Firearms would provide extra security. If you support it, you can call 202 7488000. If you oppose it, 202 7488001. And if you are a teacher, we have a special line for you. You can call 202 7488002 to give us your thoughts. You can also reach us on social media, on twitter at cspan wj and on facebook at facebook. Com cspan. Lets take a look at what President Trump said yesterday, speaking at the conservative Political Action conference about his proposal on guns. When we declare our schools to be gun free zones, it just puts our students in far more danger. Danger. [applause] welltrained, gun adept teachers and coaches and people who work in those buildings, people in the marines for 20 years he retired, the army, navy, coast guard, people who are adept with weaponry and with guns, they teach. Have 100 dont want to guards standing with rifles all over the school. You do a concealed carry permit. [applause] and this would be a major deterrent, because these people are inherently cowards. If they thought, like if this guy thought that other people would be shooting bullets back at him, he would not have gone to that school. He would not have gone there. Host michael is on the line from newark, new jersey, a teacher. What do you think about the proposal to encourage some teachers to carry concealed weapons . Caller i do not really think it is a good idea. I think these people who come into the schools would not really care if a teacher or multiple teachers had guns. I think it is more of a Mental Health issue, so i think it will kind of increase the fire going back and forth. It does not really make much sense. Host if you were offered a trainingr example, or in firearm use, do you think you might consider at all taking a gun into the school . Caller no, because i would not trust myself enough, no matter how much training i had, to keep a, to be ready at all times and b, to not shoot the kids by accident. Host what grade do you teach . Caller i teach third and fourth grade. With the you satisfied safety in your school, the ability of your school to protect students in the event of some awful attack . The so, right after monday following the parkland shooting, we had a lockdown drill. Located at thes very end of the school, and there is only one entrance, so i am pretty satisfied with our safety. My school only goes up to fourth grade, so why not really too worried. The building is pretty secure, so i do not really have many concerns, but you never know what people. Host in todays New York Times, on the front page it details how many alerts were made about the suspect, and nothing was done. The warnings that Law Enforcement officials received about nikolas cruz were anything but subtle. I know he is going to explode, a woman said on the fbi tip line. Her big worry was that he might resort to slipping into a school and shooting the place up. 40 days later, he is accused of doing just that, by urging it to high school in parkland, florida, shooting 17 people to death. Three months before the massacre at douglas high school, a family friend dialed 911 to tell the Palm Beach CountySheriffs Office about mr. Cruzs personal arsenal. I need someone here because i am afraid he comes back and he has a lot of weapons, the friend said. Victor is calling from silver spring, maryland. You support the proposal to allow some teachers to be armed. Tell us why. Caller the main reason is, the main point, concealed. You do not want to let these criminals know who has a gun and who does not have a gun. That is the whole point. You do not put a whole bunch of armed people in school. Few and do not tell who has a gun, who does not have a gun. Maryland proudly display gun free zone. I make it a point, never, ever to go into a business that declares themselves gun free zone. I was growing up, i remember mentally ill people were put in mental institutions, but the liberals made such a big stink in the early 1970s that all these people were let go because the democrats need them to vote for them. Host what about concerns expressed by some people that having guns in schools might increase the chances of an the gun falling into the wrong hands inside the school . Are you concerned . Caller no, i am not here it i had a couple of military friends i am not. I had a couple of military friends with concealed weapons on them, and i felt safe knowing that if something did happen, they would get their guns out and shoot the bad guy dead. Host calling from savannah, georgia, you oppose the president s idea. Why . Caller good morning. When theit because Second Amendment was written, i do not think no one is living now in america that has been living in america now. I think the situation goes like this. , to arme need guns teachers with guns . You go to college to learn how to teach. You did not go to school to learn how to carry a gun. We are now teaching how to run away from situations instead of kids learning in school. Those kids in florida are the most educated kids i have seen, as far as going to school. You have a president who dont have a clue about putting a teacher in a school with a gun. What would that do to the kids . My son is a schoolteacher in jacksonville, florida. I am very proud of him. He is a math teacher. I would not imagine my son carrying a gun in the classroom teaching his kids. Veteran, and iar do not think my son would appreciate the idea of carrying a gun. The idea that the president just teachers toaying carry a gun is the most stupid thing that any leader of this country ever proposed. This guy and the white house dont have a clue. Host the wall street