By Guillaume Sudan
After the terrible incident that occurred in Florida where 17 people lost their lives Donald Trump, the president of the United States of America, said that he considers the idea to arm teachers to prevent mass shootings, which is dividing the U.S. population. The U.S. was holding a session at the White House with the survivors of the incident and other people who are affected by gun violence, and President Trump stated that allowing airline pilots to carry guns showed the measure to be a success. “It only works when you have people very adept at using firearms, of which you have many (…) It would be teachers and coaches,” he affirmed.
When Trump was talking about Aaron Feis, a football coach who used his body as a shield to protect students during the attack, he properly stated the courageous act, but added that nevertheless, if he had had a gun, the whole story would have ended in a completely different and happier way: “If the coach had a firearm in his locker when he ran at this guy – that coach was very brave, saved a lot of lives, I suspect (…) But if he had a firearm, he wouldn’t have had to run, he would have shot him, and that would have been the end of it.” He also emphasized the security of his reform: “They’d go for special training.”
The President of the U.S. talked about how the time that the police took to get to the school was too long. He stated that if the teachers would have been armed, the intervention could have been made quicker and more successfully. The president finally asked for a show of hands in the room of who were for or against the reform. Trump also asserted that he would be “very strong” on checking the background of the gun buyers as well as mental health issues. He sat in the middle of a semi-circle listening intently as six survivors of last week’s shooting and bereaved parents from Parkland, Columbine, and Sandy Hook took turns to address him. Arming teachers could persuade students from using weapons indecently and from the will to kill others.
