Late-night hosts on Monday discussed president Trump’s suggestion to arm teachers in the wake of the school shooting in Parkland, Florida, and his comments regarding how he would have acted had he been at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High.

“Trump met with the nation’s governors and at the top of the agenda, of course, was the urgent problem of school shootings,” Stephen Colbert said, referring to a summit held at the White House. “Donald Trump has said that maybe we should arm teachers. This idea has not been received well by people who have had or been a teacher.”

Showing footage of Trump doubling down on his suggestion to arm teachers particularly adept with guns, Colbert said: “If you’re in the pocket of the NRA like he is, the solution is never fewer guns. The solution is always more guns. Then again, the school in Florida did have an armed sheriff deputy, and even with guns and training he didn’t enter the building, nor did the next three armed deputies who showed up.”

“Who among us could honestly say what they think they would do in that situation?,” Colbert asked. He then showed a clip of Trump, at the event with the nation’s governors, saying, “I’d run in there even if I didn’t have a weapon.”

“There’s a lot in there that I doubt, but the part I really don’t believe is that he can run,” Colbert responded. “Sir, we already know how you react to combat situations. You got five deferments from Vietnam!”



Trevor Noah also tore into Trump for saying he would have entered the high school unarmed.

“While the shooting was happening, an armed deputy stayed outside the school doing nothing,” Noah said, before showing footage of various pundits and lawmakers sharply criticizing the deputy for his “unconscionable” inaction.

“Damn, that was harsh,” the host said. “That was like hearing the white people version of ‘Fuck the police.’”

“For some people, this shows exactly why there’s no point in arming teachers, because if a trained officer didn’t come to the rescue, then how is Mrs Flanderson going to do any better?,” Noah explained, before noting that there’s no cure-all to the country’s epidemic of gun violence.

“Here’s what frustrates me about this gun violence discussion. ‘It’s the guns! No, it’s the cops! Maybe it’s both?,’” Noah said. “Maybe with training, the deputy would have known how to go into the situation while keeping himself relatively safe? But maybe with better gun laws, once the deputy did go into the school, he wouldn’t have to face a teenager with an AR-15?”

"Here's what frustrates me in the gun violence discussion. People make it seem like there's only one problem and only one solution. 'It's the guns!' 'No, it's the cops!' Maybe it's both."

-Trevor on the finger-pointing in the wake of Parkland

Full episode: https://t.co/CdPO2TNxfL pic.twitter.com/mVrRCukX1y — The Daily Show (@TheDailyShow) February 27, 2018

“There’s no one solution that will solve all shootings. Except for this one solution,” the host said, before showing Trump extolling how he’d respond to the situation.



“To be fair, if Donald Trump ran into a school during a shooting, I do believe he would actually stop the shooting,” Noah joked. “How distracting would that be? He’d be like, ‘That’s right, it’s me, Donald Trump. I don’t have a gun, but what I do have is an amazing electoral college victory.’”



Finally, Seth Meyers also discussed the administration’s response to the country’s reckoning with guns, and the attacks on the students of Stoneman Douglas.

“The immediate crisis facing Trump and the rest of the government right now is our country’s epidemic of gun violence,” Meyers said. “The national conversation over gun safety had only intensified in the days since the Parkland shooting. And people are demanding action.”

“In response to those demands, Trump has spent the last week or so rambling nonsensically about his truly deranged idea to arm teachers,” Meyers said, showing a clip from Monday’s White House event comparing a deft handler of firearms to someone who consistently makes four-foot putts.



“Even when he’s laying out his plan to prevent school shootings, he can’t hide how much he’d rather be playing golf,” Meyers joked. “The only reason we’re still talking about the issue of gun violence is because of the students at Stonemason Douglas high school, who have demanded action and sparked a national movement for gun reform.”

Meyers went on to note that, as a result of their outspokenness, the Parkland students have been subjected to attacks on their credibility and tone. The host mentioned Sarah Chadwick, a survivor of the shooting who tweeted, “We should change the name of AR-15s to Marco Rubio because they are so easy to buy.”

“Damn, that is a white-hot burn,” Meyers said, before detailing Fox News anchor Laura Ingraham’s response. “How teens speak to and abt adults,” Ingraham wrote, referring to Chadwick as a “Stoneman Douglas sophomore.” The student responded to Ingraham’s tweet: “I’m a junior.”

“Laura Ingraham, what is wrong with you?,” Meyers said. “Don’t go after teenagers on social media. You saw what happened to Marco Rubio.”

