Americas governors who are gathered here for this Important National meeting. On behalf of the first family an our entire cabinet, thank you for being here today. And more importantly, thank you for your service to the people of your state and to the people of this nation. We are proud of our governors across america. [ applause ] one year ago, President Trump told all of you at this gathering that in his words, under this administration, were going to have a true partnership. True partnership with collaboration with governors across america. As a former governor, im very proud to see the progress that we have all made together for the american people. Since day one of this administration, we have been partnering with each and every one of you in good times and in challenging times. We have been working on the issues that matter most to the american people. Jobs, energy, combatting opiate abuse. Land management and so much more. We have been inspired. We have been inspired by the leadership of governors of our states and territories in the midst of hurricanes and wildfires and we commend our governors for your outstanding leadership in these challenging times. Through all of it, weve generated real results for the american people. Thanks to the president s leadership and all of your efforts, we have made remarkable progress in the past year. 2. 5 million new jobs. Unemployment at 17year low. Wages are beginning to rise all across america. Business confidence is soaring. And the American Economy is roaring back. We all share the credit for that. We all share the responsibility of serving all of the people of this great nation. So we thank you for your collaboration and your partnersh partnership and the progress that weve made. But today is about partnering with you for what matters most. Ensuring the safety of our children in schools. As President Trump said in the immediate aftermath, of the horrific attack in parkland, florida, no teacher, no student should ever be in danger at an american school. President trump made School Safety our administrations top priority. One week ago in this very room, the president and i met with the family of a beautiful student from the attack. Wet met with families from sandy hook and columbine who still bear the scars in their hearts for similar incidents that took place in their communities. I can echo we will never forget that time. President trump has been busy listening to Law Enforcement officials. He m at the bottom line he recognizes that Public Safety and education are principally a state and local function. So today we want to hear from you. Americas governors. We want to hear what youre doing. We want to hear your ideas for reform at the federal level. Its good for me to be among some former colleagues and friends. And let me share with each and every one of you. I have now served with this president for over a year. We have become very close. I cherish our friendship. What i know of this president is he has broad shoulders. And a big heart. I also know that this president is all about results. As the president said, quote, its not enough to simply take actions and make us feel like were making a difference we must actually make that difference. And i promise you, he means it from the bottom of his heart. So today, i urge you to bring your candor and your counsel to this president and know that he is listening. He is listening with respect that is generated from knowing the jobs that each and every one of you do everyday. For the citizens of your states across the country and i know in my heart that with President Trumps leadership, with your leadership in your states, and with gods help, we will end this evil in our time. So now it is my high honor, and a distinct privilege to introduce to you my friend and leader who is absolutely committed, to working together with each and every one of you, to advance the safety and the prosperity of the american people. The 45th president of the United States of america, president donald trump. [ applause ] thank you, everybody. Thank you very much. I want to thank our Vice President for that lovely introduction. That was very nice, mike, and i appreciate it. This is a time of great opportunity for our country. Weve created nearly 3 million jobs since the election. A number that nobody would have thought possible. You go back and take a look at what they were saying just prior to the election. Nobody thought it was even possible. And we have done many other things as you know and i wont go over them because i want to be hearing from you today. But many other things that no one thought possible. Gdp, 3. 2, 3, 3. I think we will have another really big one coming up. This current quarter. Maybe one nobody thought would ever be hit but i think we will have a good number because of the stimulus and massive tax cuts that were all benefit, whether you are a democrat or republican. You benefit tremendously from the tax cuts. Appless investing 350 billion in the United States. And you look at whats going on, its really quite something. You read that exxon is coming in with 50 billion. Also something that no one expected, they are also coming in with massive bonuses for their workers. Nobody thought in terms of that. We know that everybody is going to get a lot more income and we have seen that as of february 1st. Everybody said, wow, i have an extra 250 in my paycheck. And thats pretty good stuff. We didnt know that would happen. Hundreds and hundreds of companies. Millions and millions of people getting large bonuses because of what we do. And one of the things were working on is fair and res reciprocal trade deals. You as governors arent being treated fairly. When i get too tough for the country, you call, oh, gee, dont do that. But i must say it is more senators in congressmen and women that call. You havent been calling so much. You want to see great deals. But we have to make the deals fair. You know, with mexico, as an example, we probably lose 130 billion a year. For the last year i said 170 million but its not. We dont have a tax. At some point, we have to get stronger and smarter. Because we cannot continue to lose that kind of money with one country. We lose a lot with canada. People dont know it. Canada is very smooth. They have you believe it is wonderful. And it is, for them. Not wonderful for us. It is wonderful for them. We have to start showing we know what we are doing. World trade organization, a catastrophe. China became strong. You look at it. It was going like this for years and years. Hundreds of years. Going just like this. Im a great i have Great Respect for president xi, by the way. Im not blaming them. Im not blaming mexico. Im not