At the Conservative Political Action Conference Friday, President Donald Trump again called for the arming of teachers in order to prevent school shootings. He suggested that if a teacher had a gun in Parkland, Florida last week, “the teacher would have shot the hell out of” the gunman “before he knew what happened.”
Trump also doubled down on his claim that 10 to 20 percent of teachers are likely “gun adept” or have served in the military before becoming teachers and would likely be willing to carry a concealed weapon at school. He pointed to reports that the school resource officer at the high school in Florida stayed outside instead of entering the building when shots were fired as evidence that it would be better to arm teachers than hire security guards. He then claimed that teachers “love” their students more than a security guard does.
“These teachers love their students and the students love their teachers in many cases,” he said. “And I would rather have somebody that loves their students and wants to protect their students than somebody standing outside that doesn’t know anybody and doesn’t know the students, and frankly, for whatever reason, decided not to go in even though he heard lots of shots being fired inside.”
The President said there were not “enough tears in the world” to mourn the 17 people who were killed in the massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School last week and said his administration is interested in talking to all Americans about how to stop mass shootings.
“We have to do something that works,” he said.
Before telling the crowd of conservatives that he supports comprehensive background check reform, Trump reiterated his backing of the Second Amendment and claimed that there is “nobody” who respects the National Rifle Association as much as him. But alas, “we really do have to strengthen up, really strengthen up background check. We have to do that,” he said.
Trump notably did not mention that he also supports increasing the minimum age for rifle purchases nor his call to ban bump stocks. The NRA has been vocal about its opposition to increasing the rifle purchasing age to 21 and has only asked for a “review” of the bump stock device that allows semi-automatic weapons to function like automatic rifles.
Earlier in his speech, Trump called on supporters to vote in the midterm elections, claiming if Democrats win, they’ll “take away your Second Amendment.“
