The recent mass shooting at the Broward County high school has had Americans thinking about gun legislation in the country once again. In an on-camera meeting about school safety, President Donald Trump proposed a more radical policy shift that would reward teachers who carry guns to school with bonuses.
The President sees this as a deterrent measure. Speaking during the meeting, Trump referred to the shooters as cowards adding that they wouldn’t step into a school and start killing if they knew that 20% of teachers were carrying firearms. However, a simple recollection of the events at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas school shooting proves the contrary. It’s emerging that there was an armed guard at the school and despite his efforts the guard was unable to reach the shooter in time.
However, Trump said that teachers shouldn’t feel obligated to carry guns. Only those who have an aptitude for guns and are capable of handling such weaponry should be encouraged to get a concealed permit. Schools have often been categorized as gun-free zones. Trump believes that this makes them more dangerous than schools where teachers are armed.
The President also said that the rising cases of gun violence in the US could be explained. The influence of violent content in kids as they grow up was one of the things that the President mentioned. Trump thinks that the level of violence in video games and movies these days could actually be shaping children minds towards acts of violence. He suggested that controlling access to such video games and movies could help address the senseless gun massacres that the country has had to grapple with in recent history.
The gun culture in the US has come under fire in the wake of unprecedented mass shootings. It should be noted that out of 650 million civilian-owned guns in the world, 48% are in the hands of Americans. In a 2009 report, the National Institute of Justice estimated that there are about 310 million guns owned by Americans. Another survey conducted by a Swiss firm found that 89 out of 100 Americans owned a gun.
For quite some time now, pro-gun activists in the US have argued that the only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is to arm a good guy. This is the same argument that Trump is pushing after the Marjory Stoneman Douglas shooting. However, the US already has the highest number of guns per capita yet gun violence in the country is a bigger problem than of other high-income countries.
A report by the WHO revealed recently that the US has 25 times more gun-related fatalities compared to other developed countries despite the fact that gun ownership in the US is way higher. These figures put a shadow of doubt on Trump’s suggestion to arm teachers. They clearly show that the solution to America’s gun violence is not to add more guns in the hands of people.
