Arming teachers after Florida shooting would be ‘extremely expensive’
In the wake of the Valentine’s Day massacre in affluent Parkland, Florida, President Trump has voiced support for arming teachers in schools across the country in hopes of preventing future shootings despite reports that an armed school resource deputy did nothing to stop suspect Nikolas Cruz from killing 17 people on campus.
But former Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis warned that giving teachers weapons is not only unaffordable but a potential risk for the students in the schools.
“It would be extremely expensive and just logistically virtually impossible to arm school teachers,” Davis told FOX Business’ Neil Cavuto on Friday. “That says nothing of the potential for friendly fire and the number of rounds that go off in a police department every year.”
The Boston Police Department employs more than 2,200 people, all of whom must attend training twice a year to study tactics and constitutional issues about the use of force. Despite all of that, officers still accidentally fire their weapons sometimes, Davis said.
“You lose more children at the end of this conversation than you protect,” he said.
The gun control debate was reignited after Cruz, 19, was accused of slaughtering 17 people, mostly students, at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School with an AR-15-style rifle that he had legally obtained. A former student who was expelled from the school, Cruz was charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder and is being held without bail. The motive behind the shooting remains unclear.
In addition to advocating for arming teachers, Trump wrote on Twitter that he’s pushing for comprehensive background checks with an emphasis on mental health, as well as raising the legal age to buy a gun to 21 and ending the sale of bump stocks, which were used in October by Stephen Paddock, who killed 58 people at a country music concert in Las Vegas.
The National Rifle Association, which endorsed and donated money to Trump during the 2016 presidential election, rejected raising the age for buying guns to 21.
“Congress is in a mood to finally do something on this issue –\ I hope!” the president wrote.