blaming anybody. Im blaming us because we did such a poor job for so many years. Im not just talking about president obama. And im talking about many, many, many for 30 years, 35 years. But World Trade Organization makes it almost impossible to do good business. We lost cases. We dont have the judges. We have a minority of judges. Almost as bad as the ninth circuit. Nothing is as bad but almost. Speaking of that, daca will be put back in the ninth circuit. We tried to get it moved quickly. We would like to help daca. I think everyone in this room want to help with daca. But the Supreme Court just ruled it has to go through normal channels so it is going back in and there wont be any surprise. It is really sad when every single case filed against us is in the ninth circuit. We lose, lose, lose, tlen fine under the Supreme Court. But what does that tell but our court system . It is a very, very sad thing. So daca is going back and we will see what happens from there. So we want fair trade deals. We want reciprocal trade deals. Scott walker has a Wonderful Company called harleydavidson in wisconsin. Right . Great. When they send a mote psych toll india, for example, they have to pay a hundred percent tax. A hundred percent. The Prime Minister who i think is a fantastic man called me the other day, he said, we are lowering it to 50 . I said, okay. But so far were getting nothing. So we get nothing. He gets 50 and they think they are doing us a favor. Thats not a favor. And you know what im talking about. It is a great company. When i spoke with your chairman or the president of harley, tle werent even asking for it. Because theyve been ripped off with trade so long, that they were surprised that i brought it up. Im the one that is pushing it more than they are. But it is unfair. And india sells us a lot of motor bikes. So when they have a motor bike, a big number by the way, a company that does a lot of business, so they have a motorcycle or motor bike that comes into our country, the number is zero. We get zero. They get a hundred percent. Brought down to 75, brought down now to 50. And i wasnt sure, he said it so beautifully, he is a beautiful man. And he said, i just want to inform you that we have reduced it to 75 but we have further reduced it to 50. And i said, huh. What do i say . Am i supposed to be thrilled . And thats not good for you people. Especially as governors. It is just not just not right. We have many deals like that. Now, with all of that being said, lets talk china. Because china we probably lost 504 billion last year in trade. 504 billion. I think that president xi is unique. He is helping us with north korea. Who, by the way, wants to talk, as of last night. You heard that. They want to talk. We want to talk also, only under the right conditions. Otherwise were not talking. Theyve been talking for 25 years. Other president s should have solved this problem long before i got here. And theyve been talking for 25 years. And you know what happened . Nothing. The Clinton White house gave them billions and billions. They built things for them. The day after the agreement was signed they continued with nuclear research. It was horrible. The Bush Administration did nothing. Both. The Obama Administration wanted to do something. He told me it is the single biggest problem that this country has. But they didnt do anything. And it would have been much easier in those days than now. I think most people understand that. But weve been very tough with them. China has been good, but not great. China has done more than theyve ever done, probably because of my relationship. We have a very good relationship. But president xi is for china, and im for the United States. And russia is behaving badly because russia is sending in what china is taking out. So china is doing good numbers but russia is sending a lot of stuff. They want to see it come to an end now, i think everybody does. Talking about tremendous loss of life. Numbers that no one contemplated. Never thought of. So they want to talk, first time, they want to talk. And we will see what happens. Thats my attitude. We will see what happens. But something has to be done. Today i want to hear your ideas on a number of critical issues. But most importantly we want to discuss the Public Safety. In schools. And Public Safety generally. But School Safety. Cant have this go on. Im grateful that governor rick scott is here and we thank him for his leadership in the aftermath of the terrible tragedy in parkland, florida. Horrible. Our nation is heart broken. We continue to mourn the loss of so many precious innocent young lives. These are incredible people. I visited a lot of them. But well turn our grief into action. We have to have action. It happens. A week goes by. We keep talking. Another week goes by. Two months go by and all of a sudden everybody is off to the next subject. Then when it happens again, everybody is angry and lets start talk again. Weve got to stop. By the way, bump stocks, im writing that out. Im writing it out myself. I dont care if congress does that or not. Im writing it out myself, okay . You put it into the machine gun category, which is what it is. It becomes essentially a machine gun, and nobody will be able it will be very hard to get them. We are writing out bump stocks. But we have to take steps to harden our schools so they are less vulnerable it attack. This uncluds allowing well trained and Certified School personnel to carry firearm. At some point you need volume. I dont know that a school can hire a hundred security guards that are armed. Plus, you know, i got to watch some deputy sheriffs performing this weekend. They werent exactly medal of honor winners, all right . The way they performed was frankly disgusting. They were listening to what was going on, the one in particular, was then early, then you had three others. That probably a similar deal, little bit later. But a similar kind of a thing. You know, i really believe, you dont know until you test it but i really believe i would run into, even if i didnt have a weapon, and i think most of the people in this room would have done that too, because i know most of you. But the way they performed was really a disgrace. Second, we must confront the issue of Mental Health and here is the best example of Mental Health. This kid at 39 red flags, they should have known, they did know, they didnt do anything about it. That was really a bad time, i have to tell you. Nobody bigger for Law Enforcement than i am. But between the people that didnt go into the school and protect those lives and that it wasnt solved long before it happened, pretty sad. We have to confront the issue and discuss Mental Health and do