journal reports some teachers are arming themselves in the classroom. They are allowing faculties to carry weapons, but it is in your security measure that can provide an Immediate Response when a shooter is on campus. The faster we can respond, the more of our babies are saved, said christopher burroughs, superintendent at Georgetown School schools, a 1060 student district where some teachers carry guns. Those people that are armed are part of our safety team. Donald from california, you support the proposal. Caller yes, i do. Thank you for answering my call. I support the president wholeheartedly, and i think more people should, because he is working tirelessly trying to get things done in america. This thing about Arming Teachers is a good thing. I will tell you why. Because when the populace is armed and nobody knows who has a gun, but he steps out of line. The only way nobody steps out of line. The only way to catch a criminal is if you dont know who to shoot first. If he starts indiscriminately pointing a gun at a kid, the person can take him out before he hurts any children. Host the New York Times has more from the president s remarks yesterday about his proposal, including the fact that the president vilified the School Security official who did not respond to the shooting. President donald trump condemned on friday in parkland, florida, a sheriffs deputy who stayed outside the school, patrolling while the shooter rampage unfolded inside, even as he assisted that his proposal to arm welltrained teachers would have prevented the massacre. When it came time to get in there and do something, he did not have the courage, and he certainly did a poor job. There is no question of that. Resigned after video showed he failed to enter the high school to confront the gunman as he was killing 17 people. The president went on to call that sheriffs deputy a coward. On the line from hostetter, pennsylvania, you are a teacher. What do you think . Caller i think it might be a we had a Council Meeting here. You have two minutes to state your case. If you get in an argument with council members, you will get locked out. Another thing, why cant they have doors that are one way, that open out . Why cant they have a camera sitting at the front door . If you do not state your case, what you want, and if you are carrying something that is not legal, do not open the door. Host what level do you teach . Caller eighth and ninth. Host are you happy with the security in your school . Do you feel secure . Caller not really. Host why not . When school is open and when it is closed, that is it. When you go to the student Council Meeting, that is sitting there whole time. They built a new school in pennsylvania and i do not know if they should have these doors open, but they should look into it. Host American Federation of teachers president Randi Weingarten was on our Newsmakers Program yesterday, and was asked to respond to the suggestion that more teachers be armed. It is a terrible idea, period, full stop. It saddened me because it showed absolutely no understanding that children and parents and educators all want and need schools to be safe sanctuaries for teaching and learning, not armed fortresses, not armed caps. Camps. It felt like, this is what the nra has wanted all along. This is a new market for the gun manufacturers, and this is where the president , after that listening session, took this conversation, instead of trying to reduce gun violence in our streets and our schools. If you think about it it is an insane suggestion because what are you going to do in terms of for kindergarten teachers going to wear their guns on their hip . Are you talking about just handguns versus and ar15 that can shoot 90 rounds in a minute . What happens if people are rushing along in a hallway, what is a frightened teacher going to do . I could go through all of these Unanswered Questions and the more questions you go through, the more you realize what an insane idea it is. Frankly, i was on the phone with about 60,000 teachers and other educators this week. As one ofthis idea the ideas the president said, and universally, including gun owners, people said no, this is crazy. Then you saw what happened with the sheriffs deputy. The whole idea of the good guy with the gun was debunked by that guy being completely immobilized, a guy who had a gun right outside of the school. So for all these reasons, it is a terrible idea. You can host you can watch the full newsmakersomorrow at at 12 40 p. M. And 6 00 p. M. That is with Randi Weingarten. Andrew is on the line from white plains, new york, you oppose encouraging teachers to carry guns. Why . Caller good morning, and thank you for cspan. I oppose it because i think you are making schools into an armed camp and i do not think that is a good idea. Safe, as my school being i do not know if any parent can say our schools are safe after what has been happening recently. I think that going back to this wild west mentality with everyone armed and able to protect themselves is a terribly romantic and stupid idea that is not going to solve the problem. I would also like to make one observation. Donald trump has successfully seized the debate and taken it away from whether or not we should regulate assault rifles, and placed this crazy idea of Arming Teachers. He has shown his political adeptness, and i am sorry to say we have been pulled off of the real issue, controlling assault weapons that should be more regulated. Host the president proposed some other things as well, beefing up background checks, raising the minimum age to