President Trump says he is “very strongly” favoring arming teachers and other school staff, but that won’t happen any time soon, even in states that would allow guns in schools, Politico reports. Lawmakers in at least half-a-dozen states — including Florida — may ease restrictions on firearms on campus. Such attempts nearly always hit strong opposition from teachers and community members. Even in states with laws allowing school districts to make the decision, few school boards have bit. “The vast majority of schools superintendents and boards don’t even blink before saying, ‘Thanks but no thanks,’” said Kenneth Trump, a school safety consultant not related to the president. “We know that by and large there’s mass opposition to this in the education community.”
“If you had a teacher who was adept at firearms, they could very well end the attack very quickly,” the president said in a meeting with students and parents from Florida’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, where a gunman murdered 17 people last week. “I really believe if these cowards knew that the school was well guarded. … I think they wouldn’t go into the school to start off with, it could very well solve your problem.” Education groups almost unanimously oppose the idea, which they say is asking teachers and principals to do too much. “This is bar none, the worst theory of action I’ve ever heard,” said Shanna Peeples, a former National Teacher of the Year winner. Educators argue that schools should invest in more school resource officers who can more effectively respond in a crisis. They believe guns make classrooms less safe and that having teachers carrying guns will only make a school shooting more confusing for police trying to stop it. (National Rifle Association CEO Wayne LaPierre told the Conservative Political Action Conference on Thursday that suggestions to limit guns are “completely ridiculous” and argued that more security would help school safety, The Hill reports.)