Editor
Trump wants teachers to carry guns to class
GUNS EVERYWHERE; Now President Trump wants killer weapons to enter the class.
US President Donald Trump’s idea that teachers can be asked and motivated to carry guns on school campuses and in classes as a counter-measure against killers, has drawn sharp criticism and rebuke from across the United States.
President Trump this week shocked many when he said that as a solution to try to stop armed persons from killing as many children as possible, it to give teachers guns so they can be able to quickly respond to the intruder shoot him/her and save lives.
The proposal comes in the wake of last week’s deadly shooting by a mentally disturbed teenager entered into a high school in Florida state and killed 17 high school students using an automatic riffle.
According to the New York Times, more than 400 deaths have been recorded in an astounding 239 school shootings alone in the US since the 2012. The latest shootings at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, have brought the debate on guns to what many consider to be a possible turning point.
The turning point arises from the fact that a new movement of high school students is gathering momentum across the United States in which millions of children are asking the Bush Administration and Congress to introduce more controls on access to guns.
However, President Trump this week made a shocking announcement that his government is considering allowing as many as 20% of American teachers to carry concealed guns.
Data crunchers say that if approved, this would introduce as many as 700,000 guns in schools, roughly the same amount of guns held by the US military in the US.
From a psychological point of view, many people have condemned the proposals by saying that rather than implementing what most people have said needs to happen – expanding background checks and reduce access to guns in hands of mentally disturbed people, by expanding background checks for all those intending to buy guns.
But gun violence experts, educators, and school safety advocates immediately panned the idea.
Dr. David Hemenway, a professor of health policy at Harvard School of Public Health and an expert on the public health impact of gun violence told the news channel nbcnews.com that: “It’s a crazy proposal,” he added with a quip: “So what should we do about reducing airline hijacking? Give all the passengers guns as they walk on?”
Other supporters of less guns in America say that Trump and the National Rifle Association – a Lobby group for more guns in America simply want to take advantage of the proposal to sell more guns.
Since last week’s shooting, the pro-gun lobby in the US has been pushing the narrative that if someone has a gun at school, they would respond faster than the police in confronting the killer and that if confronted, the killer would not possibly not kill as many people as they can in the time before police fire arrives.
“The idea that a good guy with a gun can stop a bad guy with a guy is simply ridiculous,” said one teacher. Indeed as other commentators, arming teachers would instead make schools less safer because teachers too can cause even more damage if they ‘lose’ through stress and shoot teachers.
According to the non-partisan Pewresearch centre, an American Think tank, although only about about 30 percent of Americans own a gun, there are as many as 300 guns (with some individuals owning more than one guns). This means that there are roughly as many guns as there are the people themselves.
Comments
