Trump doubles down on arming some teachers to prevent school shootings

Show Caption Hide Caption Trump considers concealed carry for teachers President Donald Trump says he's considering backing proposals to promote concealed carrying of weapons by trained school employees to respond to campus shootings. (Feb. 21)

WASHINGTON – President Trump offered a full-throated defense Thursday for his proposal to arm some teachers and staff in the wake of last week’s school shooting in Florida, despite opposition from law enforcement groups and teachers' unions who warn that more guns in schools would only make them more dangerous.

One day after an emotional session with survivors of the high school shooting in Parkland, Fla., Trump praised the National Rifle Association and insisted in a series of tweets that "highly trained" teachers and coaches should be allowed to carry weapons at schools.

At a meeting later Thursday with law enforcement and school officials from around the country, Trump suggested staff who are trained and carry a weapon could even get “a little bit of a bonus" for making their schools safer.

The NRA chief Wayne LaPierre, speaking at the annual gathering of the Conservative Political Action Conference immediately endorsed Trump's call to "harden our schools" but did not specify that the teachers themselves should have guns. Through its National School Shield program, the NRA has long proposed schools have more security personnel and police officers to protect them from violence.

Yet Trump also broke with the NRA to call for an increase in the age limit for semi-automatic gun buyers from 18 to 21.

....If a potential “sicko shooter” knows that a school has a large number of very weapons talented teachers (and others) who will be instantly shooting, the sicko will NEVER attack that school. Cowards won’t go there...problem solved. Must be offensive, defense alone won’t work! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 22, 2018

The president's tweets came one day after an emotional "listening session" with survivors of the Feb. 14 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High school in Parkland.

During the 70-minute session Wednesday, Trump touted the idea of arming school staff as a key deterrent that would have stopped the Florida massacre.

"If the coach had a firearm in his locker when he ran at this guy ... he wouldn't have had to run," the president told the survivors and their families. He was referring to Aaron Feis, an assistant football coach who died shielding Parkland students from gunman Nikolas Cruz. "He would have shot and that would have been the end of it."

Yet law enforcement groups immediately pushed back on the idea.

“I don’t know of any police chief who believes this is a good idea," said Richard Myers, executive director of a law enforcement group Major Cities Chiefs Association. "Police officers receive months of firearms training; they get instruction on decision-making and de-escalation. Even with all of that, police have been criticized that they have been too quick to use deadly force."

The National Education Association, the largest teachers' union with some 3 million members, also rejected the idea.

“Bringing more guns into our schools does nothing to protect our students and educators from gun violence," NEA President Lily Eskelsen García said. "We need solutions that will keep guns out of the hands of those who want to use them to massacre innocent children and educators. Arming teachers does nothing to prevent that."

A poll the NEA conducted of its members in January 2013 following the Sandy Hook Elementary massacre in Connecticut found that 68 percent opposed the idea of arming teachers and staff even if they received training.

On Thursday, Trump clarified that maybe 20% of teachers should have the ability to "immediately fire back if a savage sicko came to a school with bad intentions." Highly trained teachers, he continued, would also serve as a "deterrent to the cowards that do this. Far more assets at much less cost than guards."

Trump said school shootings often end before police and first responders have time to arrive. "Highly trained, gun adept, teachers/coaches would solve the problem instantly, before police arrive," he said.

School shooting survivors confront President Trump Hear what students, parents and teachers affected by school shootings told President Donald Trump.

Since the Parkland shooting, Trump has also endorsed the idea of expanded background checks for potential gun buyers, especially ones with mental health problems. Trump has also ordered his Justice Department to issue new regulations to ban bump stocks and other devices designed to convert guns into rapid-firing automatic weapons.

"Congress is in a mood to finally do something on this issue - I hope!" he tweeted.

The president sought to downplay any discord his proposals might engender with the NRA, praising the gun advocacy group that endorsed his candidacy and spent millions to help him get elected. In a Thursday morning tweet, Trump called its leaders "Great People and Great American Patriots."

What many people don’t understand, or don’t want to understand, is that Wayne, Chris and the folks who work so hard at the @NRA are Great People and Great American Patriots. They love our Country and will do the right thing. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 22, 2018

Yet his proposal to raise the age limit for semi-automatic purchases has already drawn fire from the NRA. On Wednesday the group pushed back on the proposal, saying it would deprive young people of "their constitutional right to self-protection."

More: Timeline: How Congress has responded to mass shootings

More: Trump vows tougher background checks, mental health screens for gun buyers in meeting with students

At the Thursday meeting in the White House with government officials, Trump seemed confident the NRA would drop its opposition.

"It should all be at 21," he said. "And the NRA will back it."

White House spokesman Raj Shah said Trump has not yet decided whether to propose a gun control bill to Congress or encourage lawmakers to develop their own proposals to improve school safety.

"Right now, we're in a listening phase," Shah said during Thursday's media briefing.

Critics said Trump's ideas would do nothing to remove military-style weapons from the nation's streets.

"The focus on mental illness is a distraction by Trump and the NRA," tweeted David Rothkopf, a senior fellow at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.