Time to arm teachers, says Trump at meeting with Florida shooting survivors

– Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 22, 2018I will be strongly pushing Comprehensive Background Checks with an emphasis on Mental Health.

President Donald Trump, after listening to a series of emotional stories and pleas to enhance school safety at the White House Wednesday, floated the idea of arming teachers and school staff, an idea that was met with support from numerous attendees.

Trump has since called for stronger background checks and mental health screens for gun buyers.

With this measure, Trump said, teachers would have to take special training and schools would no longer be gun-free zones, saying up to 20% of teachers could be armed to stop “maniacs”.

Survivors of the most recent shooting in Florida also spoke at the meeting. Students led protests in front of the White House over the weekend and another group of students walked out of schools on Wednesday gathered in front of the White House to demand action.

The current federal minimum age for buying or possessing handguns is 21, but the limit is 18 for rifles including assault-type weapons such as the AR-15 used by a former student in last week’s attack in Florida that killed 17 students and staff members.

The student body president at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, Julia Cordover, tearfully told Mr Trump that she “was lucky enough to come home from school”.

Andrew Pollack, whose 18-year-old daughter Meadow was among the Stoneman Douglas victims, told Trump he was there “because my daughter has no voice”.

“The laws of the country have failed”, he told reporters at the Florida state capital.

Twitter immediately pounced on the opportunity to roast the president over the piece of White House stationery with some people describing it as his “cheat sheet to being human”. You’d have a lot of people that would be armed; they would be ready.

He cited the case of Aaron Feis – the Stoneman Douglas coach who witnesses said was killed while he “shielded” students from the shooter – as an example of someone who he claimed could have benefited from having a weapon.

“Let’s never let this happen again please, please”.

Fred Abt, the father of a Parkland student who survived the shooting, suggested allowing teachers and other adults on campus to carry concealed weapons as a way to stop shootings quickly while waiting for first responders.

Hundreds of students descended on city hall in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and marched in other cities, including Chicago, the Midwestern metropolis racked by gun violence. He also pledged action on gun control. “We would put those teachers who are willing to do that through scenario training; we will repeat it so they become comfortable it”.

But Wednesday’s meeting at the White House revealed just how different the overall response to the latest school shooting may turn out to be on the other side of the Atlantic.

“Raise age to 21 and end sale of Bump Stocks!” he tweeted, also alluding to his order that the Justice Department write regulations – despite bipartisan questions about whether it has the legal authority to do so – to ban devices that make semi-automatic weapons fire like automatic ones.

During the White House listening session, which took place on Wednesday, Trump suggested that arming teachers could be one solution to stopping tragedy.

And while numerous notes are indiscernible – one is clearly visible – a reminder to himself to tell his guests: ‘I hear you’.