Trump Backs Arming Teachers With Guns To Prevent School Shootings

United States (US) President Donald Trump’s solution to combating gun violence is to arm school teachers with guns. He backed this idea amidst emotional appeals by survivors of the 14 February massacre in a Florida school that claimed 17 lives.

The powerful US gun lobby group, National Rifle Association, has advocated arming school teachers for a long time.

The US President believes assailants would be deterred by the fact that school teachers are armed.

The gun control debate has taken centre stage once again in the wake of the Florida attack as the country continues to struggle to shake off the menace of mass shootings.

Under pressure, the US President has, in addition to backing calls for improved background checks on gun buyers, pushed for a ban on gun ‘bump stocks’ – devices that enable a rifle to shoot hundreds of rounds a minute, essentially turning a semi-automatic weapon into an automatic one.

The device was used last year by a gunman who killed 58 concert-goers in Las Vegas.

However, the NRA, which spent an estimated $30 million to help elect Trump, opposes a total ban on bump stocks, although it is open to some regulatory action.

As mass shootings continue to haunt the US, especially in schools, the pressure on the President and lawmakers to act on the epidemic grows. Already 17 school shootings have taken place, including the one in Florida, within the first 45 days of 2018.

Everytown, which tracks shootings in educational institutes, counts 291 school shootings since 2013. On average, that is about one shooting per week.