purchase long guns. What do you think about those . Caller windowdressing. He is using that to show how reasonable he is. It depends on what crowd he is talking to. He speaks in front of those about those in front of australia because there is gun control, and then he gets in front of cpac and lets it all out. We are being led around by the nose i donald trump. Calling from grafton, ohio, you support the call to armed teachers. Hello, kevin. Caller i want to thank you for the call. I support donald trump in Arming Teachers just simply because we need it at this time. Society has changed. I am a grandfather. I have grandkids at every school around here. The simple fact is that we have fire extinguishers and fire hoses in every school. The simple thing is, in case a fire breaks out. The times have changed. When i went to school, i actually took my shotgun to school. Of course, it was unloaded. I put it in my locker and i would go hunting at the end of the day. Times have changed that we cannot have that anymore. If we can put a fire extinguisher in a school and a teacher, i am sure, would put out a fire, it is there to be used. As far as the ar15s and socalled assault rifles, they are actually no more than a customized, cosmetic change to an actual hunting rifle. People are focusing on these assault rifles. They were just actually no more than a cosmetic change to a hunting rifle. It is a shame that our teachers cannot carry guns in school for the simple fact that they need a tool to address the issues in our society, because our society has changed. It is a society of violence, as you watch the kids playing their video games, killing things left and right. They lost the regard for life. Of course, we have mentally deranged people that will bring a gun into school. If we defend our country, why wouldnt we defend our children . We put bar guards in our banks, guards everywhere else to protect our money and various other things. Our kids are left shooting fish in a barrel. Host kevin is calling from waldorf, maryland, you oppose the president s plan. Caller how are you doing this morning . I am a retired marine. I went into the marine corps right after high school, so i signed up when i was 17. I have been exposed to weapons well in the marine corps. Limit, iaising the age am not so sure i was mature enough at 18 to have a weapon. Being supervised in the marine corps and all the training we get, you become accustomed with the weapon. A does not happen overnight. An 18yearolde person is mature enough, and with the extensive training i received in the marine corps, i can see a difference between me at 18 and someone who just walks out to buy a weapon. Host what about teachers who are trained, they go through training to be able to handle a or people who are ready have concealed carry license and have gone through that training, how do you feel about them having their weapons in the school . Caller that brings another good question. I served time in the marine corps, green sukkot dish Marine Corps Security force. Our job was to protect the base and special weapons. We received an extensive amount of training on the weapons range. You shoot with your left and right hand. We shot shotguns. We even did is combat and aildings, a gunfight in building is different than a gunfight in the street because you have corners and doors. We would learn how to breach a building, get in their bank, and take down get in there, and take down the bad guys. He pulled the fire alarm. All the kids are coming out. He is shooting everything. A teacher cannot shoot everything. Who is going to take that liability . What if he takes a hostage and says, put down your weapon or im going to kill you . President trump says, the bad guy will not know. If i am a bad guy and no teachers are allowed to carry weapons, i do not carry care if the teacher has a weapon or not. Teachers become a target. A teacher cannot shoot everybody. It is a slippery slope. Host the Washington Examiner reports that four Broward County shares deputies failed to enter the Florida School during the shooting. Deputiesf four shares failed to enter the high school in parkland, florida, during the mass shooting. It was reported that Broward CountyDeputy SheriffScott Peterson who served as the Armed School Resource officer, did not enter the school, but was not the only one. Three other Broward County deputies also remained outside the school with their pistols drawn as they took cover behind their vehicles. Additional additional officers were frustrated and surprised that the shares deputies did not accompany them as they entered the school. Pat is calling from southpointe, ohio. You support the president s proposal. Tell us why. Caller yes, i do. Have you noticed the majority of the shootings we have had have been in schools or churches . They do not expect anyone to have a firearm. Teachers and different people in the churches go through a Tactical Training program, whereas the marine said earlier they were taught to breach a building. These people would be taught to handle the gun, you know what to do when someone walks through those doors with a firearm. Do,hey know exactly what to they are not going to be overwhelmed. Y are not going to be their automatic training will kick in. Host what about the concern that some people have expressed that you have a school, particularly if you have kids that are troubled and know there are weapons in the school, that maybe they can get their hands on them or that there can be an accident if there are armed weapons in the school . Caller if a teacher has been through