In the wake of another mass shooting in Parkland Florida, talk once again emerges of arming teachers.  This time the arming teachers’ proposal has been voiced by a very powerful person, the President of the United States.

President Trump invited students, parents and teachers who were affected by last week’s shooting, as well as the mass shooting in 2012 at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, and in 1999 at Columbine High School in Colorado to the White House for a discussion.  The White House called this meeting a “listening session”.

At this “listening session” one of the proposed actions was arming some teachers.  President Trump stated:

If you had a teacher who was adept at firearms, they could very well end the attack very quickly… I really believe that if these cowards knew the school was well-guarded, I think they wouldn’t go into the school in the first place. That would solve the problem.

After President Trump made the above statement he asked those present, the parents, teachers and educators if they supported arming adults in schools with conceal-carry permits. It appeared to me that those present in the room were closely divided on that proposal.

Do you believe that arming some teachers with guns would help to combat these shootings?  Now I believe if we were to go forward with this proposal there must be criteria put in place.  I believe those criteria would have to include the following:

  • A teacher must be willing to be armed or have a gun in a locked gun box in their classroom.
  • That teacher must be certified in some manner.
  • The teacher must going through concealed carry weapons (CCW) training.
  • The teacher must also go through training up and above the CCW classes. That training could be some sort of police training that would be paid for by the taxpayer. The teacher would be compensated for their time.
  • The teacher would have to go through updated training each year to be recertified to carry or keep a gun in school.

John Feinblatt, the president of Everytown for Gun Safety, an anti-gun group believes that arming teachers is a bad idea.  He stated:

If the president is truly listening to survivors of gun violence, then he will support legislation requiring criminal background checks on every gun sale — supported by 97 percent of American voters, and reject dangerous NRA priorities like ‘concealed carry reciprocity’ and guns in schools…Until then, any talk from this administration about protecting Americans from gun violence is just talk.

Remember earlier in the week I exposed the Everytown for Gun Safety group for putting out false school shooting numbers.  Whenever anyone or any group starts using false numbers to bolster their agenda or cause, I really do not consider them to be part of the discussion for a compromised solution I consider them to be part of the obstacles in moving forward with a solution.

Talking about coming up with a compromised solution, I also believe that the media should not be part of these discussions or attempt to influence these discussions.  They have shown themselves to be partisan hacks in this debate and no one can really trust them to add to the discussion or foster good debate any longer.

Case in point, an 18-year-old student at Stoneman Douglas, Brandon Minoff, told Fox News:

I wholeheartedly believe that the media is politicizing this tragedy…It seems that gun control laws is the major topic of conversation rather than focusing on the bigger issue of 17 innocent lives being taken at the hands of another human.

Also a Stoneman Douglas High School student Colton Haab told WPLG-TV news, an ABC local affiliate, said that he was approached by CNN to ask a question at Wednesday night's town hall but decided not to after the network gave him a "scripted question," not allowing him to ask the question he wrote himself.  Colton is a member of the Junior ROTC and shielded students while the school was under attack from the shooter.  He told WPLG that he wanted to ask about using veterans as armed security guards.

His direct quote was:

CNN had originally asked me to write a speech and questions and it ended up being all scripted

Should the proposal of arming willing teachers be part of the discussion?

More From WKMI