---
title: "What Do Combat Vets Think Of Trump’s Proposal To Arm Teachers Against School Shootings?"
date: "2018-02-22"
modified: "2018-02-22"
authors:
  - name: "Jared Keller"
    job_title: "Former Managing Editor"
    link: "https://taskandpurpose.com/authors/jaredkeller.md"
url: "https://taskandpurpose.com/news/combat-vets-trump-arm-teachers-shootings/"
categories:
  - "Analysis"
  - "Around the World"
  - "Guns"
  - "News"
  - "Tech & Tactics"
  - "United States"
  - "Weapons"
tags:
  - "donald trump"
  - "Terrorism"
  - "the white house"
---

# What Do Combat Vets Think Of Trump’s Proposal To Arm Teachers Against School Shootings?

![](<https://taskandpurpose.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/02/18987135-1.jpg>)

In the aftermath of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School massacre in Parkland, Florida, President Donald Trump [offered](<https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/22/us/politics/trump-guns-school-shootings.html>) a simple solution to end the United States’ sad tradition of school shootings: Arm teachers with “military or special training experience” against potential gunmen.

Responding to criticism of a Wednesday listening session in which the president [proposed](<https://www.cnn.com/2018/02/21/politics/trump-listening-sessions-parkland-students/index.html>) concealed carry among school faculty and staff “adept with the firearm,” Trump tweeted on Thursday that teachers “must be offense” because “defense alone won’t work.”

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/966650397002813440

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/966653833047887874

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/966657362789568512

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/966660169194229761

It’s worth honing in on one particular element of Trump’s proposal: the prerequisite of some sort of firearms training. And consistent, rigorous training, beyond entry-level boot camp rifle or pistol quals, matters: One of the reasons bystander interventions during mass shootings are [rarely effective](<https://psmag.com/news/the-pernicious-myth-of-the-good-guy-with-a-gun>) is that a significant portion of firearms owners never received formal safety or marksman training, [according](<https://psmag.com/news/americans-love-guns-but-they-have-no-idea-how-to-use-them>) to a July 2017 public health study. (Heck, just consider the “18 school shootings this year alone” statistic that’s been bandied about recently; most of those “shootings” were [accidental discharges](<https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/no-there-havent-been-18-school-shooting-in-2018-that-number-is-flat-wrong/2018/02/15/65b6cf72-1264-11e8-8ea1-c1d91fcec3fe_story.html?utm_term=.884c54a81632>).)

Instead of would-be Rambos, Trump’s logic goes, perhaps it’s those Americans who fully understand and respect the power of firearms who are worthy of safeguarding our schoolchildren. To which a lot of veterans on Twitter responded: Fuck that noise.

https://twitter.com/TheGospelOfTom/status/966664061197934592

https://twitter.com/Jeffery1954/status/966436859730591745

https://twitter.com/FrankBlair71/status/966335514990260226

https://twitter.com/iAmTheWarax/status/966447501892050944

https://twitter.com/3gr8k1ds/status/966683985446391809

https://twitter.com/seagullsquirrel/status/966661167199354880

https://twitter.com/GunsAintFreedom/status/966691908851585024

This ... is not a new trend!

https://twitter.com/Dennis_Magnasco/status/965413209376247808

https://twitter.com/Dcwriley/status/965284972721557504

https://twitter.com/MediocreJedi/status/965330136047394816

https://twitter.com/valor4us/status/965590567781576704

https://twitter.com/pecunium/status/966511946576121856

https://twitter.com/Lollie_Kent/status/965406579230208000

https://twitter.com/JasonKirell/status/965738842333597697

https://twitter.com/JimmyB1775/status/965267131892842506

https://twitter.com/danielmkim/status/965418326821363712

https://twitter.com/josh_walker/status/964937313485774854

When it comes to the efficacy of armed vets in school, [I’ll let people who have actually seen combat make that assessment](<https://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/02/us/politics/donald-trump-draft-record.html>).

**WATCH NEXT:**

## Author
Jared Keller is the former managing editor of Task & Purpose. His writing has appeared in Aeon, the Los Angeles Review of Books, the New Republic, Pacific Standard, Smithsonian, and The Washington Post, among other publications.

### Author social links  
[Twitter](<https://twitter.com/jaredbkeller>)  
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[LinkedIn](<https://www.linkedin.com/in/jaredbkeller/>)  
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