For years now, the subject of gun control has been a divisive one in the USA. And, in the wake of the Parkland school shooting on February 14th, the debate on the matter has only become more heated.

"To every politician who is taking donations from the NRA, shame on you! Shame on you!" said Emma Gonzales, a survivor of the attack. "Politicians who sit in their gilded House and Senate seats funded by the NRA telling us nothing could have been done to prevent this: We call BS!”

However, despite calls for more stringent regulations on what type of weapons should be available to the American public - and, indeed, who exactly should be permitted to use them - President Donald Trump seems resolute in his stance that guns are not the problem. In fact, he wants to see more of them.

In a tweet last week, Trump said he was looking into "the possibility of giving concealed guns to gun adept teachers with military or special training experience," but many have pointed out the flaws in this.

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One particularly vocal opponent to the proposition is Brandon Friedman, a former Army infantry officer in Iraq and Afghanistan who is an expert in combat. In an op-ed letter for NY Daily News, he explained that there were a number of flaws in Trump's plan to give teachers guns - but there was just important one that he wanted to discuss.

"Arming educators is a terrible idea for a whole host of reasons, but I want to hone in on a crucial one: the fiction that arming teachers means they’ll be able to stop an armed attacker," Friedman said.

He then went on to list several other mass shootings that have occurred in the USA over the last year and a half (and the fact there are so many should be warning enough that guns are a problem in the states), and pointed out one key detail about all of them: there was a "good guy with a gun" present at every one.

"There were armed guards at Columbine, the Pulse nightclub and in Las Vegas at the time of the massacre. At Parkland too. Time and again, armed civilians or security guards are out-maneuvered, out-gunned and too inexperienced. It’s difficult for a rational person to reach a state where they can go toe-to-toe with an armed psychopath who has nothing to lose. I was professionally trained and still almost blew it at the moment of truth.

"If armed security guards often don’t stop shootings, teachers have no chance."

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Friedman went on to say that simply having a gun does not guarantee that the person will be mentally or physically capable of using it in a heated situation.

"Instructing a teacher in how to use a gun does very little. Guns aren’t magical objects that turn a person into a skilled warrior, no matter how proficient one is at marksmanship ...

"Teaching someone to handle a gun is a very different skill from teaching them how to fight. People who haven’t fought (or at least been trained to fight) often seem to miss this completely."

And it's completely true. What's to guarantee that the teacher will use the gun? Or will hit their target? Even police officers miss their shot in a crime scene shoot out. What's to stop a student taking the gun off the teacher and using it?

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"Anyone who tells you that arming teachers is a solution is clueless. It’ll cost kids’ lives. Teachers need to be teaching, not training to fight. But they’re up against weapons of war. And that’s on us," Friedman says.

"Rather than arming teachers to shoot back, the more obvious solution is to prohibit the sale and ownership of weapons like the AR-15. And hopefully we will. Soon."

Right now, Trump - and everyone else who currently opposes gun control - needs to listen to the victims of shootings. America has only five per cent of the world's population, yet accounts for 31 per cent of the world's mass shooters. The issue needs to be dealt with before a dozen more innocent people are murdered by a teenager with a legally-acquired semiautomatic weapon.

You can't fight fire with fire, so how is fighting gun violence with more guns any different? Well, according to the president of the United States, the frightening and all too frequent occurrence of school shootings can be stopped by arming teachers with weapons to shoot back. "Problem solved," he tweeted on Friday.

Donald Trump raised the controversial idea of arming 20 per cent of teachers at school during a "listening session" at the White House last week. Students and parents personally affected by the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida attended the session, and they were not the only ones who failed to see the brilliance of Trump's idea.

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Teachers all over the country were quick to announce they aren't really into having guns pushed into their hands, instead starting their own #ArmMeWith campaign to oppose the notion, and an army veteran ripped the idea apart pointed out "the fiction that arming teachers means they’ll be able to stop an armed attacker".

"There were armed guards at Columbine, the Pulse nightclub and in Las Vegas at the time of the massacre. At Parkland too. Time and again, armed civilians or security guards are out-manoeuvred, out-gunned and too inexperienced. It’s difficult for a rational person to reach a state where they can go toe-to-toe with an armed psychopath who has nothing to lose. I was professionally trained and still almost blew it at the moment of truth.

"If armed security guards often don’t stop shootings, teachers have no chance."

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Celebrities have also engaged in the long-standing debate, taking to social media to point out the flaws in the plan and ask (again) to readdress gun reform instead. The latest to have his say is 69-year-old actor Samuel L Jackson, who took to Twitter to voice his opinion on the matter. The Pulp Fiction actor, who has played many thick-skinned and no-bull characters over the years, called Trump a "Muthaf***a" while taking the time to point out the "flaws" of the armed teachers proposal.

