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| Donald Trump claims he 'never said give teachers guns' as he defends looking into concealed guns policy | |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| Donald Trump has hit out at reports that he called for teachers to be given guns, saying the White House would simply “look at the possibility” of allowing some school staff to carry concealed weapons. | |
| The President said he was considering arming only “gun adept teachers with military or special training experience” so they could “immediately fire back if a savage sicko came to a school with bad intentions”. | |
| He suggested letting about a fifth of teachers carry firearms would also act as a deterrent to any possible shooters. | |
| His clarification on Twitter came amid calls for action following the Florida school shooting, in which 17 people were killed by a teenager with a semi-automatic weapon. | |
| The President met survivors of the 14 February massacre at the White House, telling them he would look “very strongly” at calls for educators to armed. | |
| “If you had a teacher that was adept at firearms they could very well end the attack quickly,” he said | |
| Mr Trump later tweeted: “I never said ‘give teachers guns’ like was stated on Fake News CNN and NBC. 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 .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!” | |
| He added: “If a potential ‘sicko shooter’ knows that a school has a large number of very weapons talented teachers (and others) who will be instantly shooting, the sicko will NEVER attack that school. Cowards won’t go there... problem solved. Must be offensive, defense alone won’t work!” | |
| Armed teachers could stop shooters before police arrive at schools, added Mr Trump. | |
| Speaking to pupils and parents in the White House, Mr Trump acknowledged the idea was “controversial”. | |
| Asked for a show of hands, some of those present indicated they would be in support of the measure and others said they were against. | |
| More follows… | More follows… |