President Trump addresses the shooting in Parkland, Florida, from the White House. (Photo: Twitter)
The last four weeks have been a nerve-wracking time for gun owners. Our NRA-backed President has waffled on due process and gun confiscation, the NRA itself has waffled on Extreme Risk Protection Orders, and gun-friendly Florida passed a sweeping measure that includes age restrictions on gun ownership and a bump-fire stock ban.
The Second Amendment community has been desperate for clarity, and President Trump just gave us some, for better or for worse.
The White House released on Monday an official statement outlining Trump’s priorities relating to gun control and school security. As with all things Trump, it’s a mixed bag.
It outlines three categories of policies that Trump plans to pursue: “hardening our schools,” “strengthening background checks and prevention,” and “mental health reform.”
The statement looks good on its face, and most of the policies focus on preventing mass murders rather than restricting gun rights. Trump offers the assistance of the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security to assist schools in strengthening their defenses, improving awareness, and training “specially qualified school personnel on a voluntary basis.”
Trump has been pushing for more armed school personnel since the Parkland massacre, but it’s unclear how much he can do from Washington. State legislatures will still have to propose their own programs, and the largest teacher’s associations and unions adamantly oppose allowing school personnel to be armed.
The National Education Association, for example, claims in a statement that parents and educators “overwhelmingly reject the idea of arming school staff.”
“Bringing more guns into our schools does nothing to protect our students and educators from gun violence. Our students need more books, art and music programs, nurses and school counselors; they do not need more guns in their classrooms,” said Lily Eskelsen García, NEA president.
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While the pro-gun community largely favors allowing armed teachers in schools, Trump also expressed support for a policy that enjoys much less goodwill: “President Trump’s Administration is calling on every State to adopt Extreme Risk Protection Orders (ERPOs),” the statement declares.
ERPOs allow close friends or members of a person’s family to request a judge to order a temporary removal of that person’s firearms. Trump’s statement assures gun owners that “ERPOs should be carefully tailored to ensure the due process rights of law-abiding citizens are protected,” but as recently as February the NRA warned about an ERPO proposed by the Maine legislature.
“Extreme Risk Protection bills allow for the issuance of protective orders to infringe on Second Amendment rights based on third party allegations and little, if any, real evidence and limited ‘due process’ for the respondent,” the NRA-ILA said at the time, though they have since reversed their stance.
The final highlight of Trump’s statement indicates that the President has backed off his support for raising the age limit to purchase firearms from 18 to 21. The White House will immediately establish a Federal Commission on School Safety chaired by Secretary Betsy DeVos to investigate the efficacy of a wide variety of policies, one of which is raising the age limit. It’s unclear what the commission will decide on this issue, but for now the President doesn’t appear to be advocating for it.
Research done by the Federalist Papers shows that 98% of the mass killings have been done at GunSafeZones. It is illegal to carry a gun in these zones. Most schools have the GunSafe sticker. Murderers know there will be no one inside to shoot them. The man that shot people at the theatre showing Batman passed several theatres before choosing a GunSafe theatre. If Congress does one good deed this year, they will repeal the GunSafe Zone Law.
Better be glad yol got Trump..You coulda had a Hillary thing..Working through this as best he can…NEA is full of homos and dykes teaching kids how to destroy America.
It appears we have been duped again, Trump is not the friend we thought he would be, whatever happened to reciprocal carry, and the silencer issue?
And now the NRA flip-flopping again, join gun owners of America, and/or national Association for gun rights instead.
Arming the teachers is doing it on the cheap. Teachers do not have the professional temperament needed to guard our children.
SCHOOL POLICE would be trained, practiced, and every bit as dedicated to protect the children they see every school day. Vets are a good labor pool. They know what it is like to protect the people of their country. They know what duty is.
And, unfortunately, they know what unemployment is like.
Don’t try to save money; put it into wages for professional security and safety in our children’s’ schools.
The Israeli guards are guards, professional, and every one of them is an IDF vet.
Your blanket comment about “teachers not having the professional temperament” is absurd on its face. No teachers were ever veterans? No teachers have ever been trained in firearms? No teachers have the “temperament to throw their bodies across students to protect them?
Also your comment about Israeli security is equally absurd. In Israel, everyone except Talmudic scholars or the disabled/impaired are required to serve in the military. So you have a citizenry there, like the US is supposed to have under the 2nd amendment, where every able bodied man and woman is the trained militia. Go online and see pictures of the teachers in classrooms carrying pistols strapped to their sides. And I am sure they also have access to other forms of weaponry at those schools as well.
Where did you get “like the US is supposed to have under the 2nd amendment, where every able bodied man and woman is the trained militia.”? All of the Bill of Rights (ie first 10 amendments) apply to the people.
The teacher personality/political distribution is no question skewed to the left, however, there are conservative teachers out there. There are also several former military employees that are teachers. To make the broad brush (As many do, especially the activist teachers) that arming teachers is a terrible idea that they are not of the temperament to be an armed protector is false. There are some that would do this very well and if they want to have that responsibility, get them the training and the tools.
Personally I wouldn’t advocate having a teacher be responsible for hunting down and taking out a shooter, armed security within the school should have that responsibility. But having access to a firearm while huddled in a classroom hiding from a shooter only makes sense. If I was teaching, I wouldn’t want to be a helpless target. I do lay coaching at a Jr. High School and I have had some of the coaches discuss the situation with me. To the individual they each have stashed away in the class room a baseball bat to retrieve if needed. A lot of good that would do but at least it is better than nothing.
Hey “Not surprised” all one needs to ask themself is where we would be under a Hillary admin!! And Trump,s typical buisnessman BS don’t look as bad. We would all be neutered and in goolages if the Communist left had they’re way and nobody else on the right was gonna beat that witch
Trump has proved himself to be a liar again, thus supporting the fact that the rich and privileged want to disarm the law abiding citizens in order to advance their agenda of the New World Order.
Too bad that many Americans are too blind or stupid to realize this.
I’m not surprised, are you? Trump was elected as a liar and a cheat. Nothing has changed. He didn’t instantly grow morals. And the NRA is finally openly shown their true colors.