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HomeMy WebLinkAboutTrump tells grieving students the U.S. needs more guns in schools - Toronto Star - 02/21/2018 - Toronto Star - 02/21/20182/22/2018 Trump tells grieving students the U.S. needs more guns in schools I Toronto Star colleagues,This copy is for your personal non-commercial use only. To order presentation -ready copies of Toronto Star content for distribution to permissions/licensing, please go to: www.TorontoStarReprints.com Trump tells grieving U.S. needs more guns In a series of tweets on guns on Thursdayi appeared to wantto age to 21" for someone to buy an assault rifle. He then reiterated his support for .; M Trump suggests arming teachers with concealed weapons i iii////// U.S. President Donald Trump says he's considering backing proposals to promote concealed carrying of weapons by trained school employees to respond https://www.thestar. com/news/world/analysis/2018/02/21 /trump -proposes -arming -teach ers-a nd-staffi ng -schools -with -m it ita ry-vetera n s -i n -meeting -with-... 1/8 2/22/2018 Trump tells grieving students the U.S. needs more guns in schools I Toronto Star By DANIEL DALE Washington Bureau Chief Wed., Feb. 21) 2o18 WASHINGTON—American students demanding gun control walked out of school Wednesday not only in Florida but in Iowa and Texas, Georgia and Maryland. The uncompromising chants, on the streets and at state capitols and outside the White House, sounded a bit like momentum. I mmm� == &TIA1140 &IF'OKS) a 004 I . A Republican senator has revived'11IN PU611 LO expand uru-u-s-e--ur-wdekground eneCKS-OTr- gun purchases. A Democratic senator has proposed to raise the minimum age at which people can buy assault rifles. Trump himself has taken a first step toward a regulation banning the bump stock devices used in the Las Vegas massacre in October. Yes, they can fire back and stop an attacker to keep kids safe. (_") No, more guns won't solve this. 11") Maybe schools should use armed guards for protection instead. to Vl'ew Results But Trump's remarks Wednesday afternoon underscored the reality of the situation: any big change is unlikely, no matter how hot the national outrage, while Republicans control the presidency, Congress and most state governments. https://www.thestar.com/news/world/analysis/2018/02/21 /trump -proposes -arming -teach ers-a nd-staffi ng -schools -with -m it ita ry-vetera n s -i n- meeti ng -with- . . . 2/8 2/22/2018 Trump tells grieving students the U.S. needs more guns in schools I Toronto Star U.S. President Donald Trump hosts a listening session on gun violence with teachers and students in the White House on Wednesday. (CAROLYN At a "listening session" with a group of students from Douglas and other survivors of gun violence, Trump made vague nods toward gun control measures, saying he would be 66 strong" on background checks and on "age of purchase." Repeating a refrain familiar from gun rights groups and from his own campaign, Tru. 7' argued that the answer to criminals with guns is good people with guns. Specifically, jh [�.roposed to arm teachers — and to scatter armed military veterans around school -a "IST MI "You'd have a lot of people that'd be armed, that'd be ready, they are professionals, they may be Marines that left the Marines, left the Army, left the Air Force, and they are very adept at doing that. You'd have a lot of them and they would be spread evenly through 1) the school , Trump said. Trump claimed that if Aaron Feis, the football coach slain at Douglas it shielding students, had been carrying a gun, the rest of the massacre there would have been averted. https://www.thestar.com/news/world/analysis/2018/02/21 /trump -proposes -arming -teach ers-a nd-staffi ng -schools -with -m it itary-veterans-i n -meeting -with- . . . 3/8 2/22/2018 Trump tells grieving students the U.S. needs more guns in schools I Toronto Star Gun control advocates, who described Trump's meeting as a mere photo op, strongly rejected his proposal. "Police don't want guns in schools. Educators don't want guns in schools. Parents don') want guns in schools. Students don't want guns in schools. So who does? The NRA and lawmakers beholden to them, Shannon Watts, founder of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, said on Twitter. Trump holds his notes at the listening session Wednesday. (AP PHOTO/CAROLYN KASTER) Trump has previously argued that terror attacks in Paris and elsewhere could have been thwarted with looser gun laws. While his veterans -in -schools idea is highly unlikely to become law, his words were a reminder of the uphill climb any gun control proposal will face at present. "It'll take changing Congress," said Gerry Hills, founder and president of Arizonans for Gun Safety. lot https://www.thestar.com/news/world/analysis/2018/02/21 /trump -proposes -arming -teach ers-a nd-staffi ng -schools -with -m it ita ry-vetera n s -i n- meeti ng -with- . . . 