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White House releases new gun control plan: Supports arming teachers

U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos will lead a commission tasked with broadly examining ways to protect schools from gun violence, the White House said Sunday.

Administration officials said the White House would support arming school personnel who volunteer for the job, offering federal funds to provide "rigorous firearms training” to qualified employees.

The proposal has angered education groups, who have said arming educators could put both adults and students at risk. National Education Association President Lily Eskelsen García last month said, "Bringing more guns into our schools does nothing to protect our students and educators from gun violence."

But Betsy DeVos, who has met with students, teachers and families in the wake of the deadly Feb. 14 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., said little progress had been made protecting students over the past several years. “No student, no family, no teacher and no school should have to live the horror of Parkland or Sandy Hook or Columbine again,” she said.

While not immediately committing to any ideas or timetables, DeVos said, "No stone will be left unturned” in the effort to uncover and highlight evidence-based approaches proven to reduce violence.

“We’ve had to talk about this topic way too much over the years,” DeVos told reporters during a conference call Sunday. “And there’s been a lot of talk in the past but very little action.”

Senior administration officials familiar with the effort said no proposals would be off the table. “All topics are open to being addressed on this commission,” one official said.

The commission will consider raising the age to 21 under which people can buy certain kinds of firearms, but the official wouldn't commit to supporting the proposal outright, saying, "Obviously we want everything we do in here to be evidence-based at actually trying to help to reduce violence — not just try to check a box.”

The National Rifle Association (NRA) last week sued to block a new Florida law, signed by Gov. Rick Scott, that prohibits gun sales to anyone under 21. But the White House official said the lawsuit would not affect the commission's work. “We are not concerned … about the NRA here.”

Trump on Saturday criticized the use of blue-ribbon commissions in dealing with drug dealers, telling a crowd at a rally near Pittsburgh, "We can't just keep setting up blue-ribbon committees with your wife and your wife and your husband, and they meet and they have a meal and they talk, talk talk talk, two hours later, then they write a report."

But one White House official on Sunday defended the idea of a commission on school safety, saying Trump “is committed to finding every way possible and encouraging states and communities to find and adopt every way possible to protect the students in their care.”

As part of the effort, the administration will also conduct a full audit and review of the FBI tip line, which failed to keep the alleged Parkland shooter from acquiring guns.

Andrew Bremberg, director of the White House’s Domestic Policy Council, said the administration would call on states to approve “risk-protection orders,” temporary court orders that allow law enforcement to remove guns from at-risk people — and keep them from buying new guns.

Trump has also proposed banning bump stocks, which allow a few models of firearms to fire more rapidly.

The U.S. Justice Department has submitted a regulation that would make the devices illegal to own or sell. Bump stocks became notorious after police last October said they were used in the Las Vegas mass shooting that killed 58 people.

Appearing on ABC’s This Week on Sunday, White House principal deputy press secretary Raj Shah said Trump supports raising to 21 the age for purchasing “certain firearms.” Shah wouldn’t say whether Trump will call for universal background checks on gun sales.

The White House on Sunday said it supports legislation introduced by Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, and Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., that would improve information in the National Instant Criminal Background Check System.

The administration said the commission would consider changes to "existing entertainment rating systems" and youth consumption of violent entertainment, as well as the effects of press coverage of mass shootings. Trump met last week with representatives of the video game industry, as well as critics of the industry.

The commission will also consider repealing Obama administration discipline policies and will study, among other issues, the effectiveness and appropriateness of "psychotropic medication" for treating troubled youth.

Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., late Sunday said the White House "has taken tiny baby steps designed not to upset the NRA, when the gun violence epidemic in this country demands that giant steps be taken."

He said Senate Democrats would "push to go further," including passing universal background checks, federal legislation on protection orders and pushing for a debate on banning assault weapons.

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