Armed teachers should receive bonuses, Trump says

President Donald Trump speaks as he hosts a listening session with high school students, teachers and parents in the State Dining Room of the White House in Washington, Wednesday, Feb. 21, 2018. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

President Donald Trump said he supports giving bonuses to teachers who receive firearm training.

"These people are cowards," Trump told CNN about potential school shooters. "They're not going to walk into a school if 20 percent of the teachers have guns - it may be 10 percent or may be 40 percent. And what I'd recommend doing is the people that do carry, we give them a bonus. We give them a little bit of a bonus."

Trump reiterated his earlier comments that he did not believe all teachers should be armed.

"I want certain highly adept people - people that understand weaponry, guns. If they really have that aptitude - because not everybody has aptitude for gun - but if they have the aptitude, I think a concealed permit for having teachers and letting people know that there are people in the building with guns, you won't have - in my opinion - you won't have these shootings," the president said.

The president did not support gun-free zones, however.

"We have to harden those schools, not soften them. A gun-free zone, to a killer, or somebody that wants to be a killer, that's like going in for the ice cream. That's like saying, 'Here I am, take me,' " he said.

The comments come after a series of tweets from the president in the wake of last week's deadly shooting at a Parkland, Florida high school. Seventeen people were killed when former student Alex Cruz opened fire on students and faculty before fleeing the scene. He was arrested by police about an hour after the attack.

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