something about it. You know, in the old days we had Mental Institutions. A lot of them. You could nab somebody like this. They did, they knew he was something was off. You had to know that be, people were calling all over the place. But you used to be able to bring him into a mental ips tunstitut and hopefully he gets help or something. He get him off the streets. You know he is like a boiler ready to explode, right . So he just you have to do something. But you cant put him in jail, i guess, because he hasnt done anything. In the old days you put him into a Mental Institution and we had them in new york and our government started closing them because of cost. We have to talk about Mental Institutions a lot of folks closed their Mental Institutions also. We have no half way. We have nothing between a prison and leaving them at his house. Which we cant do any more. So i think you have to think about that. When friends, families and neighbors do warn authorities about a violent or dangerous individual, action is taken quickly and decisively. Look, you have one mother, you remember, in connecticut, how horrible that was. Begging, begging to take her son in and help him, do something. Anything. He is so dangerous and nobody really listened to her. He ended up killing her and then the rest, you know what happened. It was a horror. But she was begging to do something about her own son. Recently you ahad a grandmother that showed reports about her grandson. Then and they nabbed him. She reported him. And there the Law Enforcement did a very good job. Fourth, we must pursue common sense measures that protect the Constitutional Rights of lawabiding americans while keeping guns out of the hand of those who pose a threat to themselves and to others. And fifth, we must strive to create a culture in our country that cherishes life and condemns violence and embraces dignity. Now with all of that, over the weekend, i cannot believe the press didnt find this out. I cant believe it. I think they are getting a little bit i could never use the word lazy. You dont want to say that. We dont want to give them any more enthusiasm than they already have. But i cant believe they didnt figure this one. I had lunch with wayne lappier and chris coxson of the nra. I want to tell you, they want to do something. I said, fellas, we have to do something. It is too long now. Weve got to do something. And we will do very strong background checks. Very strong. If we see a sicko, i dont want them having a gun. I know there was a time when anybody could have. Even when they were sick, they were fighting. There is no bigger fan of the Second Amendment than me and no bigger fan of the nra. These people are great patriots, great people. And they want to do something. They are going to do something an i think quickly. They want to see it. But we dont want sick people having the right to have a gun. Plus when we see someone is sick like this guy when the police went to see him, they didnt do a good job. But they have restrictions on what they can do. We have to give them immediate access to taking guns way. You cant just sit there with seven different weapons. Give them immediate access. Dont worry, youre not getting any dont worry about the nra. They are on our side. Half of you are so afraid of the nra. Nothing to be afraid of. And you know what, if they arent with you, we have to fight them every once in a while. Thats okay. They are doing what they think is right. I will tell you they are doing what they think is right. But sometimes we have to be very tough and we have to fight them. But we need strong background checks for a long period of time people resisted that. Now people, i think, are really into it. And john cornyn, great guy, senator. Mitch mcconnell, paul ryan and Kevin Mccarthy will hopefully work on some legislation. I hope you guys they started already. In fact, john has legislation in. We will strengthen in and make it more prtent in ertinent to we discussing but he already started the process. We have already started it. And the other thing, we need hardened sites. We have to have hardened sites. So just in concluding, we have tremendous things happening. The country is doing well and we have a setback like this that is so heart wrenching. So heart wrenching. We have to clean it up. We are setting records on the economy. Setting records. Black unemployment at an a alltime historical low. Unemployment at a historical low. Women unemployment at an 18year low. 18 years. And actually, i did very well with women during the election. No one wants to give me credit for that, as you know. And im very proud of that. To me these are incredible statistics. Hour companies are doing well. Fundamentals are beyond what, literally beyond what anyone has ever seen. There were bubbles in the past because companies were valued and no one understood word or money. Wheres the money . These are Strong Companies were building now. We have tremendous underlying value. I want to bring the Steel Industry back into our country. If that takes tariffs, let them take tariffs, okay . Maybe it will cost more but we will have jobs. Let it take tariffs. I want to bring aluminum back into our country. These plants are closing or closed. Recently we put a tariff on washing machines because we were getting killed, believe it or not, on washing machines and solar panels. That was two months ago you have to see the activity on new plants built for washing machines and for solar panels. We had 32 solar panel plants. Of the 32, 30 were closed and 2 or on lifetolife resuscitation. They were dead. Now they were talking about opening up, many of them, reopening plants that have nbee closed for a long time. And we make better solar panels than china. One of the knocks were that the solar panels were lousy. They werent good. We make a much Higher Quality solar panel. So after two months, were opening up at least five plants and other plants are expanding on the washing machines. Which by the way, sound like a little hokey to say washing machine, it is a big business. A very big business. But then you look and see, like i wont mention, i wont mention countries. I would never do that. But how many chevrolets are in the middle of berlin . How many fords are in the middle of tokyo . Not too many. In fact, ford sort of closed up their operation in japan because they couldnt get cars in there. I spoke to Prime Minister, a great friend, great person. I said, you are sending us millions of cars. And if we send you one and we make is t so perfect they told me a case where they made a car so good. They spent a fortune. Best environmental, best skins, everything the best on the car, best safety. They brought it