concealed carry classes, if they have had the Tactical Training, their guns are going to be in a place that they will will notchance, there be a chance of a child getting this by accident, or something going wrong. I am not just a mother who has been sitting back watching this on tv. In 1993, when the School Shootings first started, my daughter was in a school where a 17yearold walked into his class with a gun, pulled it out, killed his teacher, took his classmates hostage, and killed the custodian. I am not just speaking from sitting here watching tv. I am speaking from experience. I thank you for my dish for your time. For your time. Host mike from stanford, connecticut, you oppose the plan. Why . Caller like that woman was just saying, no one can ever get a hold of this gun. Accidents dont happen . Kids do not shoot themselves in houses . It will never get opendoc . Will bee will be taught to do what they are going to do. If she willing . I do not think so. Spurs trump, private bone , where is he going to be . When i went to school, there was discipline. They had a paddle. Where did discipline go . The nra, when did the nra become the Second Amendment . The Second Amendment is not the nra. Can you tell us how many people are in the nra . I heard yesterday it was like 5 Million People. How much pull good 5 Million People have on 300 Million People . Host what about teachers who say they are comfortable bringing their guns, they are comfortable having concealed carry licenses and they would feel safer if they are armed in their school, what do you say . Caller you want to do that, you are going to take the responsibility in the end. You start shooting down the hallway and put a goal that a bullet in someones head, that is up to you. You have got to sign these papers that say, you are responsible for killing all these children in the hallway, and maybe you will get the shooter who is shooting at you with a semi automatic weapon, and you have a handgun. Host the New York Times has consulted experts to see what they thought about the proposal of arming some teachers, and they report that most Law Enforcement effort experts argue teachers should not carry guns. Civilians may be able to hit a bullseye at the shooting range, but they lack the Technical Knowledge of handling weapons that trained Law Enforcement personnel get. Accidents happen, guns can fall out of holsters, be taken from the classroom, or accidentally discharge. You do not want to have a gun available to a student or worker who may have a Mental Health issue, said the Vice President of Public Safety and superintendent of the Police Department at the university of pennsylvania. Jc is calling from kent, washington, you support the president s plan. Caller yes, i do. Thank you for doing such an outstanding job. I watched cspan come on the very first week it was on. My brother is former secret service. He helped train the pilots, including my elder brother, to fly on board and become extra protection on board the airplanes. With the proper training, that program works. Now the teachers, i understand that some of them are not going to want to do that. Those are the people that you need out of the program. You do not armed all of the teachers, you arm some of them here at teachers that feel confident they can do this, they might have military backgrounds, they may not. The ones that want to protect the children will protect the children as they will be trained right and in the frame of mind of doing so. Whether or not the president came up with this idea, i do not think so. And i was a student 50 years ago, we did not have guns in the classroom as an opportunity to protect ourselves. We had morals, we had capabilities. We did have the paddle, as one of the gentlemen was talking about. That capability was there. Teachers have lost the opportunity to have control as dictated by what the parents want to do. Now, with such a litigious nation, some of those people out there who said, this is not going to work, you said on Television Many different people said we have got to do something. Here is a plan. Lets try it out and if it does not work, we take it out of the system and we go on with it. I appreciate the time to talk to you this morning. Thank you. Host amy is a teacher calling from gray, georgia. What level do you teach . Caller high school. Host what do you think about the plan . Caller it is a horrible idea. A sick an idea that society would come up with. Our students are being bombarded clues that the adults around them cannot protect them, as this is how we solve the problem. Bey see very clearly can solved by controlling guns, because they know it is a gun issue. It is not a Mental Health issue. It is not a lack of morals issue. They understand this does not happen everywhere, and they understand why. Is it because everywhere else that is similar to us, they do not have this love for the gun . Us to savee begging them, save them with clear, calm reason. We cannot do it. We are failing them every day, all day. I am enraged by this, because as a teacher, i want them to believe in the power of reason, civil society, the rule of law. What it means to be in a country where people can do things that are positive. We are just showing them that we cannot do it because this is our solution, just armed teachers. Fight fire with more fire. Host i want to ask you, do you feel safe in your high school . Are you satisfied with the level of security to prevent something, god forbid, awful like this from happening . Caller i feel safe in my school because i have faith in my children. I