House Majority Whip Steve Scalise, who was a victim of gun violence last June, endorsed President Donald Trump's proposal to arm teachers on school campuses across the United States.
"As long as they are properly trained, that should be their prerogative," the Louisiana Republican said during a visit to a local charter school on Friday. "If they don't want to, they shouldn't have to. But if they want to, they ought to have that right."
At a congressional baseball practice last June, Scalise was a victim of gun violence after an Illinois man went on a shooting rampage at the annual event. The GOP leader has undergone several operations after a bullet struck his hip, shattering bone and damaging internal organs.
According to the Washington Examiner, Trump and Scalise both back the idea that as long as teachers are properly trained and liscensed, armed teachers could serve as an effective deterrent should a gunman enter school grounds.
"If they thought – like, if this guy thought that other people would be shooting bullets back at him, he wouldn't have gone to that school," Trump said of the Parkland shooter on Friday. "It says, this is a gun-free zone; please check your guns way far away. And what happens is they feel safe. There's nobody going to come at them."
School safety and mass shootings have become a hot-button topic after seventeen people died and approximately a dozen others injured in a shooting rampage at Marjory Stoneman High School in Parkland, Florida. Nikolas Cruz, the 19-year-old suspect in the shooting, is in custody and faces 17 counts of premeditated murder.
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