President Trump at the White House on Wednesday hosted a meeting with bipartisan lawmakers to discuss school safety in the wake of this month’s Florida high school shooting.
He said that, while not everyone agrees with his suggestion to allow teachers and staff with gun training and special expertise to carry concealed weapons on school premises, schools can only be secured by security cameras and equipment “to a level.”
“You can’t just be sitting ducks and that’s exactly what we’ve allowed people in these schools and buildings to be,” said Trump.
“You can harden a site to a level that nobody can get in. The problem is if the shooter’s inside -- he gets in the door and closes the door, we can’t get people in,” he went on.
“[We’d] have to send a tractor through the walls, so we have to be careful of that,” said Trump.
He added that implementing other suggestions such as security cameras, metal detectors, bulletproof windows, and so on would “cost hundreds of millions of dollars all over the country.”
Aside from hardening schools with armed personnel, President Trump said that Congress must “confront mental health,” ensure that when students or educators warn authorities about a person of concern that “they act quickly and decisively, unlike what took place in Florida which was horrible,” and expand background checks to keep guns out of the hands of “people who pose a threat.”
He said that he met with the National Rifle Association and told them that, while they might not agree with some of his suggestions such as raising the age limit to 21 for certain firearms purchases and a ban on bump stocks, "it's time -- we've got to stop this nonsense."
He went on to say that he hopes the lawmakers at the meeting can put together their ideas and come up with a “beautiful bipartisan bill” to solve the issue of school safety
“We’re determined to turn our grief into action,” said Trump. “I really believe that. I think that the people at this table want to.”
“I see folks that don’t say nice things about me and that’s ok, but if you turn that into this energy, that’s ok. I’ll love you.”
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