"Can someone that’s been in a Gunfight tell that Muthaf**a that’s Never been in a Gunfight, the flaws of his Arm The Teachers plan??!!" Jackson tweeted.

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While there were people (as expected) trying to somehow justify that adding more guns to the equation would help, and that suddenly asking teachers to shoot at children as part of their job is a good idea, most people were in support of Jackson's tweet, which has since gone viral.

"It’s about gun control. NOT MORE GUNS," one person wrote in response, with another corroborating, "Keep school gun free." Someone else adopted Jackson's tone of voice and wrote: "We need less mothaf***a guns in our mothaf***a classrooms" (à la Snakes on a Plane, in case you're out of the loop).

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Other celebrities weighing in on the debate include George Clooney, Oprah Winfrey and Steven Spielberg, who each donated half a million dollars to the March For Our Lives event – a mass protest calling for tougher gun laws, and Amy Poehler and almost all of her Parks and Recreation co-stars slammed the NRA last week after they used a GIF from the show on Twitter.

Time to look at Plan B perhaps, Congress?

The attack at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida last month has reignited the debate surrounding gun control in America, or the lack thereof. The rampage, which is the deadliest school shooting since 2012, saw 17 people lose their lives after suspected gunman, Nikolas Cruz, opened fire with a semiautomatic AR-15 and began shooting students he saw in the hallways and on school grounds.

In the aftermath of the shooting, the Trump administration proposed providing certain school personnel with "rigorous" firearms training. President Trump also backed a bill to make criminal background checks on gun buyers more thorough, although, he countered this by back-pedalling on increasing the minimum age to buy some firearms - a policy which he had previously endorsed.

While not yet implemented a potential problem with that first initiative seems to have been raised: a teacher at a Northern California school accidentally discharged a firearm while teaching a public safety class.

A teacher and reserve police officer has been place on leave after he mistakenly fired a gun in a classroom, injuring one student.

Dennis Alexander was teaching students about gun safety for his Administration of Justice class at Seaside High School in Northern California when his weapon went off at around 1:20pm on Tuesday. The gun was pointed towards the ceiling when it was fired, and this caused pieces of rubble to fall to the ground.
Fermin Gonzales stated that his 17-year-old son was injured during the incident and had to be taken to hospital to have the bullet fragments in his neck removed. Speaking to local media outlet, KSBW, the parent said that Alexander has told the class that he wanted to ensure that the gun wasn't loaded when it accidentally discharged.

"It could have been very bad," Gonzales asserted.

According to Gonzales, school officials did not pause to check if students were injured following the mistaken firing. He alleged that his son came home with blood on his shirt and fragments of the bullet in his neck. "He's shaken up, but he's going to be OK," he added.

Speaking to The Montreal County Weekly, Seaside Police Chief Abdul Pridgen countered Mr. Gonzales' statement, saying that the student was struck in the neck by "debris or fragmentation", not a bullet.

Despite the President's proposed initiative, teachers are not legally permitted to have firearms in Californian classrooms. Sand City Police Chief Brian Ferrante told KSBW that he's therefore concerned about why the reserve police officer had a loaded gun in the school. "We will be looking into that,' he said. "My first concern was that no one was hurt."

Dennis Alexander has since been placed on administration leave from the school and the Sand City Police Department.

Seaside High School has issued a statement on the incident, stating that counselling services will be provided for students experiencing distress;

"We want to make you aware of an accident that occurred in the Administration of Justice class today at Seaside High School. As some of you may know, the teacher is a reserve police officer. Today, during class, the teacher accidentally discharged his firearm during a lesson while it was pointed at the ceiling. Debris from the ceiling then fell

"Upon learning of the incident, our Human Resources department, school site administration and the Seaside Police Department immediately began investigating the incident, including interviewing students in the class. We will also have counselling services available for students. ... The safety of your student is always our top priority, and we will continue to remain vigilant in our efforts to keep them safe while they are under our care."

In related news, here's what happened when they "gave Israeli teachers guns".

In the wake of the Parkland shooting, there was one sentence on the tip of many people's tongues. It went something like this: "America should just give all teachers guns - that’s what Israel did after a school shooting and they don’t have any school shootings now."

The fire was fueled by thousands of people, with many taking to Twitter and Facebook to declare that giving educators guns had been tried and tested in the Middle Eastern country - and had succeeded. Soon enough, big names like Fox News analyst Andrew Napolitan, former governor of Arkansas Mike Huckabee and executive vice president of the NRA Wayne LaPierre were all citing Israel as the model that the United States should be leaning towards.

However, there was one big problem. They were wrong.

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The notion that Israeli teachers stand in front of the classroom with an AR-15 in one hand and a whiteboard pen in the other is one that is deeply misguided, and the idea of Americans using this falsehood as justification for giving their teachers guns is one that has enraged many Israelis over the past few weeks, months and years. The truth is, Israel is by no means a place where shooters are regularly deterred by a firearm in a maths teacher’s back pocket. By all accounts, one would find it extremely difficult to find an Israeli teacher who wields a weapon in the classroom.