in. And after inspections that lasted forever, it was rejected. You sigh, thats a form of tariff too. Maybe thats a more deadly form of tariff. That, to me, is just as deadly as 50 and 25 and 100 in many cases. So we will straighten it out. We have already started. We laid the seeds. A lot of it is statutory where you cant do anything unless you go through a process. Well, now through our great team weve gone through that process. Many of you do a rule and wait 90 days. Thats what is happening with the bump stocks. But its gone. Dont worry about it, it is gone. Essentially gone because we will make it so tough you wont be able to get them. Nobody will want them anyway. Bump stocks, you shoot rapidly but not accurately. I dont know if you have ever heard what a bump stock does. The bullets come out fast but you dont know where the hell theyre going. Thats why nobody even really too much came to its defense. But he used it in las vegas. So we are getting rid of them. So you ask questions, i will help you folks and we will get the things we want to do whether it is transportation, safety, law and order. One of the things that the past administration would not do is give this incredible equipment we have, excess military equipment, wouldnt give it to your police. Wouldnt give it to Law Enforcement. They didnt like the idea, the administration of armored vehicles. People were in danger. People were being killed. People are being shot. People are hit with rocks during some bad times and some rough places. We have given out millions worth of equipment to your cities. Police come to me and say thank you so much for that equipment. We feel so much safer. Where they can go in an armored van up to a site and not worry about being shot or hit in the head with a rock. To me it is common sense. What can i tell you . I will say this your group really appreciates it. So with that, i will ask brian to say a couple of words. We will go around and take a couple of questions. Maybe rick scott come up second. Im here as long as you need me. Lets get it all out. We want to help the governors. Help our states. And we want to make our schools safe. Brian, please. [ applause ] mr. President , thank you. I truly appreciate you. I appreciate the members of the cabinet. To the governors, i thank you for your hospitality and first ladies hoss pi tal its. It was truly a privilege to visit and enjoy fellowship. Mr. President , i tweesh again you having us today. We can talk about issues with regard to infrastructure. Work force development. Combatting opioids. Prison reform. Agriculture. Health care. Work force. All these different issues and those are things that we all need to talk about. But the issue of the day is School Safety. Public safety, mr. President. I shared this last night. Mr. President , after the massacre in las vegas, mass shooting, where we lost 58 people, over 500 people injured. This was a person who used the bump stocks and i personally want to thank you for taking action to eliminate those. Because it essentially was a killing field down there where we had 20,000 people who were simply helpless. That is an important first step you mention in your remarks, School Safety and Public Safety and we need to have this National Conversation with regard to what we are going do. I suppose you are looking for some suggestion, some ideas and it will come in the form of questions as well. But i will suggest mr. President with regard to the scope of the fbi background check. I know in my state our background checks are much broader. When we do an fbi background check, it does not include adjudication of Mental Illness and does not include adjudication of Domestic Violence protection order or conviction for Domestic Violence. I think those things that absolutely need to be included in the other categories that it would be included in an expansion of fbi background collection. We talked about this at dinner. With regard to Governor Scott and again, my heart goes out to you and to the victims there in florida. And texas. And everywhere elsewhere this has happened. And we need to have this National Conversation. We need to bring the strength, the wisdom of all the governors and everyone else across the country to have this conversation. Something else that we have done in nevada with regard to School Safety is i included in my budget more money for social workers in schools. Weve had shootings where weve had bullied student that didnt have access to resources at the schools so now we have a social worker in every school. So somebody can come to that. Mr. President , we talked about that last night. And that is Something Else that we can do. But again, having a room together like this, there is no problem that we cannot solve. Every one of us brings a unique experience that we can come to solve this problem. Youre right, mr. President , as a parent, of a daughter, who attends a middle school where there was simile simply a rumor that something could happen and one day later, half the school was absent. We cant have parents living in fear. We cant have students living in fear. They cant teach. Kids cant learn and there is just no way for thisdb our Education System to operate. So i know im going to offer my experience to you, mr. President , and i think can i speak for all of the governors of the United States of america that we are here to solve this problem once and for all. You are right. We need to take action now. The status quo is unacceptable. So with that, god bless you, mr. President. God bless our great country. Thank you. [ applause ] first thing i want to do is thank the president for making something happen. All of us as governors know in any jobs weve had, you have to get something done. If you anybody thats gone through one of these and if youve gone to the funeral after 14yearold girl that her parents just loved her, you know that you have to make a change. So what weve done in the last, i guess a little less than two weeks, weve looked what other governors have done. Weve brought people together. Im very appreciative what the president has done by bringing us together to talk about this and what he did last week by bringing people together. Because it has created a momentum to make sure something happens that we dont go through this and nothing happened. So the way ive done this is ive broken it down into three things. Number one, we are going to have School Safety. No parent in our state will say, im concerned whether my child with go to school safely. If you go to school in florida, you know your child can come home safely. If youre a teacher, working in one of these schools, you know you come home safely. Thats step one. We will spend 500 million. I