s what Trump had to say:
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
I don’t disagree with Trump on allowing certain teachers to concealed carry. That’s a great idea and I’m glad he supports it. But I also wouldn’t just reject armed guards on school grounds because of costs. I would say allow both teachers to be armed and let’s put a couple of armed guards at each school. It’s totally worth the money.
Trump finished up his tweets with this one, saying he will strongly support “comprehensive background checks”, raising the age to 21 and ban bump stocks:
I will be strongly pushing Comprehensive Background Checks with an emphasis on Mental Health. Raise age to 21 and end sale of Bump Stocks! Congress is in a mood to finally do something on this issue - I hope!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 22, 2018
Admittedly as soon as I hear “comprehensive background checks” I get worried. It sounds like language the Democrats would use to cover up the idea that they want to infringe on private sales.
However it’s vague language so I don’t really know what Trump means by it, but I certainly look forward to finding out. He did add that he wants there to be an emphasis on mental health, so I hope that’s all he means and not infringing on our rights.
While I was writing this post, Trump just tweeted praising the NRA:
What many people don’t understand, or don’t want to understand, is that Wayne, Chris and the folks who work so hard at the @NRA are Great People and Great American Patriots. They love our Country and will do the right thing. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 22, 2018
(Top Photo by Johnny Louis/FilmMagic)