Donald Trump took to his Twitter account on Saturday to continue pushing his proposal to arm American school teachers. He said the plan would be a “very inexpensive deterrent” and be left to cash-strapped states to implement.
“Armed educators … love our students and will protect them,” the president said. “Very smart people.”
Armed Educators (and trusted people who work within a school) love our students and will protect them. Very smart people. Must be firearms adept & have annual training. Should get yearly bonus. Shootings will not happen again – a big & very inexpensive deterrent. Up to States.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 24, 2018
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From cost to effectiveness, Trump’s plan to arm teachers is a bad one
Like most nonsense spewed from the president’s mouth, this was false. The proposal would not be cheap. In fact, it could have a price tag of more than $1 billion.
According to The Washington Post, who estimated the cost of the plan, arming teachers would cost at least hundreds of millions of dollars.
“If we assume the cheapest training and the discounted Glock, we’re at $251 million to arm 718,000 teachers,” the Post found. “If we instead assume the full-price, more expansive training and the full-price firearm, the tab creeps past $1 billion.”
During a Friday appearance on Fox Business Channel, Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis weighed in on Trump’s latest plan, echoing the Washington Post assessment that it would be incredibly costly.
“It would be extremely expensive and just logistically virtually impossible to arm school teachers,” he told Neil Cavuto. “That says nothing of the potential for friendly fire and the number of rounds that go off in a police department every year.”
“You lose more children at the end of this conversation than you protect,” Davis added.
Cost aside, the plan Trump is focusing on would likely put students in more danger, not less. Multiple studies have shown that where there are more guns, there is more gun violence. As I noted earlier in the week, a study from the Harvard Injury Control Research Center found that where there are more firearms, there is a “higher risk for homicide.”
This is an expensive plan that serves only the interests of Trump’s NRA masters. It would do nothing to keep America’s schools safer.
Sean Colarossi currently resides in Cleveland, Ohio. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and was an organizing fellow for both of President Obama’s presidential campaigns. He also worked with Planned Parenthood as an Affordable Care Act Outreach Organizer in 2014, helping northeast Ohio residents obtain health insurance coverage.