have two weeks left in my session, im not waiting for the federal government. We will invest 500 million and have a significant Law Enforcement presence at every school in our state. We already have been investing dollars in hardening our schools. We are not only going to invest more state dollars but we will say any local dollars that go to Capital Outlay by School Districts, first dollars have to be spent on school hardening. It is the most important thing we can do is harden these schools. So we will do it. And by the way, the way it happens is our sheriffs are going to oversee how all of the money is spent to make sure that the money is spent the right way. A plan and the money will be spent the right way. Number two, Mental Illness. Mental Health Counsellors in every school to make sure that all of our student can go through counseling or meet with Mental Health counsellor as often as they want. We will do it. We are also having threat assessment teams, virginia did that after their shooting. We will have that in all of our schools. Where you have children families, juvenile justice, teachers, principals, local Law Enforcement all together and say what are the threat assess pts mentes in our school . We will do that. And invest Mental Health in children and family program. Make sure we have judge teayout all around the state to help them. In florida you wont have access to a gun, if you struggle with Mental Illness will you make violent threats, you wont have access to a gun. You shouldnt have access to a gun, and youre not. So what we doll is were going to have a violent threat restraining order that a family member, Mental Health individual or Law Enforcement can go through the court system. There will be due process but they can make sure you dont have access it a gun. If youve within involuntarily committed because you are a threat to yourself or others you will not have access to a gun. You have to give those guns up. There are due process. Can you get the guns back but we will make sure that doesnt happen. As you do background checks, all of this information is there so we can make sure we know who has the guns. So in our state, we are going to get all of this done. I will get it done in the next two weeks. Ive been talking with my legislative leadership everyday. They are committed to be a partner. But in florida i want to make sure every parent knows that their child will come home safe and sound everyday. Thank you, mr. President. [ applause ] thank you, rick. And thank you, brian, very much. Great job youve done too as chairman. Thank you. I think i can bring this over, it might be easier to pass this around. Thank you, mr. President. [ inaudible ] i have an awful lot of insight to provide for what each school needs for Public Safety. I suggest we give our local folks a list of things they can do quickly, like limit the number of entrances that a school has for to enter the building. And then equip every child above the sixth grade with a chip activated card to enter that entrance. And i also, you can consider putting in a metal detector at one or two or three entrances since you limit the number of entrances. Also, Surveillance System. And that Surveillance System can be tied to the virtual Alabama Visual Center at education department. So it is instant information all at the same time. Certainly training in Mental Health situation is fine but for the immediate, i just think we need to give some guidance to local people and limit access to entrancing and equip with Surveillance Systems, metal detectors, or whatever they choose to do. Where is the money coming from . Theyve got some local money. But in our state budget theres a technology fund. And a senator and i working, he introduced the bill last week to be able to free up some of that money for use for School Safety. So these are not costly things. But they are things that could be done immediately to improve School Safety. Thats right. How about going around the room. Governor . [ inaudible ] we have a program called the extreme Risk Protection order system that has been supremely effective in allowing family members that realize theres a risk to have them separated from their firearm. It involves a judicial decision and involves a hearing. And it has saved lives, im sure, in the state of washington. And i would commend it to you for national attention. Because it makes sure that when have you an uncle that you have concern about depression, it allows Law Enforcement to separate your uncle, depressed uncle, from his firearm. If you have someone in your family that might have violent tendencies after hearing or potential ex party order, you get an order to allow Law Enforcement. It has been in operation for a year. Its been extremely successful, i would commend it to you. Second, i know you have suggested arming our teachers. No, no, not teachers. Arming a small portion that are very gun adept that truly know how to handle it. I do feel governor, it is very important, that gunfree zones. Have you a gunfree zone it is like an invitation for the very sick people to go there. I do think that there has to be some form of major retaliation if they are able to enter a school. And if that happens, youre not going to have any problems any more because they arent going to the school. You wont have a problem. It would be a very small group of people that are very gun adept. Anyway, good ahead. If i may respond to that, let me suggest whatever percentage it is, i heard at one time you might have suggested 20 . Whatever percent it is, speaking as grandfather, speaking as governor of the state of washington, i have listened to the people who would be affected by that. I have listened to the biology teachers and they dont want to do that at any percentage. I have listened to the first grade teachers that dont want to be pistolpacking first grade teachers. I have listened to Law Enforcement who said they dont want to have to train teachers as Law Enforcement agencies which takes about six months. I just think this is a circumstance where we need to listen that educators should educate and they should not be forced upon this responsibility of packing heat in first grade classes. I understand you suggested this and sometimes by suggest and then listen to people about it and maybe they dont look so good a little later. I just suggest less tweeting here and little more listening and lets take that off the table and move forward. Thank you very much. We have a number of states right now that do that. And i think with that in mind, i will call on greg abbot. Great governor of texas. Greg . Right here. Sure. Texas authorized school to adopt policies to implement a School Marshal program