During a White House listening session with students and parents from Parkland, Florida, President Donald Trump said that one solution to the recent rash of deadly school shootings might be to allow teachers to apply for concealed carry permits, which would allow them to carry concealed weapons on school grounds.
“If you had a teacher who was adept at firearms, they could very well end the attack very quickly,” he told the crowd of survivors and families.
But the internet was quick to point out that this idea was shut down by Trump himself during the 2016 presidential campaign — and as with all things related to Trump, there’s a tweet to back up the contradiction.
President Trump on concealed carry for teachers: "If you had a teacher who was adept at firearms, they could very well end the attack very quickly." pic.twitter.com/ashuxSUYFl
— MSNBC (@MSNBC) February 21, 2018
In a speech to the NRA, Trump had called for the elimination of gun-free zones around schools — which prompted criticism from his Democratic rival. Hillary Clinton, who said he wanted more guns in classrooms.
In the tweet, Trump dismissed the jab: “Crooked Hillary said that I want guns brought into the school classroom. Wrong!”
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/734231223002894337
On Wednesday, though President Trump seemed to walk back his previous denial.
“A gun-free zone to a maniac, because they’re all cowards, a gun-free zone is ‘Let’s go in, and let’s attack, because bullets aren’t coming back at us.’ And if you do this, and a lot of people are talking about it, it’s certainly a point that we’ll discuss.”
Arming teachers in order to protect students — or spreading retired Marines and police around various schools to act as armed guards, another Trump suggestion — is likely to introduce guns into classrooms.
The proposal would also shift the onus of protecting schoolchildren to educators. (Trump said the concealed carry idea would require special training for teachers “with that particular talent,” and guessed it’d be about 20 percent of the teacher population who might want to carry guns in school buildings.)