Standing for the Second Amendment and the hardening of schools, including arming teachers, former President Donald Trump gave his forceful answer to Democrats' frequent calls for gun control after mass shootings.
"This is not a gun problem," Trump told the National Rifle Association annual convention in a speech that aired live on Newsmax. "This is a mental health problem. This is a social problem. This is a cultural problem. This is a spiritual problem.
"Each and every one of these heinous attacks depend on the same cold-blooded calculation that the evil monster will have a window of time to act out their demonic fantasy unchallenged. They want to be unchallenged. They don't want challenge.
"The only way to stop these wicked acts is to ensure that any sicko who would shoot up a school knows that within seconds, not minutes, they will face certain death. They have to know that, and they won't be doing it."
Trump's speech was not just about being "a loyal friend" and a "fearless champion" for gun owners and public safety. He also called for funding police, armed guards, and training and arming teachers.
"For this reason, I will ask Congress to repeal totally ineffective legislation that makes it harder to protect our schools and easier for criminals to face absolutely no opposition when they go in," Trump continued. "I will also create a new tax credit to reimburse any teacher for the full cost of a concealed carry firearm and training from highly qualified experts – who's better?
"If even 5% of teachers — people that are skilled with arms, we want that — 5% were voluntarily armed and trained to stop active shooters, we would achieve effective deterrence and the problem would cease to exist, and that would be a lot of people."
Trump added it would cost just a fracture of what it costs Americans to defend Ukraine against Russia's war.
"For about $12 billion, we could fund armed security guards at the entrance of every school in America and also arm every willing teacher," Trump continued. "We want to arm some of these teachers. They have to go through rigorous — or some people say vigorous; I like vigorous better; I don't like rigorous — they have to go through vigorous training."
Trump's position is based on the conservative belief that the only thing that stops and evildoer with a gun is a good person with a gun.
"But they were already there," Trump said of arming teachers, "and they'll do better than anybody you could put in, and they love our children. They really love our children.
"And, if we can send $120 billion to Ukraine, then we can afford 1/10 of that amount to protect American children in American schools."
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Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
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