where individuals would be trained to have weapon, and be able to use that weapon. And we now have well over a hundred School Districts in the state of texas where teachers or other people who work in the school do carry weapons and are trained to be able to respond to an attack that occurs. It doesnt have to be a school teacher. Could be a coach, administrator, anybody who works in the school. As a well thought out program with a lot of training in advance. And some School Districts, they promote it. Because they will have signs out front, a warning sign, that be aware there is an armed personnel on campus, warning anybody on there that they, if they attempt to cause any harm, they will be in trouble. I think thats great. If a sick individual comes into a school, they can expect major trouble, right . Major trouble. The bullets are going to be toward him also. And i think thats great. And you know whats going to happen, anybody is going into that school, greg. Thats a big difference. That was really well said. Thank you very much. Anybody . Governors are so quiet. I cant believe it. Mr. President so wellbehaved today. I cant believe this. Well start acting up soon. Mr. President , i just want to say that in arkansas we have a very similar situation or program as what greg has described in texas. I have the belief that no teacher should be compelled, and most of them want to teach and focus on that. But others are concerned about their students and have training and specific capacity as you have described. We have licensed certain School Districts and those who want to be trained more significantly so that they can handle an active shooter situation. And so we have over 13 schools in arkansas that cant afford a School Resource officer. They prefer to have those either in the classroom or assistant coach or someone who would have a response capability. And that the key thing. That flexibility, i think what the governors want to say, is that there cant be necessarily a National Security plan. But the states can develop this. And we did make some recommendations in 2012 though in reference to federal grants. Some of the biggest expense is training. Some of the biggest expense will be hardening of our schools. As governor ivy suggested. And so i hope that your department of Homeland Security in looking at some of the grants that come from dhs in terms of security fighting terrorists, some of that money can be utilized by local jurisdictions as well for the protection of number one priority of protecting our student in our schools. Yes. And governor, you know how well we are doing, it is a never ending quest, but with respect to ms13 and these people are really causing havoc in certain communities. And with school children. And people walking home from school. Whats going on, and were moving them out by the thousands. But we have to get immigration laws to allow us to do what we have to be able to do. They are so soft. No country in the world has immigration laws so soft like we do. Thats also a part of it. I appreciate what you said, thank you very much, governor. Yes, paul . [ inaudible ] i would ask you to address congress and ask them to address the hippa laws. We need help from federal government to loosen the laws so we could do the truly good background checks on people. Good. Thats what we will be doing. You know, paul, i think we will have the support of the nra having to do with background checks. Very strong background checks and very heavy section on Mental Health. Far different than what we had in the past. Thank you, paul. Yes maam, yes . Thank you, mr. President. For allowing us as governors to participate and give perspective as each of our states work. This is something we werent engaged in before with previous administration. I do think there is a huge pool of retired Law Enforcement officers where municipalities and counties have invested a lot of money into training them and now they are retired. And often because they are receiving a public retirement, they cannot go back into the similar retirement plan. If they go into an educational plan, they can actually work for a school, be trained, the school doesnt have to train them, but also they can learn and figure out where cameras and different securi security pieces need to be implemented within the schools because of their experience and training. This is a pool of folks we can immediately put out without having to expend a great amount of dollars in keeping schools and School Personnel safe. Well said. And the fact is that if you have a teacher or coach or somebody that is very adept, only adept and a lot of people dont have anything, and dont know what it looks like, they cant lift it. But only adept at weaponry and guns. And only a small number. You dont need that many. But we all learned a lot over the weekend or last week, when you saw a man that was properly armed, standing outside probably afraid to go in, and now it turns out that there were probably four of them. They dont love the student. They dont know the student. The teachers know the student and want to protect the students. Other thing is cost. The school in florida was so large, rick, such a big school, you would need 100 or 150 guards. A lot of guards to have that building properly manned. Then have you an armed camp. Where as, doing it like i think you are suggesting, and like many people in this room agree with, it costs almost nothing. I would give a bonus to every coach, teacher, et cetera. They should go through training. A strong streppus training. I would like to give them a bonus. Say you gave them a 1,000 bonus for the year and have you 50 or 60 of them in the year. Compare that to paying 40, 50, 60,000 each. Where do schools get that kind of money . Someone suggested, harden the doors, make it impossible to get in. Thats good. Except in one instance if the killer gets in and closes the doors and you cant get into the school. Oh, i never thought of that. Dont forget, i was in the real estate business. When you harden those schools, you dont get in. But if you get in, they dont get in. Law enforcement doesnt get in. Schools say, Law Enforcement said we have something. Smoke. Smoke filled. Now a guy with a weapon and he gets crazy because there is smoke. He will just shoot endlessly. This he will go nuts. This is another plan. A new one. Im sure put out by some company that want to make a lot of money. Smoke fills the a room and hallways. Thats not going to help. Then Law Enforcement can fight through the smoke and not know what they are shooting . This a serious plan. I think i talked that particular person out of it. But i really, when you talk about hardening. Other thing is this, harden. You