4/8 2/22/2018 Trump tells grieving students the U.S. needs more guns in schools I Toronto Star I 71 books on gun policy, noted that both measures endorsed by Trump to date — a regulation banning bump stocks and a law tightening the background check proces Ire supported by the National Rifle Association. "Congress might move on something like this, but even if there were loo mass shootings next week, the current Congress will not budge on any major gun policy move," Spitzer said. Students who took to the streets said they were realistic about their prospects in the coming months but committed to pushing for long-term change anyway. Inspired by their peers in Florida, hundreds of teenagers from Washington -area Maryland high schools left school at 9:30 a.m. to protest outside the Capitol and White House. As the students sat outside the White House, they chanted "thoughts and prayers are not enough." Some held sins denouncing the NRA g . One sign said simply, "We Aren't Safe." "This is just the beginning, really. It's going to be a lot of time before they budge," said Calista Warren, 17, who wrote "Enough is Enough" on her arm. A 11111TIONTIM "For a while now, students have been very afraid to go to school. We should not be afraid to get an education. We should not be afraid of guns in a learning environment, and that's why we're here," she said. Douglas students have become sensations on social media and in traditional media. Tapping into a gun -control movement that has become better organized and funded since the Sandy Hook elementary school shooting in 2012, they have served as walking rejoinders to the frequent conservative refrain that gun control should not be discussed They have also attracted detractors, some unhinged. In conspiracy theories shared thousands of times on Facebook and YouTube, far -right figures have falsely accused them of being puppets of liberal billionaire George Soros or paid actors who are not even students. "They're perhaps the most bizarre conspiracy theories in recent American historysaid Kathryn Olmsted, a University of California, Davis history professor who has written a book about U.S. conspiracy theories. https://www.thestar.com/news/world/analysis/2018/02/21 /trump -proposes -arming -teach ers-a nd-staffi ng -schools -with -m it ita ry-vetera n s -i n- meeti ng -with- . . . 5/8 2/22/2018 Trump tells grieving students the U.S. needs more guns in schools I Toronto Star Douglas students have shrugged off the lies. They rallied again in Florida on Wednesday, delivering impassioned speeches after riding a bus eight hours to meet state lawmakers in Tallahassee. Others appeared on a special prime -time CNN town hall. Trump's most vocal Douglas critics were absent from his White House meeting. (Cameron Kasky said on Twitter that they weren't invited; the mother of another, David Hogg, said he had declined.) Several of the students and parents present praised Trump, joined him in calling for more armed figures in schools, or suggested school security "It's not about gun laws right now. Let's fix the schools," said an angry Andrew Pollack, whose daughter Meadow was killed. "You know, the Second Amendment, I believe, was for defence. And I fully respect that, like I said. But these are not weapons of defence. These are weapons of war. And I just — I still can't fathom that 1, myself, am able to purchase one," Zeif said, noting that Australia has had no fatal mass shootings since it imposed strict gun laws. "I don't understand why I can still go in a store, and buy a weapon of war. An AR .... How did we not stop this after Columbine, after Sandy Hook?" Donald J. Trump @real Donalffru mp I never said "give teachers guns" like was stated on Fake News @GNN & @I" l[ What I said was to look at the possibility of giving "concealed guns to gun adept teachers with military or special training experience - only the best. 20% of teachers, a lot, would now be able to 7:26 AM - Feb 22, 2018 https://www.thestar.com/news/world/analysis/2018/02/21 /trump -proposes -arming -teach ers-a nd-staffi ng -schools -with -m it ita ry-vetera n s -i n- meeti ng -with- . . . 6/8 2/22/2018 Trump tells grieving students the U.S. needs more guns in schools I Toronto Star ....immediately fire back if a savage sicko came to a school with bad intentions. Highly trained teachers would also serve as a deterrent to the cowards that do this. Far more assets at much less cost than guards. A "gun free" school is a magnet for bad people. ATTACKS WOULD END! 7:40 AM - Feb 22, 2018 42.7K 25.8K people are talking about this In a series of tweets on guns on Thursday morning, Trump said he wants to "raise age to 21" — appearing to offer his first endorsement of the proposal to increase, from 18, the minimum age at which someone can buy an assault rifle like the AR -15. Misleadingly criticizing media outlets CNN and NBC as" e News," he also claimed he had "never said 'give teachers guns"' — then reiterated his proposal to give teachers guns, falsely saying he had always said only "the best" teachers, such as veterans, would be armed. "If a potential'sicko shooter'knows that a school has a large number of weapons talented teachers (and others) who will be shooting, the sicko will NEVER attack th, school. Cowards won't go there ... problem solved," he wrote. I Florida shooting survivors confront state lawmakers in Tallahassee, demand action `Last night I told my wife I would take a bullet for the kids' No, these Florida school shooting survivors are not paid actors® That's ridiculous loo d more about: Donald Trump https://www.thestar.com/news/world/analysis/2018/02/21 /trump -proposes -arming -teach ers-a nd-staffi ng -schools -with -m it ita ry-vetera n s -i n- meeti ng -with- . . . 7/8 2/22/2018 Trump tells grieving students the U.S. needs more guns in schools I Toronto Star Z-1 ,opyright owned or licensed by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited. All rights reserved. republication or distribution of this content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Toronto Star Newspapers Limited and/or its licensors. To order copies of Toronto Star articles, please go to: www.TorontoStai-Reprints.com https://www.thestar.com/news/world/analysis/2018/02/21 /trump -proposes -arming -teach ers-a nd-staffi ng -schools -with -m it itary-veterans-i n -meeting -with- . . . 8/8