Democrat Introduces Bill to Block Trump from Funds to Arm Teachers

Rep. Val Demings (D-FL) filed legislation to ensure that President Trump cannot use federal grant money to arm teachers for classroom defense.

Demings used a press release to announce “The Secure Communities and Safe Schools Act,” the aim of which is to “to prevent the Trump Administration from using anti-terrorism funding to give guns to educators.” She is specifically focused on “[blocking] the use of Homeland Security grant money and Urban Area Security Initiative (UASI) grant money” to help teachers acquire firearms for classroom defense.

Demings said:

Arming teachers is a recipe for disaster—a reckless plan which will complicate active-shooter situations, as well as forcing teachers to take on not only the responsibility but also the hurt, pain, guilt, and liability when they find themselves out-skilled and out-gunned—with our children in the crossfire.

Breitbart News reported that the teachers and staff at Sandy Hook Elementary School were unarmed when the attacker entered that building on December 14, 2012. The shooter had more than nine minutes to go room-to-room without armed resistance.

Likewise, teachers and staff were unarmed when an armed attacker entered Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, on February 14, 2018. He was able to pause and reload five times during his attack, as he was free from the constraints of armed resistance.

Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri led the investigation into the Parkland attack and noted that each pause to reload was an opportunity for an armed teacher or staff member to take the gunman out. Gualtieri said it “gnaws” at him that no one was armed to do it.

He told the Associated Press, “People need to keep an open mind to it as the reality is that if someone else in that school had a gun it could have saved kids’ lives.”

AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com. Sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange.