Flashback: Trump Campaigned on Allowing Teachers to Be Armed for Self-Defense

It the wake of the attack on unarmed innocents at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, it is important to remember that President Trump campaigned on allowing teachers to be armed for self-defense.

He first broached the subject after the October 1, 2015, attack on Umpqua Community College (UCC); an attack in which an armed man entered a gun-free campus and killed nine people. Trump responded to the attack by saying, ““I’ll tell you, if you had a couple of the teachers or someone with guns in that room, you would have been a hell of a lot better off.”

Weeks later, during the October 28, 2015, presidential debate, Trump revisited the topic by stressing that gun-free zones actually attract attackers who might avoid campus if they knew their would-be victims could shoot back. He said gun-free zones provide “target practice for sickos.”

Two months later, on October 8, 2016, The Washington Post quoted Trump saying, “I will get rid of gun-free zones on schools.”

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