Could armed teachers stop shootings?

UPDATE 2/22/2018 5:25 p.m.:

President Donald Trump said Thursday he will host three listening sessions to get input from Americans on how to tackle mass shootings in American schools. This comes one week after the deadly shooting at a Parkland, Florida high school.

He sat down with local lawmakers and officials on Thursday, after speaking with students, parents and teachers on Wednesday. He proposed putting teachers on the offense and having those who are trained to carry guns on campus.

“It would be a small percentage but it would be a lot of people,” President Trump said. “And once you do this, you will have a situation where all of a sudden, this horrible plague will stop.”

The president of the Salinas Valley Federation of Teachers, which represents 840 teachers, called it a liability and said guns on campus resolve nothing.

“How is more guns in schools a solution to preventing violence, gun violence, in our schools?” asked Steve McDougall. “I don’t see that as an answer. More guns for more guns is not the answer.”

President Trump upped the ante Thursday by suggesting giving bonuses to teachers who undergo gun training.

“They have to go to training I would say every six months, or every year,” President Trump said. “They have to have a fairly — really a rigorous course in what they’re doing. And they should be paid extra money. Those teachers should be paid extra money. So they get a bonus.”

Though McDougall said that money would be spent in safety measures at schools.

“There are opportunities to make campuses safer,” McDougall said. “Not all campuses have the same safety measures, but absolutely we can make campuses safer in some ways. We certainly don’t want to put concertina wire around them right. I mean who wants to come into an environment that looks like that, be they students or teachers or support staff. But there are measures we can do. There’s a cost to that, and if the president wants to talk about funding something, how about funding that? That would be a great idea.”

Parents in East Salinas were unsure how they felt about arming teachers with guns.

“In part it would be ok if the gun was locked up where kids wouldn’t have access to it, but it can also be dangerous because we don’t know what kind of teachers or substitutes they might be,” Silvia Sanchez said.

“Kids should be checked at the entrances of schools, all the students, that would be the best option,” Sergio Cruz said.

On Wednesday, the American Federation of Teachers held an emergency meeting in Washington, D.C., where members passed a resolution on gun violence prevention and school safety. The resolution states AFT supports bans on both assault weapons and high capacity magazines and wants find ways to “combat the stranglehold the NRA and gun manufacturers have on policy in this arena.”

In addition to arming teachers, President Trump said he also wanted to strengthen background checks, increase mental health services and raise the age to buy guns from 18 to 21. He said officials from the NRA are “also ready to take action.”

ORIGINAL POST:

In the aftermath of the latest mass school shooting, President Donald Trump has raised the idea of arming teachers.

Trump said that had one of the victims, an assistant football coach at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, been armed, “he would have shot and that would have been the end of it.”

The comments come as lawmakers in several states are wrestling with the idea of letting teachers carry guns, including in Florida, where 17 victims are being mourned.

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos has called arming teachers an option for states. American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten calls it a horrible idea.

The Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence said at least eight states allow, or don’t specifically prohibit, concealed weapons in K-12 schools.

KION’s Mariana Hicks speaks to parents and educators on the Central Coast about guns in the classroom. Full story on News Channel 5, 46 at 5 and 6 p.m.