US President Donald Trump has been slammed for suggesting that teachers should be armed to help prevent school shootings.
Trump made the divisive proposal yesterday during a “listening session” with survivors of last week’s mass shooting at a Florida high school.
Following the remarks, families of victims of gun violence, survivors of mass shootings, gun control advocates, teachers and some politicians called the idea “terrible” and said the administration should instead focus on reforming gun control legislation.
“It’s not personally something that I support,” Nicole Hockley, whose son Dylan was killed during the 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut, told Trump.
“Rather than arming them with a firearm, I would rather arm them with the knowledge of how to prevent these acts from happening in the first place,” she said according to a report by Al Jazeera News.
Trump, who admitted it was a controversial idea, said he believed “a teacher who was adept at firearms … could very well end the attack very quickly”.
He added: “I really believe if these cowards knew that the school was well-guarded … I think they wouldn’t go into the school to start off with, it could very well solve your problem.”
Trump in the past has said it was “wrong” of anyone to suggest that he was in favour of bringing guns into the classroom.
At least 17 people were killed last week when a gunman, 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz, opened fire on students and teachers at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.
