WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump suggested on Wednesday that arming teachers could help prevent massacres such as last week’s mass shooting at a Florida high school.
Trump voiced support for the idea during an emotional White House meeting with students who survived the shooting and a parent whose child did not.
“If you had a teacher ... who was adept at firearms, it could very well end the attack very quickly,” said Trump, who acknowledged the idea would be controversial.
He sat in the middle of a semi-circle in the State Dining Room of the White House, listening intently as students wept and pleaded for change. He vowed to take steps to improve background checks for gun buyers.
The meeting included six students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, where 17 students and educators were slain on Feb. 14 by a gunman with an AR-15 semi-automatic assault rifle in the second-deadliest shooting at a US public school.
“I don’t understand why I can still go in a store and buy a weapon of war, an AR,” said Sam Zeif, 18, sobbing after he described texting his family members during the Florida shooting.
“Let’s never let this happen again please, please,” Zeif said.
Andrew Pollack, whose daughter Meadow Pollack, 18, was killed, shouted: “It should have been one school shooting and we should have fixed it. And I’m pissed — because my daughter — I’m not going to see again.”
Trump said his administration would emphasize background checks and mental health in an effort to make schools safer.
“We’re going to be very strong on background checks, we’re doing very strong background checks, very strong emphasis on the mental health,” Trump said.
“It’s not going to be talk like it has been in the past,” Trump said.
Trump’s support for any tightening of gun laws would mark a change for the Republican, who was endorsed by the National Rifle Association gun rights group during the 2016 presidential campaign.
Trump says arming teachers could prevent school massacres
Trump says arming teachers could prevent school massacres
‘Peace and stability are ultimate prerequisites for growth and prosperity,’ Indonesia’s president tells WEF
- While world faces tightening financial conditions, trade tensions, political uncertainty, ‘Indonesia continues to grow,’ says Prabowo Subianto
- He says country does not fear economic integration
BEIRUT: History teaches us that “peace and stability are our most valuable assets” and the “ultimate prerequisites for growth and prosperity” as there will be no prosperity without peace, Indonesia’s president said on Thursday.
Prabowo Subianto, in his special address before the World Economic Forum, said: “We gather here in Davos at a time of great uncertainty; a time when wars continue to break out … a time when trust between nations, between institutions, between peoples is fragile.”
According to Subianto, the International Monetary Fund recently described Indonesia as “a global bright spot with strong economic growth amid a challenging external environment.”
While the world faced tightening financial conditions, trade tensions and political uncertainty, “Indonesia continues to grow,” Subianto said, adding that his country’s economy had grown by more than 5 percent every year over the last decade.
“I am confident that this year our growth will be higher,” he said, noting that inflation remained at about 2 percent, while the government deficit had been kept below 3 percent of gross domestic product.
He said that international institutions did not praise Indonesia because of unfounded optimism, but because of evidence. “They recognized that Indonesia’s economy is resilient,” he said, emphasizing that “peace and stability in Indonesia over the years” did not happen by chance.
He added that his country had always chosen unity over fragmentation, and friendship and collaboration over confrontation. He stressed “friendship over enmity.”
Subianto explained that his country had never defaulted on paying its debts and “succeeding regimes always pay the debts of the preceding regime.”
Regarding the economy, the Indonesian president said his country did not fear economic integration, adding: “We have been a trading nation for hundreds of years, and we now conclude trade agreements, not because it is fashionable but we consider it necessary.
“We believe in the concept of win-win. Last year we signed free trade agreements and comprehensive economic partnership agreements with Europe, the EU, Canada (and) Peru, and I have just visited the UK to sign our new strategic partnership and also an economic growth agreement.” He hopes that by 2027 Indonesia has in place a comprehensive economic partnership agreement with the UK.
Its policy is part of the country’s strategy to deepen productivity, reduce barriers and unlock private sector growth for Indonesia, ASEAN (the Association of Southeast Asian Nations) and the Global South, he said.
Subianto added in a session chaired by Borge Brende, WEF’s president and CEO: “We believe that trade integration, when done fairly, is not a threat to sovereignty. We believe trade is a tool for prosperity.
“Indonesia has a clear vision, as we are determined to become a modern country integrated with the global economy (while) providing (a) good quality of life for its citizens, living free of poverty and hunger.”
He further highlighted the importance of political and economic stability as a prerequisite for investments.
Toward the end of his address, the Indonesian president reiterated that “peace and stability is a long and arduous program.”
He added: “Indonesia chooses peace versus chaos. We want to be a friend to all, and an enemy to none. We want to be a good neighbor and a good, responsible citizen of the world, protecting the environment and protecting nature. We must not destroy nature, and live with it.
“Let us build the world we want to live in together. Let us continue the journey to improve the quality of life for all to live in peace, freedom, friendship, tolerance, coexistence, and (with) cooperation for all races, ethnicities, and religions.
“Let us continue our pursuit of justice for all, and security and freedom for all.”
