Thread: Trump drops calls to raise guns age limit

Trump drops calls to raise guns age limit

• 8 hours ago

Media captionThis is why US gun laws probably won't change

US President Donald Trump's plan to deter school shootings does not include his repeated calls to raise the age for buying semi-automatic rifles to 21.

But he is moving ahead with his controversial proposal to provide firearms training to school employees.
The president tweeted that there was not much political support for raising the minimum age on weapons sales.

Americans must be 18 to buy a rifle or shotgun and 21 to buy a handgun from licensed dealers under federal law.

Private, unlicensed sales are federally allowed at any age for rifles and shotguns, and 18 for handguns, according to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

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The White House unveiled its proposals on Sunday night, following an attack at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School that left 17 dead in Parkland, Florida, on 14 February.



Media caption Parkland 17: Empty desks a memorial to students killed

The 19-year-old suspect - who allegedly used a legally purchased semi-automatic rifle to attack Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School - is charged with 17 counts of murder.

White House officials described Sunday's plan as a fulfilment of the president's call for action after Parkland.

It proposes to:

• Fund programmes to train school staff to use firearms

• Encourage military veterans and retired police officers to become teachers

• Improve background and mental health checks

The White House said a new federal commission on school safety would examine the age limit issue.

Skip Twitter post by @realDonaldTrump

Donald J. Trump

✔@realDonaldTrump


....On 18 to 21 Age Limits, watching court cases and rulings before acting. States are making this decision. Things are moving rapidly on this, but not much political support (to put it mildly).
6:22 AM - Mar 12, 2018

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Mr Trump tweeted on Monday: "On 18 to 21 Age Limits, watching court cases and rulings before acting.

"States are making this decision. Things are moving rapidly on this, but not much political support (to put it mildly)."

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, who will chair the new federal commission on school safety, said the proposals were "meaningful actions, steps that can be taken right away to help protect students".

Speaking last month, the Republican president had suggested it was a problem that Americans can legally buy semi-automatic rifles from the age of 18, yet have to wait until 21 to buy handguns.



Media captionWould we reduce the incentive to commit a mass shooting if we refused to report the killer?

"I mean, so they buy a revolver - a handgun - they buy at the age of 21," he told school officials.

"And yet, these other weapons that we talk about, they're allowed to buy them at 18.

"So how does that make sense? We're going to work on getting the age up to 21 instead of 18."

He had also accused members of his own party of being "petrified" of the National Rifle Association (NRA).



Media caption

Trump: 'You're afraid of the NRA'The Republican president said the NRA has "great power over you people", but "less power over me".

However, Mr Trump himself came under pressure from the country's top gun lobby not to change existing legislation.

Following his repeated calls to raise the age limit, a representative for the gun lobby visited the White House earlier this month.

Skip Twitter post by @SenSchumer

Chuck Schumer

✔@SenSchumer


.@WhiteHouse has taken tiny baby steps designed not to upset @NRA when the #gunviolence epidemic demands giant steps be taken. @SenateDems will push to go further: passing universal #backgroundchecks, actual fed legislation on protection orders & a debate on #AssaultWeaponsBan.
6:49 PM - Mar 11, 2018

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Afterwards, chief NRA lobbyist Chris Cox tweeted he had a "great meeting", and the president and vice-president "don't want gun control".

The NRA is suing Florida after it passed a gun control law which raises the legal age for buying rifles to 21. The lobby argues the bill violates the US constitution.

Chuck Schumer, leader of the opposition Democrats in the Senate, tweeted that the White House's action plan amounts to "baby steps".

Avery Gardiner, co-president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, said: "Americans expecting real leadership to prevent gun violence will be disappointed and troubled by President Trump's dangerous retreat from his promise."

Survivors of the Florida shooting have been pressing for a complete ban on sales of assault-style rifles to the public.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-43369991

Trump calls for arming teachers, raising gun purchase age to stop ‘savage sickos

choke..."to put it mildly"
make the age 21 and be done with it. Have armed school security guards, professionals, NOT TEACHERS. Being the armed guard is over and above the call of duty for a teacher and will bring many lawsuits due to perchance mis-happenings.

Teachers are there to teach not be thinking guns/guard duty. Call the dunce cap patrol on this idea of arming "teachers".

