newsCO.com.au–Guns have no place in schools

It is February 14, and the students of Parkland school Marjory Stoneman Douglas High are reeling. They are trapped in classrooms, jumping over fences, texting loved ones – some for the last time.

They are watching, running and listening as friends fall beside them, escaping through doors as the students who hold them open are shot.

They watch their teachers and their friends die. Because, if you listen to US President Donald Trump, one person had a gun – and their teachers did not.

Trump believes the solution to gun violence, a way to curb this horrific trend of death and trauma in the United States, is not to take away guns, but to put more out there, to give them to teachers so they can “defend” their students.

You can see the appeal of Trump’s idea – apart from the deterrent effect, and assuming the teacher didn’t crack under the pressure, lives would be saved if he or she could take down a shooter without having to wait five minutes for police to arrive.