Report: Trump’s Education Dept. Considers Using Federal Funds to Buy Guns for Teachers

The New York Times reports President Trump’s Department of Education is considering the use of federal funds to buy guns for teachers around the country.

The funds would be dispersed to states that would then divide them among districts that allow teachers to carry gun for defense of themselves and their students.

According to the NYT, the education department is weighing their options under the auspices of a program called Student Support and Academic Enrichment grants. While some federal education programs specifically prohibit the use of funding for firearms, the program for Student Support and Academic Enrichment grants does not. And this opens the door for Education Secretary Betsy DeVos “to use her discretion to approve any state or district plans to use grant funding for firearms and firearm training.”

The program being eyed ultimately falls under the Every Student Succeeds Act, which states three goals for the use of its monies–“providing a well-rounded education, improving school conditions for learning and improving the use of technology for digital literacy.”

The education department is approaching the matter from the viewpoint that “the gun purchases could fall under improving school conditions.”

On February 21, 2018–one week after the heinous attack on the gun-free Parkland high school–President Trump called for public school teachers to be armed for defense of themselves and their students. CNN quoted Trump saying, “[A] gun-free zone to a maniac—because they’re all cowards—a gun-free zone is ‘let’s go in and let’s attack because bullets aren’t coming back at us.'” He stressed his conviction that this situation could be remedied if “20 percent” of public school teachers had the opportunity to be armed.

AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News, the host of the Breitbart podcast Bullets with AWR Hawkins, and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com. Sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange.