Trump says armed teachers should get bonuses for carrying weapons in classrooms

AP

President Donald Trump

• President Donald Trump suggested that teachers who carry concealed weapons in schools should receive bonuses.
• "You can't hire enough security guards ... you need 100, 150 security guards," he said during a meeting on school safety on Thursday. "But you could have concealed on teachers."
• Trump acknowledged on Wednesday that his proposal to allow teachers and other school staff to carry weapons was "controversial," but appears to be pressing forward regardless.

President Donald Trump suggested that teachers who carry concealed weapons in schools should receive bonuses during a meeting on school safety on Thursday.

Trump advocated for "a little bit of a bonus" for teachers and others who "understand weaponry" and agree to arm themselves in schools.

"You can't hire enough security guards ... you need 100, 150 security guards," he said. "But you could have concealed on teachers."

He added that schools should be protected the way banks are.

"If you harden the sites you're not going to have this problem," the president said. "When you say this school is gun free ... that's what they want to hear."

During a White House listening session on school shootings on Wednesday, just a week after a massacre at a Parkland, Florida school that left 17 dead, Trump advocated for the expansion of concealed carry laws to allow teachers and other school staff to carry weapons to protect students.

"If you had a teacher who is adept at firearms it could very well end the attack very quickly," Trump said to the gathering of shooting survivors and family members of slain children.

The president argued that bringing firearms into schools, which are largely gun-free zones, would deter attacks and "solve your problem."

"I think they wouldn't go into the schools to start off with - I think it could very well solve your problem," he said.

He asked the group on Wednesday whether they agreed or disagreed with the proposal. While some parents and family members affected by school shootings said they support concealed carry in schools, others, including parents of children killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012, said they oppose the idea.

"We can understand both sides. Certainly it's controversial," Trump said. "But we'll study that along with many other ideas."

The president advocated for the legalization of concealed carry on the campaign trail and said that he would "get rid of gun-free zones in schools" on his "first day in office."

But when 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton argued that Trump would bring guns into classrooms, he denied that he ever advocated for that.