cannot prevent anything from happening like this, but i know that on a daytoday basis i do not fear being with my students because that cannot be a part of what it is you teach. You cannot teach people if you are constantly afraid. The thing that we fear the most is that, we live in a society where the gun is so loved above people, that we can have a conversation like this about arming more people. I do not feel safe in school, because im surrounded by people and ideals that are fine and good. The Washington Examiner has an opinion piece by daniel payne that says, of course we should let teachers carry guns in school. A qualified teacher with a handgun is perfectly capable of instructing the classroom. Where is the evidence to suggest otherwise . That is not a rhetorical question, for all the hyperventilating over the ideas of teachers carrying guns in school, they have not been able to prove why it is such a wildly bad idea. One suspects it is an ideological objection more than anything. Some people simply do not like guns. They see them as loud, scary, part of an alien culture which they are unfamiliar, and believe having teachers carry guns will denigrate or defile the educational environment. Jim is calling from wake forest, North Carolina, you oppose the president s plan. Caller i have five people that i know, my wife is an x teacher. I have a daughter and daughterinlaw who are teachers. My son does teach. No, it will never work. What you have is you have money that you need to go ahead to real resource officers in the school. We have given away a lot of money here, tax cuts and everything else. That money could be used for that. Was not arself a one teacher class with 35 people, and between classes if she went to stop one student going off another student, if she turned her back, another student came running down the hallway and crashed into my wife and knocked her down. It will never work. All these people who think it will work, it will never happen. And the lottery money. Lets go back to money where we can do this. The state of North Carolina has been cutting the money for school funding, and Charter Schools are public schools. People need to know that. Their tax money is going to that too. They keep cutting the money, which is coming from the lottery, and why not take some more of that lottery and give it to the schools . Lets help put resource officers in. We go to libraries, concerts, churches, hospitals. Atwhat point are we going to colleges have people carrying guns . Host some other headlines today, in the New York Times, a Trump Campaign of i visited guilty and will Campaign Advisor pleaded guilty and will help robert mueller. He has agreed to help with the special counsel inquiry into interference in the 2016 election after pleading guilty to financial fraud and lying to investigators. He is a longtime political consultant who served as mr. Trumps Deputy Campaign chairman. Mr. Gates plans to offer incriminating us of information against his longtime associate, paul manafort, and possibly other members, in exchange for a lighter punishment. He faces six years in prison. Jeffrey is on the line, you support the president s plan, from summerville, south carolina. Caller i think the key word is allow, not mandatory. Those districts that would agree to that, could go through with it. It comes up for discussion. All these risks and problems are being discussed and talked through. How to carry the gun, where it should be stored, what type of training, all of these are reasonable discussions to have. One of your previous callers was talking about reasonable and unreasonable. The unreasonable activity is the mass shooting. The reasonable discussion is what to do about it. I thought the example of a fire was a very good example. You do not know where it is going to occur, but you are prepared for it. I thought your last editorial that you read from the newspaper was a good read. That is my thoughts on that. Host mark is a teacher calling from troy, new york. What are your thoughts . Caller i want to thank you right away for cspan. I have been a longtime viewer. I think it is an extremely bad idea. Some of these callers seem to think that we can go back to the wild west days. Taking large is amounts of money from the nra and pushing the nras good guy with a gun, but in a school, children could become Collateral Damage in a shootout when teachers are armed. The accidents that could happen from weapons on site is a big issue. I also feel like guns would change the dynamic in schools, just like when you have police in schools. It is not a safe haven and a sanctuary for ideas. Host what about the point that makecolors make callers that getting rid of Gun Free School zones would mean that not everybody is armed, but a potential attacker would not know question mark when not know . Caller you are hearing it both ways, they would not know who was armed, and the idea that teachers would have guns on site would be a deterrent. I am interested in these ideas and thinking them over, but in talking to my students over these ideas, they are not in favor of guns in school. I know that is a small sample, my students, but they think the environment would be less safe. Host what level do you teach . Caller juniors and seniors, history and government. Host do you feel safe in school . Do you feel your School District has done enough to guard against some awful incident like this . Caller i feel fairly safe in my school. We have had drills for strangers on campus and shooters, and have tried to plan for the eventuality of it. Host thank you for your