Donald Trump is slowly and publicly developing a comprehensive response to school shootings. His current proposal: arming the educators. If the Parkland, Fla., shooter was confronted by a teacher with a gun, Trump told CPAC, “the teacher woulda shot the hell out of him before he knew what happened.”
If the president wants to make that talking point an actual policy though, he should stop shooting from the hip and start talking in terms of states, counties, and school boards.
“When we declare our schools to be gun-free zones it just puts our students in more danger—well-trained gun-adept teachers and coaches should be able to carry concealed firearms,” Trump said. The crowd, predictably, went wild.
Even if all of America agreed that teachers should be allowed to lock-and-load before leaving for work, Trump can’t make it happen on his own. His ideas, ranging from “a bit of a bonus” for armed teachers to storing “a firearm safely locked in the classroom,” might make sense. But they are purely rhetorical.
The federal regulators don’t determine school security regulations. Local governments do.
It is true that the federal Gun-Free School Zones Act of 1990 prohibits anyone from carrying a firearm within a thousand feet of a school. With the help of Congress, Trump could repeal that legislation, leaving the decision entirely to the states (already 18 states allow teachers to bring a gun to school after jumping through a few minor hoops).
Trump has promised to solve the school shooting problem—an admirable goal that no one can disagree with. His rhetoric needs to change if he wants guns in schools. He needs to encourage states and local school boards to make exceptions to existing federal law.
