Another day of denying the very thing he has just said.
Donald Trump has taken to Twitter to claim he never said “give teachers guns” after proposing to arm teachers and staff in an effort to clampdown on mass school shootings in the US.
The comments come in the wake of the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, which resulted in the deaths of 17 people on Valentine’s Day.
I never said “give teachers guns” like was stated on Fake News @CNN & @NBC. What I said was to look at the possibility of giving “concealed guns to gun adept teachers with military or special training experience – only the best. 20% of teachers, a lot, would now be able to
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 22, 2018
….immediately fire back if a savage sicko came to a school with bad intentions. Highly trained teachers would also serve as a deterrent to the cowards that do this. Far more assets at much less cost than guards. A “gun free” school is a magnet for bad people. ATTACKS WOULD END!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 22, 2018
….History shows that a school shooting lasts, on average, 3 minutes. It takes police & first responders approximately 5 to 8 minutes to get to site of crime. Highly trained, gun adept, teachers/coaches would solve the problem instantly, before police arrive. GREAT DETERRENT!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 22, 2018
….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
I will be strongly pushing Comprehensive Background Checks with an emphasis on Mental Health. Raise age to 21 and end sale of Bump Stocks! Congress is in a mood to finally do something on this issue – I hope!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 22, 2018
On Wednesday, the US President held a listening session with survivors of the massacre, during which he offered the proposal. Similar to how some airline pilots are permitted to carry guns in the cockpit, he said at the session: “It only works when you have people very adept at using firearms, of which you have many.”
“It would be teachers and coaches,” he said, before adding that such people would require special training.
These comments, however, drew a considerable amount of media criticism, prompting the President to take to Twitter and accuse CNN and NBC of spreading false information.
“What I said was to look at the possibility of giving concealed guns to gun adept teachers with military special training experience,” he said, which would include “only the best 20% of teachers”.
“A lot [would] now be able to immediately fire back if a savage sicko came to a school with bad intentions.”
Reiterating his argument that the only deterrent was to arm teachers, he said: “A ‘gun free’ school is a magnet for bad people. ATTACKS WOULD END.”
Shifting from teachers being able to respond “immediately” to “instantly”, he insisted that any future actions to prevent mass shootings “must be offensive”, because “defense alone won’t work”, which, it should be pointed out, is a slightly unhinged observation to make (whether pro or anti-gun control) considering the objective would be to protect and defend.
Again repeating his guarantee to end the sale of bump fire stocks, which enable semi-automatic weapons to imitate the fire speed of a fully automatic weapon, he also added that greater emphasis on mental health and age restrictions would be imposed if “Congress is in a mood to finally do something on this issue.”
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