call. Yesterday also at cpac, congressman jim jordan, a founder of the freedom caucus, talked about the idea of Arming Teachers in schools. [video clip] that coach who gave his life for his students, if he had a thearm to protect himself, president spoke clearly and eloquently about that a few minutes ago. Proper training. Every Single Church that i know of has that same kind of policy. There are parishioners each sunday who have had the training, retired don forstmann or military retired Law Enforcement or military to protect the folks at the service, i think that makes sense for schools to bank. A president has been articulate in a way that no one else can be. Host on the line from molly, North Carolina, you oppose the president s plan. Caller im going to start my comment with this. The citizens of the United States need to go back to the Supreme Court and have the Second Amendment reevaluated. They should say, regulated militia. You need to know what that means. Second of all, when they wrote it, they did not have machine guns or automatic weapons. In essence, the constitution can mean that people can only have guns such as was when they wrote that in the constitution. You can tell by the way that everything has evolved, we were not having School Shootings like this a while back it all started with all these automatic guns and people doing a lot of killing. They have evolved with the guns that can kill a lot of people, and also the crime has evolved and increased. And no, we should not be promoting more guns. All they are saying, the people for this, all they are saying is we need more people that can kill some more people so we all can. While, the little kids will be able to carry guns. And that man that killed all those people in las vegas, he was over 21. The young man that killed the students in florida, they had no way to stop him from getting guns because we have no laws to prevent him from getting guns. He had not committed a crime, so he was acting crazy. What can you do . There is a lot of people. We cannot just lock them all up because you suspect. He has to do something first, and he can get all the guns he wants. There was no law to stop him from getting a gun. Host david is calling from monticello, georgia, you support the president s plan. Caller thank you for cspan and washington journal. A couple things i want to respond to, the caller from gray, georgia, which is 26 miles from where i live. She said it has nothing to do with mental illness, nothing to do with Arming Teachers, it is about getting rid of the guns. 1994 to 2004. Rom when they did a ban on what they considered assault rifles, it did not work. It did not make one change at all. It has already been tried. Lets try this. First of all, the president is not just talking about arming qualified teachers. He is talking about securing the schools. You do not need to be able to go into the school haphazardly. You need to be able to make a fort out of that school. If the schools had megaamounts inside, icash guarantee it will be fortified. All of this argument about banning assault rifles, it has already been done. Todaysome other headlines , President Trump is accelerating his move to test his push to move his push to move the embassy to jerusalem. Pressing ahead with the controversial step far earlier than previously announced. We are planning to open the new u. S. Embassy to israel in jerusalem in may, a state Department Spokesperson told the financial times, added that the opening will be timed to coincide with israels 70th anniversary. The move, reversing decades of u. S. Policy, while anger many u. S. Allies in the region who fear it will stoke unrest and fuel extremism across the middle east. It is also likely to undermine president Donald Trumps ledge to broker the ultimate deal to end the decades long issue. Caller i taught High School English and journalism. I do not know if this has been mentioned, but a teacher in a school just the other day left a gun on the back of a toilet, and children went into that restroom and found that gun. They were elementary children. I am so tired of this responsible gun owners. You see so many stories where gun owners leave their guns out, children visit the home and get the guns and someone is killed. I dideacher, i remember not stand in one place when i was teaching. I would be Walking Around the room. Sometimes i would have a book in my hand. I cannot imagine Walking Around with a gun in my hand, because if it is locked away, that will not help. Also, on a gunman goes in, if he thinks the teacher has a gun, guess who will be shot first . The person who will help the children. I think it is a horrible idea, and i am horrified about the whole discussion. Host robert is on the line from lynchburg, virginia, you oppose the president s plan. Tell us your reasons. Caller yes, maam. Thank you for having me. Are you there . Host i am. Go ahead. Caller i oppose it, it is just like the teachers in roanoke are saying, if a guy come into a school with a weapon, the first person they are going to kill is that teacher because they suspect they have a weapon. Anyone that has been in Law Enforcement and military, what is happening here is not just a gun, it is the people of the nra that are supporting these candidates with a lot of money. That is why we need to vote these old people out and let the young generation get in with some young ideals. Right now, you have these old people, for example, hatch. He is getting ready to retire. Here comes another old guy taking his place. Let some young people come in with new ideas instead of these