Blumenthal: Trump pitch to arm teachers ‘absolutely abhorrent’

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) slammed President Trump for pledging to consider allowing teachers to carry concealed weapons in schools, calling the idea “absolutely abhorrent.”

“That idea of concealed carry is absolutely abhorrent,” Blumenthal said on CNN’s “The Situation Room” on Wednesday. “It is an anathema. As the Sandy Hook parent Nicole Hockley told him, we need to prevent these shootings by getting guns out of the hands of dangerous people.”

Trump “has to do more than listen, and more than talk about guns,” Blumenthal said, adding that now “is the time for action” on gun control.

{mosads}In a separate interview, Blumenthal again slammed the idea, saying it was a “dangerous and frightening prospect” that “makes schools less safe.”

“That idea has been rejected soundly and consistently by the entire educational community,” he said on MSNBC’s “Hardball with Chris Matthews.” “By teachers, superintendents, principals — because it makes schools less safe. And it is a nonstarter.”

During a listening session with students from the Florida school where 17 people were killed in a shooting last week, Trump said the good thing about the suggestion of arming teachers was that it could end an attack quickly.

He also said it was an idea the White House would be examining closely after a parent of one of the students brought up the idea.

“If you had a teacher who was adept at firearms, they could very well end the attack very quickly, and the good thing about a suggestion like that — and we’re going to be looking at it very strongly, and I think a lot of people are going to be opposed to it. I think a lot of people are going to like. But the good thing is you’re going to have a lot of [armed] people with that,” he said. 

Trump also criticized gun-free zones in schools during the event.

“A gun-free zone to a maniac, because they’re all coward, a gun-free zone is ‘let’s go in and attack,’ ” he said.