Originally Posted by artist

make the age 21 and be done with it. Have armed school security guards, professionals, NOT TEACHERS.

I disagree! Qualified teachers should not be left helpless if an armed guard is taken out or fails like Peterson did in Florida!

Originally Posted by artist

choke..."to put it mildly"
make the age 21 and be done with it. Have armed school security guards, professionals, NOT TEACHERS. Being the armed guard is over and above the call of duty for a teacher and will bring many lawsuits due to perchance mis-happenings.

Teachers are there to teach not be thinking guns/guard duty. Call the dunce cap patrol on this idea of arming "teachers".

There's no political support for it in Congress so it's a dead duck, and maybe rightly so. I don't know if it would have made any difference, anyway. The killers will just borrow one, steal one or buy one off-market. It's not like someone who is interested in shooting up a school or any other place and killing dozens of people will be stopped by an age law.

A teacher that is gun oriented able to carry is fine but DON'T PUT THAT BURDEN ON THOSE THAT ARE NOT GUN PEOPLE. Some people have phobias @ guns, some just abhor them and don't want to touch them. that is why armed guards as a profession are expected to be on board with guns - all teacher;s are not. Also better hope the gun carrying teacher does not get tricked or a missing gun situation arises. They are there to teach. And from stories read, some teachers are not right in the head, putting a gun daily in their hands is foolish.

Get the system tuned up to avoid mental/criminal/abusers to be unable to have a gun/rifle. You can have calls for spousal or animal abuse to police but if there is no conviction/record, that person can buy a gun. Fl shooter have over 30 calls for police and was able to buy a ar-15. Others records were not updated filed. Even the military messed up on reporting. There is no excuse for sloppiness in records to ok or deny gun buying. For NRA to make trump back down just on a 3yr age limit difference is unreal, irresponsible and selfish.

Originally Posted by artist

A teacher that is gun oriented able to carry is fine but DON'T PUT THAT BURDEN ON THOSE THAT ARE NOT GUN PEOPLE. Also better hope the gun carrying teacher does not get tricked or a missing gun situation arises. They are there to teach.

artist, none of the proposals ever required a teacher or anyone else on the staff to carry a gun, only those who both volunteer and who meet all the training and skill requirements they establish. It's also up to the individual schools if they even want to implement an armed staff program.

Sessions pushes prosecutions for those who lie on gun background checks

By Julia Manchester - 03/12/18 08:34 PM EDT 352

© Getty Images

Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Monday called on U.S. attorneys to strictly enforce laws that criminalize lying on background checks.
Sessions directed federal prosecutors to “swiftly and aggressively” prosecute cases involving individuals who are barred from obtaining a firearm, and who fail to tell the truth on a government form needed to pass a background check.
The directive was one of several steps the Justice Department is taking as part of the Trump administration's response to the school shooting last month in Parkland, Fla.
Justice Department officials say that while lying on a background check is considered a felony, the law often goes unprosecuted. The department also said it will up law enforcement presence at schools, and review how agencies respond to outside tips.
“No child should have to fear going to school or walking the streets of their neighborhood,” Sessions said in a statement, according to The Washington Post.
The Trump administration on Sunday released various proposals on school safety and gun restrictions as a response to the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School that left 17 people dead.
The White House said it would launch a federal commission to assess how to best address gun violence in schools and provide assistance to states to arm teachers.
The commission will be headed by Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and will involve federal, local and school officials.
The administration also said it would push states to pass legislation aimed at keeping guns away from dangerous individuals and encourage Congress to pass measures strengthening the national background check system.
http://thehill.com/homenews/administ...s-lying-on-gun

Here’s all the states where teachers already carry guns in the classroom

By Tess Owen Mar 10, 2018

Florida is on the verge of becoming the 15th state to arm teachers after Gov. Rick Scott signed an omnibus bill Friday allowing school staff to undergo law enforcement training to carry guns in the classroom.

Although the notion may seem radical, at least 14 states already arm teachers, according to a VICE News review of state laws and interviews with education department officials and school board associations around the country. Those states are Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, Idaho, Indiana, Missouri, Montana, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, and Washington.

