Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) criticized President Trump’s proposal to arm teachers during a Senate hearing following the deadly school shooting in Parkland, Fla., saying it doesn’t make sense.
“As a career prosecutor I have worked with many communities where children go to sleep each night hearing gun fire and so what we’re proposing is that those children — remember Sandy Hook [Elementary School] we’re talking about six- and seven-year-olds — are supposed to go to school and look at the front of their class at their second-grade teacher and she’s going to be strapped with a gun,” she said at the Judiciary Committee hearing on Wednesday.
“I don’t understand how that makes any sense.”
{mosads}The Trump administration on Monday unveiled a series of proposals designed to make schools safer. They include a plan to have the Department of Justice partner with state and local law enforcement to provide school personnel with voluntary firearm training.
Harris, viewed as a potential 2020 presidential contender, also praised the students in Florida and around the country, many of whom participated in a national walkout to protest gun violence Wednesday morning, for demanding change.
“Young people, these leaders, are making it very clear it’s a false choice to suggest you’re either in favor of the Second Amendment or you want to take everyone’s guns away,” she said.
“And right now, what we need is we need to have commonsense gun safety laws in our country,” she added, causing the audience in the packed committee room to erupt in applause.
“I don’t know what we’re waiting for. We don’t need anymore tragedies.”