old people being bought by the nra and lobbyists, whatever. They are owned by the lobbyists and the money. Hey are not going to change they are going to look out for their interest, that is money for the nra. Thank you for taking my call. Host the Washington Post reports the gun debate has spurred production of firearms. U. S. Companies have manufactured more than 70 million firearms since 2018, rapidly escalating the production of pistols and types of rifles used in recent mass shootings. Government and Industry Data shows, in 2016, the last year for which data was available, production spiked roughly 11 million firearms in that year alone. Thomas is on the line from miami beach. You support the president s plan. Why . Caller honestly, it is amazing listening to this. I guess we really do have a fight or flight mentality in everybody. I cannot imagine being a schoolteacher and shutting my door with 20, 25 little kids and not wishing i had a firearm in my hand at that moment. I am hearing people get slaughtered outside the door. We are not asking these teachers to be rambo, james bond, and go out and hunt down through the halls and look for this killer. These deputies did not even have the guts to do that. But if they could hunker down with the kids while they have this weapon, and you have got one entry into your classroom, and if the bad person comes through that door they have got a much better chance if they have a firearm. There is so much to be said about all of this. Canet me ask you this i ask you a quick question . On that point you were making about the shares deputies, sums sheriffs deputies, some say they had pistols, the shooter had an ar15. That was really no match, and it would be no match for a teacher with a concealed pistol to deal with someone with a very highpowered weapon like the shooter had. Caller you have what is called suppress fire in the military. This happens in the army all the time. A group that has more firepower than you. Is shooting or the deputy is shooting a couple rounds down the hall, yes, they might not be hitting the target, but he or she is now taking cover instead of slaughtering kids. Those deputies probably couldve saved at least half of those lives, had they gone in and distracted that boy. I just cannot imagine choosing not to be armed, versus having a chance. I do not understand these people who call in. I grew up in North Carolina, and by the age of 10 years old all the boys was running around with 22s. We all knew how to take care of ourselves, and no one got shot. Host yesterday, the National Education association Vice President discussed the idea of Arming Teachers. One of the teachers who survived the shooting in florida in parkland described the horrific scene that she encountered in her classroom, where her frightened students were actually running at her. They were running at her because they look to her to protect them. Imagine if she had the responsibility of having a gun. By the way, where is that gun . Firearms should be locked away for safekeeping. How do you get access to that in a quick enough time to do anything about it . It, it, as she described was so vivid. They were rushing at her. Imagine having the responsibility to get a gun out at that moment. The caller is exactly, exactly right. How would she feel at that moment that she has that responsibility . Whether or not the president was proposing, initially, training once a year or twice a year, we all know that when we are in those kinds of situations, unless you are constantly training, you are not ready to make that decision in an instant , whether you are going to use that done or not. Host evan is on the line from magnolia, ohio. You oppose the president s proposal to allow teachers to be armed. Why . Caller i agree with everything the last three people of said. Unless you have Tactical Training, you cannot in an instant pull a gun, walk into a crowd of people, determine who has got the gun, and be able to shoot that person by himself and not heard anyone else. Friendly fire kills a lot of people. Ask the service, and look at the one in cleveland. The one in cleveland did not even have a gun. Look how many officers got shot. Patty supports the plan, calling from detroit. Caller i think anybody who wishes to be responsible for a gun should have one. The teachers just need to be educated more on it. Cannot just go randomly making up laws. There should be regulation, and based on the persons personality. Host what about the idea that some people brought up, that perhaps a teacher is not the most qualified person to carry a firearm . They are qualified to teach algebra. Is there some concern that offering bonuses might incentivize people who otherwise should not have a gun, to carry guns in the classroom . Caller there should be no kind of bonus involved. It should just be how a person feels inside and their moral judgment on this. You have to look at the broad thing and make regulations. You cannot just automatically give everybody a gun, of course. You would have to look at the person. They got the background on them when they give them the job. Reporting hill is that chief of staff john kelly will decide whether Jared Kushner will get a security clearance. John kelly will have the final word on security clearance for his chief advisor and soninlaw, Jared Kushner. Speaking on friday at a joint press conference, trump defended his soninlaw, saying he is doing important work at the white house and not accepting a paycheck. He has done an outstanding job, trump said. I think he has been treated unfairly. He is a highquality