President Trump observed that first responders are “5 to 8 minutes” away when a school shooting occurs, but teachers are on scene to shoot sickos “immediately.”

This is the first reiteration of his February 21 call to arm approximately “20 percent” of schools as a way to enhance school safety.

Early Thursday morning, Trump segued to the topic of arming teachers by correcting “Fake News” claims. After setting the record straight, he reaffirmed his support for armed teachers:

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’s points are simple: 1. He is not talking about haphazardly providing guns to teachers. Rather, he is talking about shifting from a gun-free paradigm by training certain teachers to carry for the defense of themselves and their students. 2. It is demonstrable that first responders are minutes away when an attack occurs, but teachers are on the scene the second the attack begins. Allowing teachers to take action–and giving them the training needed to do so effectively–will save lives. 3. Gun-free zones are killing fields and serve “a magnet for bad people.” Eliminating such zones will eliminate, or at least diminish, the attractiveness of schools as targets.

AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News, the host of the Breitbart podcast Bullets with AWR Hawkins, and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com. Sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange.