As we already now, actor, Samuel Jackson, is never one to bite his tongue on any topic. That same rule of thumb for the acting legend, applies to the president of the United States as well, or as I simply like to refer to him as, Trump. On Friday, February 23, Jackson’s outspokenness went viral after he tweeted a straight to the point message about Trump’s proposal to arm teachers with guns:
@SamuelLJackson: Can someone that’s been in a Gunfight tell that Muthaf*kka that’s Never been in a Gunfight, the flaws of his Arm The Teachers plan??!!
Can someone that’s been in a Gunfight tell that Muthafukka that’s Never been in a Gunfight, the flaws of his Arm The Teachers plan??!!
— Samuel L. Jackson (@SamuelLJackson) February 23, 2018
Samuel Jackson’s tweet has been retweeted more than 262K times thus far.
Jackson called Trump a “muthaf*kka” because, like many, he thinks Trump’s recent proposal to arm teachers, is a horrible idea that can go terribly wrong in a school setting. Trump first introduced that idea during his “listening session” with the survivors of the tragic Valentine Day massacre of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla..
Since then, Trump has pointed out several reasons why he believes that arming teachers with guns would be a great idea. Some of his reasons include that teachers have a closer bond with their students and may be more willing to protect them, before a school security officer would. Trump stated that after it was revealed that the school’s armed security officer was present during the massacre at Douglas high school, but chose to remain outside of the building as 17 kids and staff were brutally murdered by Nikolas Cruz (19).
Trump also tweeted:
@realDonaldTrump: Armed Educators (and trusted people who work within a school) love our students and will protect them. Very smart people. Must be firearms adept & have annual training. Should get yearly bonus. Shootings will not happen again – a big & very inexpensive deterrent. Up to States.
Although Trump is pushing for armed teachers, he is getting called out, by millions of people, for recently condoning the reversal of a stricter gun law President Obama put into place, which made it much tougher for people to obtain guns, including mentally disturbed individuals. Thus far, Trump has only stated that the armed teachers proposal should be “up to the states” to decide and loosely hinted that he may up the minimum age of gun ownership requirements.
Many people are with Samuel Jackson on this one and have spoken out against Trump’s armed teachers proposal.
The president of the National Education Association, Lily Eskelsen García, told Education Week that greater solutions are what’s needed to “keep guns out of the hands of those who want to use them to massacre innocent children and educators. … Arming teachers does nothing to prevent that.”
Then there are many others, who feel the opposite, including anti-Trump advocate, rapper Killer Mike. Mike feels that being armed, is a right that everyone- in particular, Black people- should condone, because if not, the enemy will certainly have even more of an upper hand than they do already. He also further explained his point in these Instagram posts (swipe left):
https://www.instagram.com/p/BfjRgiwjL-2/
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bff3-UzDikp/
I must admit that I’m conflicted about the idea of arming teachers with guns. Just like any other parent, we want our most precious gifts -our children- protected at all times, including when their in the supposedly gun-free zone schools. Therefore, training willing teachers -who wish to do just that- on how to properly defend themselves and our babies from mass murderers sounds like a winning plan to me. HOWEVER, as Samuel Jackson pointed out, there are so many “flaws” in that plan that could go tragically wrong at any given moment. Like Robert Conroy (the organizer of CeaseFire PA, a gun-control group) pointed out:
“Almost any two students could figure out a way to get a gun away from a teacher; one distracts them and the other sneaks or wrestles the gun off of them. The current proposal to arm teachers in Pennsylvania included no restrictions on how guns were to be stored on-campus, whether teachers would keep them holstered, in their desks or in gun safes,” he said.
What do y’all think? Are you with Samuel Jackson on this, or do you think teachers should be trained and armed in schools?
