이하는 빈번하게 발생하는 학교 내 총기를 이용한 범죄를 막기 위해, 트럼프가 교사들에게 총기를 지급하여 무장하도록 하겠다는 내용의 2월22일자 BBC 기사이다. 이는 한마디로 총으로 총을 막는다는 멍청한 소리다. 총기협회의 로비가 얼마나 대단했으면, 그리고 서민의 삶과 죽음이 얼마나 하찮았으면, 지금까지 숱하게 총기범죄가 학교에서 발생을 했음에도 눈하나 깜짝하지 않고, 아직도 총기규제를 안하고 있다. 미국 정치의 시스템을 깊이 알진 못하지만, 아마 앞으로도 총기규제는 결코 안 할 것이다. 참으로 슬픈 현실이다. 어느 나라건, 서민들의 삶은 고달프고, 목숨은 파리목숨이다.
Trump endorses guns for teachers to stop shootings
US President Donald Trump has said arming teachers could prevent school shootings like that which left 17 people dead last week in Florida.
Teachers carrying a concealed gun could end attacks "very quickly", he said.
Mr Trump floated the proposal - long-championed by the powerful NRA gun lobby - as emotional survivors of the 14 February massacre urged him to take measures to stop similar attacks.
The US leader called for improved background checks on gun buyers.
"It's not going to be talk like it's been in the past," he said.
What do students and parents want?
President Trump listened to pleas for gun reform on Wednesday from about 40 students, teachers and families in the executive mansion's state dining room.
Hundreds of teenagers from the Washington DC suburbs rallied outside at the time - some voicing support for arming teachers.
Media captionSchool shooting survivor's tearful plea
Andrew Pollack, whose daughter Meadow died in last week's attack - the second-deadliest shooting at a US public school - said: "We, as a country, failed our children."
"It should've been one school shooting and we should've fixed it. And I'm pissed. It's my daughter I'm not going to see again," he went on to say.
Media captionVictim's father tells Trump of rage
Mark Barden - whose son Daniel was killed in the 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut - said more guns was not the answer.
"Schoolteachers have more than enough responsibilities right now, than to have to have the awesome responsibility of lethal force to take a life," he said.
At his White House event, Mr Trump promised to look "very strongly" at calls for educators to be armed with guns - a position long held by the National Rifle Association (NRA).
Image copyrightREUTERSImage captionPresident Trump holds his notes at the listening session. Point five says: "I hear you"
"If you had a teacher who was adept at firearms," he said, "they could very well end the attack very quickly."
"Where a teacher would have a concealed gun on them," he said, while acknowledging the plan was controversial, "they would go for special training and they would be there, and you would no longer have a gun-free zone.
I never said “give teachers guns” like was stated on Fake News @CNN & @NBC. What I said was to look at the possibility of giving “concealed guns to gun adept teachers with military or special training experience - only the best. 20% of teachers, a lot, would now be able to
....immediately fire back if a savage sicko came to a school with bad intentions. Highly trained teachers would also serve as a deterrent to the cowards that do this. Far more assets at much less cost than guards. A “gun free” school is a magnet for bad people. ATTACKS WOULD END!
Stoneman Douglas High School had an armed guard on duty during last week's attack - but he never discharged his gun. The local sheriff told reporters the deputy never encountered the shooter.
But putting an armed teacher in every classroom is a divisive topic - a 2013 poll by the National Education Association found only 22% of teachers said they approved of the idea of arming staff, while 68% of teachers said they were opposed.
And 72% of teachers said they would not want to carry a gun even if the law allowed.
Media captionFlorida shooting survivor Lorenzo Prado mistaken for the gunman
A ban on some types of weapons, advocated for by many students, is unpalatable for supporters of the second amendment - which governs the right to bear arms.
Lawmakers in Florida's state legislature rejected a proposal on Tuesday to even debate banning such weapons.
They said, however, that will consider raising the minimum age to buy assault rifles - like the one police say was used in the massacre - from 18 to 21.
The accessories - which enable a rifle to shoot hundreds of rounds a minute - were used by a gunman who killed 58 concert-goers in Las Vegas last October.
The NRA - which contributed an estimated $30m (£21m) to help elect Mr Trump- opposes a total ban on bump stocks but supports some regulation of the devices and some changes to background check legislation.
Is there a mood change?
In Florida, survivors of the shooting poured into the state capital to demand lawmakers restrict sales of assault rifles.
Media captionAround 100 students made the bus journey of more than seven hours to reach Florida's capital
It was the first organised protest of the youth-led anti-gun movement that has swept the US since the attack in Parkland, Florida.
Other students in Chicago, Illinois; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; and Phoenix, Arizona walked out of classes in solidarity.
Media captionUS students walk out to demand firearms control
The issue formed a main part of a "town hall" debate staged by CNN on Wednesday night, where Florida Senator Marco Rubio felt the articulate anger of a bereaved parent.
Mr Rubio was repeatedly booed and later said banning semi-automatic weapons was "a position well outside the mainstream".
Fred Guttenberg, whose daughter was killed in Parkland shooting, to Sen. Marco Rubio: “Look at me and tell me guns were the factor in the hunting of our kids ... and you will work with us to do something about guns” http://cnn.it/2HyYZKa#StudentsStandUp
Also using hashtag #educatorsagainstviolence and #schoolsafetynow, thousands of teachers have been posting selfies and messages of the non-violent items they would like to see in their classrooms.
The first posts with the hashtag were on Tuesday when Californian @the.feminist.teacher and Brittany Wheaton of @thesuperheroteacher accountposted photographs of messages asking for funding for student support programs.
"Arming teachers with guns is not the answer. I want you to #ArmMeWith what I need to provide a great education for ALL students," she wrote.
Lindsey Paull, a primary school teacher in Iowa wrote she would leave her "dream job" of teaching if she was asked to carry guns in the classroom.
"#ArmMeWith with books because six year olds need to learn to read not to be scared in class," she wrote on a poster in her photograph.
"After Sandy Hook I made sure I voted for politicians who wanted stricter gun laws, but it stopped there. It can't stop there now," Ms Paull told the BBC, adding she is "so proud" of the teenage survivors of the Florida shooting last week for "demanding" change.
Training teachers to use arms to respond to a gun attack is not a new idea. Advocates argue the emergency response is too usually too slow in cases of mass shootings, and schools need to be able to neutralise gunmen.
Many of the posts have received hundreds of likes and comments as other teachers joined in.
One primary school teacher in Lincoln, Nebraska, posted on Wednesday she wants reform of gun laws in order to keep her classroom "from becoming the scene of America's next mass shooting".
She also wrote she had felt compelled to prepare for potential attacks by finding basic equipment in her classroom to defend herself. Her post was liked more than 1,000 times.
"#ArmMeWith the best defense against hatred, ignorance, and violence: literature and information that will empower my students," wrote English teacher @writeonwithmissg.