Editorial Boards Decry Trump’s Call to Arm Teachers

Editorial boards across the country are condemning Donald Trump’s irresponsible call to arm teachers with guns in response to the tragic Parkland shooting. Instead of standing with the thousands of students across the country speaking out for common-sense gun reforms, Trump has chosen to stand in lockstep with the NRA, and continues to reiterate their talking points.

 

Take a look at the editorial boards across the country explaining why giving guns to America’s teachers is not the answer to our school shooting problem:

 

Lawrence Journal-World: Arming teachers not the answer

 

“There are a number of steps that can and should be taken to make schools safer from mass shootings. Arming teachers is not one of them.”

 

The Anniston Star: The ludicrous idea of arming teachers in America's schools

 

“President Trump’s call last week to provide select teachers with firearm training is a ludicrous notion stolen from the National Rifle Association playbook, a despicable document that values gun rights over human lives.”

 

Miami Herald: Arming teachers with guns will backfire

 

“Teachers aren’t buying it. They’ve got enough to do besides take down a deranged gunman. They’ve proven their bravery time and again in such school shootings across the country shielding their students, as three late educators did in Parkland, with their bodies.

“No, let the pros do the protecting.”

 

New York Times: Let the Teachers Teach

 

“It takes little imagination to foresee a situation in which a frightened teacher, thrown into a combat situation — in a crowded space like a school hallway or classroom — wounds students in the process of trying to take out a gunman.”

 

Kansas City Star: Park Hill or Parkland, arming teachers is laughable, but not funny

 

“That he also said on Friday that ‘we don’t want people who are mentally ill to have any form of weaponry’ suggests how unserious he is about that issue. Recently, he made it easier for those so impaired they can’t take care of their own finances to buy a gun.”

 

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: A bad lesson plan: Arming teachers is no way to secure schools

 

“Many reasonable proposals for countering gun violence have surfaced since 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz killed 17 people at a Florida high school this month. President Donald Trump’s proposal to arm teachers, even highly trained teachers, isn’t one of them.”

 

Tampa Bay Times: Improve school security plans with gun controls

 

“This is all an invitation to trouble. While many teachers may own guns for recreation or personal safety, they are not law enforcement officers, and even the training promised by lawmakers would be no substitute for experience. It is a far different environment engaging an active shooter than spending an afternoon at the gun range. Teachers lack the professional skill sets of police in assessing threats, handling weapons and controlling their emotions in a crisis that is rife with the risk of injuring innocent lives. Let teachers teach and let law enforcement officers do their job.”

 

Sun Sentinel: Gov. Rick Scott, President Trump wrong on shooting responses

 

“Like Scott, Trump wants to work around the margins and not offend the NRA. He said he wants tougher background checks. He said he wants to keep the mentally ill from obtaining weapons, but a year ago he signed legislation that does the opposite.”

 

New Jersey Star Ledger: Trump's deranged idea: armed teachers taking on sociopaths with AR-15s

 

“The $30 million contribution to the Trump campaign by our national death merchant has already paid dividends, in that it was permitted to propose an idiotic solution to another massacre before the tears even dried.”

 

San Francisco Chronicle: Gun proposal doesn’t add up

 

“Why is the answer to school shootings always addition and not subtraction? President Trump’s suggestion to arm teachers does not bring us to the real question, much less the answer: What do we do to ensure our children’s safety?”

 

Kentucky Standard: Communicating, not arming teachers, could offer prevention

 

“Putting guns in the hands of teachers is not the answer to enhancing school safety.”

[…]

“Surely, our culture has not gotten to the point where we are arming teachers in case they have to shoot a student. We can come up with better solutions.”

 

Denver Post: More guns in schools not the answer

 

“However, training and arming teachers is not a silver-bullet solution to the countless school shootings that have taken hundreds of lives in the 19 years since Columbine. President Donald Trump should focus his efforts elsewhere, and consider the implications of a federal mandate that local schools arm 20 percent of their teachers and remember that teachers, like soldiers who turn on their own, can be suicidal and homicidal, too.”