Another 16 states give local school boards the authority to decide whether school staff can carry guns, either explicitly or through legal loopholes, but officials said they didn’t know of any instances of armed teachers in those states.



In some Texas and Utah school districts, teachers have carried guns for more than a decade. But the majority of school districts that arm teachers have done so in the years since the 2012 mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School that left 26 people dead, including 20 young children.

Texas was one of at least eight states where lawmakers passed legislation after Sandy Hook to clarify or relax existing law to make it easier for school districts to arm teachers. The others include Indiana, Georgia, Kansas, Missouri, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, and Wyoming.

And now Florida. The idea of arming teachers in order to prevent or halt school shootings gained renewed scrutiny in the state after a gunman killed 17 people at a Parkland, Florida, high school last month. President Donald Trump and the National Rifle Association both advocated the idea, sparking virulent opposition from teachers unions.

Scott signed the bill, which includes a provision allowing certain members of school staff to undergo law enforcement training. The Coach Aaron Feis Program, named for the coach who died trying to protect students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, comes at a price tag of $67 million. The legislation also includes firearm restrictions such as raising the minimum age of purchase to 21 from 18 and creating a three-day waiting period.

A NBC/ SurveyMonkey poll released this week found that 42 percent of Americans agreed with the idea of arming teachers, including 80 percent of Republicans, while 88 percent of Democrats and 64 percent of independents said they opposed it.

The decision to arm teachers remains largely a local one, and it’s difficult to say how many teachers are armed even in the states where it’s allowed. That’s because school districts generally don’t have to report that information to state education authorities (Arkansas, Texas, and Missouri are the exceptions). And because the question of arming teachers is a sensitive school security matter, the votes often take place in executive session and behind closed doors.

Texas education officials told VICE News that they were aware of 172 school districts (out of 1,031 in the state) that currently arm teachers. In Arkansas, a spokesperson said there were 13 school districts (out of 28 where teachers are currently armed. In Missouri, there are at least 20 (out of 567).

Officials generally declined to give the names of school districts that armed teachers, though some have received news coverage. In Arkansas, officials in the Clarkesville School District told local media at the time of their decision in 2013 that arming teachers was a more cost-effective solution to improving school safety than hiring a school resource officer. A school resource officer would have cost the district about $50,000 a year, whereas training 13 school staff members to use a gun in a crisis cost about $68,000 in total.

Education officials in Georgia told VICE News that they weren’t aware of any school districts that had voted to arm teachers, despite a 2014 law saying they can. In Tennessee, a school district has to meet specific criteria to move ahead with arming teachers, and only two have done so. (Neither of those districts has chosen to allow employees to carry concealed weapons, a state education department spokeswoman said.)

In Kansas, the 2013 law allowing teachers to carry guns hit a road bump when the liability insurance provider covering most state school districts wrote a letter saying the company would deny coverage if guns were allowed in the classroom. In Wyoming, no school districts arm teachers today, but a spokesperson for the department of education said at least five are actively considering it.

In other states, school districts appear to have taken advantage of existing loopholes or provisions in state law to arm teachers following Sandy Hook. And in a handful of states, laws governing guns in schools appear to be open to interpretation.

Legal experts from the National Conference of State Legislatures recently parsed the relevant statutes governing guns in schools. In some instances, they drew conclusions about what the law allows that were different from what state officials told VICE News.
For example, the researchers found nothing in Colorado state law that would make it legal for teachers to carry guns in schools or that would give school boards the authority to let them. Yet a spokesperson for the state’s department of education told VICE News that the decision was “up to individual school districts.” One school district in the state that arms teachers is Hanover, located east of Colorado Springs, according to Jeremy Meyer, the department’s director of communications.

Louisiana is another example of a state where the law is vague. Scott Richard, executive director of the Louisiana School Board Association, said his organization’s legal counsel is of the opinion that “local school boards cannot make this decision at the local school board level.” Yet the relevant statute says anyone “having the written permission of the principal” can bring a gun to school.

Louisiana is one of 19 states with legislation pending that would either clear up confusion over existing laws on arming teachers or amend the law to give local school boards the authority to decide.

https://news.vice.com/en_us/article/ywq8b5/teachers-armed-guns-classroom-state-laws

According to the above article teachers have been walking some Texas school halls for over a decade.