harden. The cost to your schools and your communities and the federal government will be astronomical. When you start putting in main doors, closing other doors, changing hallways around, you are talking about hundreds and hundreds of billions of dollars. And can you do it for nothing. As you and myself and our great governor from texas and others, i think there are nine states that do it that way. They are thrilled. They are thrilled. And you no he what it says, come on in, folks. Come on in. But theyre not coming in. Because they dont want to get shot. Look at this guy, cruz, he leaves with the student. He tried to sneak away. Ill tell you, one policeman who did a good job is the one who caught him a couple of communities way. Not even in that community. I know all those communities. But it wasnt in that community. Sort of far away. And he said, thats the guy i think that maybe did it based on the description. He went out and got him. Now they would have gotten him anyway, i guess. But who knows how much more damage would have been inflicted. He did a great job. Law enforcement is great. But we all learn something when we saw peterson, standing outside of that school, he wanted no part of it. He heard the power. He heard probably the screaming and the bullets. And he wanted no part of it. And then three other guys came to help. They wanted no part of it. That was a terrible, terrible job. Only worse job is they didnt nap this guy early because you had 39 red flags. Thats a worse job. I think we learned a lot. If you dont have retribution, if you dont do something serious to these guys, they will keep walking in. They will have this all the time. They have to know. They will walk in and probably end up dead. If they know they end up dead, they arent going into that school. Question . Yes . Matt . I dont beg to differ with most of what has been said here. But most of what we are talking about are things that are costly. Have monetary cost. I do think that it is important for us to start at every level with your office, with our respective offices as well. To seize the bully pulpits that we have to talk about the culture in this society. I would challenge those in the media who would want to mock and ridicule this and would want to say that anybody who advocates for this to find a fault in that person as a reason why that person should not be the one advocating for higher level of moral authority or to think twice because these are your children and grandchildren as well. When we mock and ridicule what this foundation is built upon and treat people the way you want to be treated, respect human life and respect the dignity of women, children and women who we have increasingly degraded in our society, this culture of death is becoming pervasive. If it is not addressed by all the imperfect people in this room, with a since of purpose and a sense of aspiration, i think were going to see a continued trajectory that not good. Many things have not changed. There have always been guns. And there were fewer restrictions. Right. There have always been guns in homes and fewer rules. It isnt to say these rules and restrictions are necessarily bad. But what has changed is what we do our dont do as it relates to acknowledging the value and dignity of every human life. When you couple that with a number of psychiatric drugs that are increasingly systemic and have severe warnings related to depression and suicidal thoughts, you put all these things in a mess and no one among us is bold enough or willing to step up and challenge the fact that this is a problem, this is why it goes unchecked and i would call on you, sir, as im calling on my fellow governors and myself to seize the opportunities we have, to call america, to higher action as it relates to our mores. Thank you, matt. Thats why we are here. You have to also look at videos and they are vicious. You look at some of these videos. I dont know what this does to a young kids mind. Growing up and forming and looking at videos where people are just blown away left and right. The internet, movies. You look at these movies that are out today. I see just by a commercial the level of craziness and viciousness in the movies. I think we have to look that too. Maybe a Rating System on that. There is a Rating System for other subjects. Maybe you have to do a Rating System for that. It has to have an impact on. It doesnt take many minds. If it was 1 or less, thats a lot. That is all it takes. One person to do tremendous damage. I think is something we have to look at also. Question . Yes, governor . Mr. President , again, thank you for having us. I approach this as a governor. I approach this as a gun owner. My 11yearold son got his first deer this past fall. He is a good boy. I had a nephew shot and killed, 11 years old, on the playground. I approach it as a parent. With three young kids saying just like every other parent, grand parent, we need to do everything we can to keep our kids safe. I think sometimes the language we use can help define some things that certainly understand the idea of hardening schools but that seems like were hardening potential military targets. I think we as leaders need to be saying we will do everything we can to make that school safe for the kids. I think that there are steps and many of them you begin to reference that we could take that can make a difference, if you can look at this as Public Health issue, you mention the nick system. We can improve the instant check system. We know a quarter of the guns that are sold soedont even get into that system. Universal background check. We know 10 of homicides each year are in intimate relationships. So the orders of protection, Domestic Violence, making sure thats in there. As Governor Scott mentioned, red flag laws. Making sure that Law Enforcement and families have a way, still using due process, to actually remove guns from people that might be that imminent threat. Applaud you on bump stocks. Thats one of those things, there is no other reason, and we could look at higher magazine capacity as well, as one of the things you probably dont need. And i encourage you, as you go on the path of looking at what you can do in schools. I used to be attorney general and ran the Law Enforcement academy too and graduate peace officers each and every year. I want to make sure if someone is armed in a school that they have that training, that we know that he or she, it is much more, as you recognize, and just carrying concealed. That they have that training, that i as a parent can say that this person under pressure will know what to do with a firearm before we start introducing the firearms to our schools. I think we are in a unique, hopefully, a unique moment where certainly as i said 43 times since ive been governor, been asked to lower the flags. 