The father of Meadow Pollack, one of the 17 people killed in a high school shooting in Florida earlier this month, on Wednesday told CNN that he supports President Trump Donald John TrumpBiden leads Trump by 36 points nationally among Latinos: poll Trump dismisses climate change role in fires, says Newsom needs to manage forest better Jimmy Kimmel hits Trump for rallies while hosting Emmy Awards MORE's proposal to arm volunteer teachers to protect students from school shooters.

In an interview with CNN's "New Day," Andrew Pollack told parents who don't want their children to go to school with armed teachers to "go to a gun-free school zone."

"This is America and it's freedom of choice," Pollack said. "You have the choice to go to any school you want. If you don't want a teacher, or a marshall, you don't want someone with a gun at your school, you go to a gun-free school zone."

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"You take your kid, you take them to a school that has gun-free zone, and you take them there," he added. "And the parent that wants to go to a school where there's a marshall, there's a police presence, they send their kid there."

Trump expressed support for arming teachers last week during a "listening session" with parents of victims, including Pollack, proposing that teachers could volunteer for arms training with local police departments to better protect students in the event of a mass shooting.

“If you had a teacher who was adept at firearms, that could very well end the attack very quickly,” Trump said. “We’re going to be looking at that very strongly. And I think a lot of people are going to be opposed to it. I think a lot of people are going to like it.”

The proposal to arm teachers has come under fire from a number of politicians on both sides of the aisle as well as teachers' groups, including the American Federation of Teachers, which blasted the president's plan in a statement from the group's president.

"Teachers and school staff need to ensure schools are safe sanctuaries and not armed fortresses," Randi Weingarten said last week.

"Anyone who pushes arming teachers doesn’t understand teachers and doesn’t understand our schools. Adding more guns to schools may create an illusion of safety, but in reality, it would make our classrooms less safe.”

GOP Rep. Mark Sanford Mark SanfordOn The Money: Business world braces for blue sweep | Federal Reserve chief to outline plans for inflation, economy | Meadows 'not optimistic' about stalemate on coronavirus deal Trump critic Sanford forms anti-debt advocacy group Republicans officially renominate Trump for president MORE (S.C.) earlier this week ripped the proposal, saying the teachers he's spoken to do not want to bear arms in their classrooms.

"It's deeply controversial. What I've heard from a lot of teachers — because we've been out of session this week — is that the idea of them holding a gun and pointing it at one of their students and having to make the life or death decision of whether you have to shoot one of your students is a decision they don't want to make"