person. Trustssident said he that kelly will make the right decision on whether to revoke the clearance or not. Mark is calling from seattle. You oppose the president s plan to incentivize teachers to carry guns. Why is that . Teachers as an solution, a ridiculous, dangerous notion. Arm the students as well, why not . Armed the parents. Lets arm them with peace somehow. Teachers can be wonderful and enlightened and they are essential for the development of our children, but they are people. They are fallible. They are frail humans. They are flawed. They are not gods that can smite away evil. It is said to live by the sword is to die by the sword. That is not the way i want my first grader to live. I come from a time in the 1970s of mistrust of authority, which included our teachers. In my school, many of the smalltown faculty dated the girls in my high school. They got a freshman girl pregnant. Can you imagine trying to compete for a date with an armed teacher, for your high school crush . Why would i trust a teacher with a gun . Lets not be cheap. Lets hire trained, insured, licensed security. Host bert is calling from columbus, georgia, you support the president s plan. Tell us why . Caller first of all, if you know anything about a gun, you do know that you do have to operate the gun like you do any kind of machinery or any kind of tool. A gun is a tool. You have got to know first of all how to load it, where the safety is, whether it is a semi ,utomatic handgun or revolver you have got to know what kind of ammunition it takes. There is a lot of things in the beginning you need to know about a gun. Once you learn how to load and operate a gun, you get the training, just like you would if you was a chainsaw, or using a drill at work. Gun,you know how to use a then you have to train in tense situations, because that is what you will be in when you come across the shooters, these cowards. Learn how to shoot the gun in a and then yourn training takes over once the situation becomes an ongoing situation. About, what talking if the teacher shoots and hits another student . The thing about it, if the teacher is good enough, or the person with the gun is good enough, he will take his time, find out where the fire is coming from, and shoot the person with a gun and not get all excited, and not get free, do the job. If you can be calm and do the job. Host miguel is calling from hyattsville, maryland. You oppose the president s plan. Shouldyou think teachers not be incentivized . Caller they are meant to teach, and that is what they go to school for, to teach our children, not to show them how to kill. One caller said firefighting, putting sprinklers and stuff in the schools. I am a firefighter. When i go into fight a fire, it does not shoot back at me and try to kill me. This guy talking about, lets be calm when 20 rounds are coming out at a time and you can only shoot one at a time. Someone else said, they do not want them hiding behind walls, but with the ar 16, they shoot through the walls and stuff. ,e have a president right now this is the first president that is an ai president artificial intelligence. Artificial intelligence, you have to put something in in order to get something out. Fox puts and what they want him to put out from fox and the nra, put it in his brain and he spews it out. This guy is artificial intelligence. Calling from tempe, arizona, you oppose the president s plan. Caller i think it would change the dynamics of the educational the educational environment and the experience that students should expect, but you know what, i am willing to charg try that. Tom willing to try anything avoid senseless killing, particularly of our kids, whether it is fencing in our schools, security cameras, armed guards or teachers, metal detectors, background checks, better communication between the Schools Community and Law Enforcement from anything that can help prevent these instances. I do not think you can ignore the guns, either. Fewer deathsot would have occurred if the fe, orr had a car, an kni a handgun as opposed to these rapidfire guns. Host all right, coming up, project veritas james okeefe will be here to discuss his book, american pravda. Will scola of politico talk about her recent piece. We will be right back. Sunday night on after words, author Carol Westover talks about growing up with survivalist parents in her book memoir. a carol a lot of people have this idea but to learn something, you have to have a degree and a whole institution in place to teach it to you. I am grateful to my parents that i was not taught that. When i decided to go to college at 16, it felt like something i i had a not because formal education, but because ok, i will learn algebra. I will buy a book. I kept going with that. My parents took it too far. I arrived at university really underprepared. I had never heard of the holocaust. People thought i was antisemitic. I was not. I had never heard of it. Words on booktv on cspan2. I rebuke that. I can only see it from her perspective. I have had a lot of people pray for me similarly. As a christian, i believe that christianity has a really long tradition, so i certainly do not think it is not possible for god to heal people. Dukenday night on q a, divinity professor and scholar discusses everything happens for a reason and other lies i have loved. There is no pain in your summit, right . That is real. Her, and hiss to confidence in himself as that havele, and she did not pain in that moment that she and the veryels, dramatic approach to faith healing is one i often found to be somewhat manipulative