White House proposes arming teachers, backpedals on raising age to buy guns

Monday, 12 March 2018 14:10

The Trump administration on Sunday night proposed providing some school personnel with "rigorous" firearms training and backed a bill to improve criminal background checks on gun buyers, but backpedaled on the idea of increasing the minimum age to buy certain firearms -- a policy President Donald Trump had said he would support.

The proposals, which come more than three weeks after the Parkland, Florida, school shooting, also include a plan to establish a commission chaired by Education Secretary Betsy DeVos that will recommend policy and funding proposals for school violence prevention, including possible age restrictions on some firearms purchases.

The commission does not have a set timeline of when it will report its findings, although an official said it would be within one year. "Today we are announcing meaningful actions, steps that can be taken right away to help protect students," DeVos said Sunday.