During a Monday speech near National Rifle Association (NRA) headquarters Democrat presidential hopeful Eric Swalwell (D-CA) pushed a federal ban on armed teachers.
The Washington Examiner reports that the ban on armed teachers was just one of the numerous gun controls Swalwell introduced. Other controls included the creation of a national gun registry, a ban on suppressors, and background checks for ammunition sales.
Swalwell’s push to bar states from arming teachers comes just months after the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Commission issued a report calling for teachers to be armed. The head of that commission, Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri, lamented that no teachers were armed during the February 14, 2018, attack, noting that there were multiple opportunities to take out the gunman.
Breitbart News reported Gualtieri’s emphasis on the fact that the Parkland gunman paused five times to reload his firearm. Each pause represents a time an armed teacher or school staff member could have shot at the attacker.
Gualtieri told the AP, “People need to keep an open mind to it as the reality is that if someone else in that school had a gun it could have saved kids’ lives.”
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) responded to the report by signing legislation to allow teachers to be armed for classroom defense. Swalwell wants to bar Florida, and all other states, from allowing teachers to be armed for defense of themselves and their students.
AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News 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.