To the editor:
Following the massacre of 17 children at a Florida high school, President Donald Trump declared that something had to be done to keep school children safe.
He suggested guns; that teachers and school staff be armed. Trump doubled-down on that idea when he addressed a fawning crowd at the Conservative Political Action Committee.
Trump also allegedly angered conservative National Rifle Association members when he advocated outlawing bump stocks, a device that converts a semi-automatic rifle to fully automatic when the operator depresses and holds the trigger.
A bump stock was used by the deranged gunman who slaughtered country music fans in Las Vegas, and has no valid use.
Trump has proven himself a purveyor of idiotic ideas, and deceitful. Arming teachers and school staff is his latest idiotic idea. That would make teachers/staff the first targets of “school shooters.”
In the inherent chaos of a school shooting, how would teachers/staff avoid wounding fleeing children? Would teachers/staff be held civilly responsible? And a potpourri of other issues.
The bump stocks are being sold to wide-eyed gun nuts who crave military-style weaponry. So they convert their civilian AR-15 to a faux-automatic weapon — like real soldiers have. Realistically, anyone with a working trigger finger can duplicate the rate of fire obtained by use of a bump stock.
So Trump’s proposed ban of this device is non-consequential, but it does serve as a “bone” to those who are pushing for stricter gun laws, as well as yet another diversion from his many “Russian issues.”
Michael K. Broughton
Green Park
Editor’s note: Michael K. Broughton serves as a Green Park Ward 1 alderman.