During a speech to mayors at the White House on Wednesday, President Trump suggested that surplus military gear could help prevent school shootings.

“We’re also getting you a lot of our excess military equipment, you know all about that,” Trump began. “The previous administrations — but in particular, the previous administration — they didn’t like to do that, and someday they’ll explain why. But we had a lot of excess military equipment, we’re sending it to your police as they need it, and it’s made a tremendous difference.”

“We believe every child deserves to live in safe home, attend a great school, and look forward to an amazing and very very safe future, so you’re getting a lot of equipment,” he added.

Trump’s remarks came shortly after Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders struggled to answer questions about what President Trump is doing to prevent school shootings during a White House press briefing. Less than a month into 2018, there have already been 11 such shootings this year.


Unable to respond to the question directly, Sanders instead lumped school shootings together with crime in general, then attempted to give the president credit for the slight decrease in U.S. violent crime that occurred during his first months in office.

Minutes after the briefing ended, Trump posted a tweet in which he offered victims of the latest school shooting his “thoughts and prayers.”

Earlier today, I spoke with @GovMattBevin of Kentucky regarding yesterday’s shooting at Marshall County High School. My thoughts and prayers are with Bailey Holt, Preston Cope, their families, and all of the wounded victims who are in recovery. We are with you! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 24, 2018

In August, Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Monday announced a roll back of the Obama-era restrictions on the transfer of surplus military equipment to police departments across the country. Those restrictions were put in place in response to the militarized tactics used by police against protesters in Ferguson, Missouri, after a police officer there fatally shot Michael Brown in August 2014.


As ThinkProgress has previously detailed, from 2006 until 2014, the Pentagon’s Law Enforcement Support Office — also known at the 1033 program — supplied local law enforcement agencies with billions of dollars worth of grenade launchers, high-caliber firearms, camouflage gear, and armored personnel carriers used on the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan.

It’s unclear how Trump thinks armored vehicles and high-caliber guns could prevent school shootings, but in response to previous acts of mass gun violence during his tenure, Trump — whose election effort received more than $30 million from the National Rifle Association — has indicated he opposes stronger background checks, and thinks the problem of gun violence can only be solved by more guns.