12 of them have been for Mass Shootings in the last five years. Its almost on the one hand to the point we get desense advertised but on the other hand here is a moment where everybody is talking where we can hopefully start saying, what could actually meaningfully impact this not just for today but for the future . So thank you so much. I hope in those areas, you will take the bull by pulpit and leadership in congress. Thank you. Great point. It was great being with you last night. You mentioned two words. Under pressure. A lot of people never really know what that means. They train a whole. I look at peterson, look what he did in broward where he thought he was probably a brave guy. But he wasnt a brave guy. Under pressure he choked. And other people choked. A lot of people choked in that case. And we have to have people trained. You have to have some kind of a budget where it works. And many of the governors happened to, you know, like the idea of trained people within schools. But the press has to get the worse out honestly. For instance, i went through detail, could be 5 , 10 , 20 , these are gun adept people. Very few people would qualify. On top of being gun adept, they have to go to school and they have to learn and you know, maybe there will be a bonus given to those people. Maybe there should be, frankly. They should go on yearly basis to school. Start with training and then have additional training every year and i think they should get a bonus but thats a small amount of money compared to what it costs. But when the press covered it, headline was, trump wants all teachers to have guns. Trump wants teachers to have guns. I dont want teachers to have guns. I want highly trained people that have a natural talent, like hitting a baseball or hitting a golf ball or putting. How come some people always make the fourfooter and some people under pressure cant take their club back. Right . Some people cant take their club back. You dont know what it is. Those words are hard to train for. But you want to have the number of people where people know they the bad guy has to understand that theres a big price to pay when they mess around with our students. You cant just say, oh, we will harden our schools and blow smoke into the rooms. We will do all this stuff that is not going to work. You have to let people know that they will suffer the ultimate price and you know what, and i said it before, youre not going to have incidents. They wont do it. Because they are innately cowards. But i love what you said. I agree with what you said. Governor . Phil . Mr. President , october 1st of 19197, a 16yearold student came into school can after he bludgeons his mother that morning. Killed two students and began to shoot at others. A vice principal who was an army reserve officer, retrieved his 1911. 45 before he could kill other children. When i heard you speak of your idea, that was the concept i believed in. Find that army reserve vice principal, give him the training he need, arm him and stop this madness. Thank you, sir. Many of these people are retired too. Theyre retired. 20 years in the marine. They can handle a weapon world class. They dont need the training but they should get it any way. Everybody should have strong training. You have many like general kelly standing back there. I wouldnt mind if he was a teacher. If he happened to be concealed, carrying concealed, i feel good about that. Theyre on the site. Theyre not outside. These people know everything intimately. Ive been watching this for ive only been doing this for two and a half years. After that, i would a civilian. I had a nice life. I had a very easy, nice, beautiful life. I actually got great press. I was the king of getting good press. Its only when i did this that i got bad press. Ive been watching this, folks, from a different slant. Most of you have been politicians for a long time. Nothings done. Its the same thing. They have a immediating. They all go home. Two weeks later, its a little bit sadly, i hate to say it other than parents so devastated and the families so bad affected and the people hit. Nobody talks about the wounded. They talk about the 17 dead but i saw people that were so seriously wounded. Nobody ever talks. The maniac on the west side highway, he killed eight people. He took a park. Its like a beautiful stretch along the hudson river. He said look at those people, im going to turn it and he killed eight people. What they dont talk about were the 14 people that were devastated. They go to put themselves spoo sha into shape and work out and they end up missing an leg or an arm or two legs and nobody ever talks about those people. They talk about the people that died. Hopefully theyll be okay after a long time in rehab but a lot of them wont be. We have to remember them too. How about one or two more . Yes, governor. This is a complex issue. Theres no simple solution, unfortunately for us. I think theres roles to play for the federal government. Most of the solutions will come from the states. Im working with my legislature in talking about whats the cost for education . Your a businessman, to do business. Some of that is embedding Law Enforcement in whatever form or fashion you want. Its going to be an additional cost. Thats the result of society today. Each state will have to find their own way based on their own culture, politics and unique demographics. Well learn from each other. Well find what works. The state, these little pilot programs. Thats the beauty out there Findings Solutions to the problems that ail the people. This is the problem today. Safety in our schools. Thanks. Thank you. I appreciate it. You said something very important. The states can do these various programs without the federal government also. Were there to help and help monetarily, which is very important. A lot of School Budgets dont have the money. A lot of these solutions we talk about, you can do them pretty much by yourselves within your state. Our great governor of texas, greg, we have an attitude on retribution. I dont think youll stop it by being kind. I dont think youre going stop it at all. Youre going to have problems. If a state feels that way, i say you have to go and you have to do what you have to do. Well book yack you up regardle what you want to do. In many cases its a local issue. In many you dont need approval from the state. You can go in as a School District and do what you have to do for the safety of your children. My attitude is get it done and get it done properly. Its an honor to be with you. Ill see you in a little while. [ applause ]