Trump Administration Pushing Arming Teachers

• Steve
• March 12, 2018
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The Trump administration is moving forward with a federal commission on school safety to examine issues surrounding school shootings.  The commission will examine age limitations on purchasing certain types of guns, extensive background checks, and a federally back program to fund school personnel weapons training. Trump tweeted about the topic Monday morning stating:

Very strong improvement and strengthening of background checks will be fully backed by White House. Legislation moving forward. Bump Stocks will soon be out. Highly trained expert teachers will be allowed to conceal carry, subject to State Law. Armed guards OK, deterrent!…….

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 12, 2018

….On 18 to 21 Age Limits, watching court cases and rulings before acting. States are making this decision. Things are moving rapidly on this, but not much political support (to put it mildly).

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 12, 2018

Education secretary Betsy Devos was the spokesperson for the administration over the weekend on the commission stating that she believes the commission will have a completed report and recommendations within a year.  Gun control advocates do not feel the commission or the preliminary recommendations go far enough to slow gun violence.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump’s plan to prevent school shootings doesn’t increase the minimum age for purchasing assault weapons to 21 — an idea Trump publicly favored just last month — and leaves the question of arming teachers to states and local communities.

Instead, a new federal commission on school safety will examine the age issue as part of a package the White House announced Sunday in response to the school shooting in Parkland, Florida, last month that left 17 dead.

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, who on Sunday called the proposal “meaningful actions, steps that can be taken right away to help protect students,” said Monday said the plan was “the first step in a more lengthy process.”

No deadline was set for the commission’s recommendations, but officials expected them in less than a year.

Pressed repeatedly on NBC Monday about why the White House backed off Trump’s support for increasing the minimum age for purchasing assault-style weapons, DeVos said that “everything is on the table,” stressing that the commission will study a wide range of issues.

The administration also pledged to help states pay for firearms training for teachers and reiterated its call to improve the background check and mental health systems.

“This is an issue that is best decided by local communities and by states,” DeVos said on NBC. “It’s not going to be appropriate in every location but it is going to be appropriate in some places.”

The White House announcement came a day after Trump, speaking about the opioid problem, criticized policy commissions during a rally in Pennsylvania, saying “we can’t just keep setting up blue-ribbon committees.”