The reality was perhaps summed up well in 2012 by one of Israel Today's writers Ron Cantor, who had lived in Israel ten times by the time the article was published. He claimed that he had never once seen a teacher holding a rifle, but asserted that there’s a chance there may be "some exceptions in dangerous areas" like the West Bank, a particularly dangerous area east of Israel where roughly 2.6 million Palestinians live on land they consider to be illegally occupied by Israel.

The initial idea of armed teachers in Israel perhaps goes back to a viral picture that comes out to play on the internet whenever there is a new school shooting. The image, supposedly taken in the Old City of Acre, Israel in 2002, shows a group of school children on an outing together with a woman with a rifle standing behind them, supposedly there to protect them if disaster strikes. First seen in 2012, soon enough the photo was being heralded as having the solution to the problem of school shootings, the idea being that all countries should follow suit and allow educators to carry firearms in the classroom in front of children.

No one really knows exactly what the situation in the image is, but what we do know is that every time it goes viral, Israelis take to the internet to take issue with it. Many have claimed that the woman standing behind the children is most likely a security guard, not a teacher and this claim appears to be credible. In reality, most Israeli schools have armed security guards who are present to protect the students if needs be, yet there currently is no record of any teacher being allowed to bring a gun into the classroom. However, what you will find is that the country has many other effective ways of ensuring that incidents like the one which took place on February 14, 2018, don’t happen in their educational institutions.

Obtaining a firearm is a dramatically different experience in Israel than it is in the USA. Despite being perhaps one of the most dangerous places in the world to live, Israel has some of the strictest gun laws on the planet and, rather than a right, it is a privilege and a great responsibility to be given a gun over there.

The country has strict background checks that make it incredibly difficult to acquire a firearm. Applicants must first prove that they have a specific reason for needing a gun, whether that be working in a security role, or living in the settlements where there is limited Israeli security presence and a higher rate of attacks against Jews.

After this, officials will study an applicant's criminal, physical, and mental health records and evidence must be shown that they have a clean bill of health from their physician. In addition, they will have to pass a mandatory shooting course at a licenced gun range and - even after all of this - there’s a strong chance, their gun licence application will be rejected. According to the Associated Press, about 80 per cent of the 10,000 people who apply yearly for licences are turned down.

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But even gaining the right to bear arms is not the end of the process for Israeli citizens. If approved for a licence, ammunition is reportedly strictly limited to 50 bullets per gun and, according to the Israeli gun lobby, gun owners must retake their licence exam every three years. In addition, Amir Ohana, a conservative Israeli Parliament member has claimed that Israel’s Ministry of Homeland Security performs a cross-data check every three months to ensure that no one with mental health issues slips through the cracks. All of these procedures ensure that all citizens allowed to carry guns are responsible and mentally stable.

So how do America’s gun regulations hold up in comparison? Unfortunately, they're nothing compared to Israel's, with a federal law background check provision allegedly only covering about 60 percent of gun sales. Reportedly, Individuals in 32 states can legally bypass a background check by purchasing their weapons through private sales, such as by meeting a seller online or at a gun show, and acquire guns with no questions asked. Furthermore, shooting courses are not required, there’s no licence to be renewed, and they never need to provide a reason for owning a gun.

The truth is, Israel didn’t solve their "gun problem" by giving teachers guns. This is not only because of the strict gun laws they put in place, but also because they never actually had a gun problem like America. Take a look back over the past 40 years and you’ll come across only two school shootings in Israel’s history. In comparison, America’s gun problem is uniquely horrifying with studies showing that Americans own nearly half of the estimated 650 million civilian-owned guns worldwide and the country sees more of its own people killed by fellow citizens armed with guns than in any other high-income nation in the world.

Every time the two are compared, Israeli officials distance themselves from America, pointing out that the two countries are simply beyond comparison. "We’re fighting terrorism, which comes under very specific geopolitical and military circumstances. This is not something that compares with the situation in the US," Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said in 2012.

Despite this, the myth that Israel’s "gun problem" was solved by giving teachers guns continues to live on, and supporters continue to cite this piece of fake news as a justification for handing American teachers guns. They ignore the fact that if the United States follows Israel’s example, they would have fewer shootings - but not because teachers would be armed. Instead, because of the months of security checks, mental health assessments and shooting courses that are required of anyone owning a gun in Israel.

Ultimately, Americans should continue to cite Israel as a model for change. But not because gun problems are fixed with more weapons, but because any potential gun problems get solved with strict gun laws.

After the school shooting in Parkland, Florida, there has been a fierce debate about what action to take to prevent such an atrocity from happening again. The surviving students have demanded new gun control legislation, which is always difficult since so many lawmakers accept millions of dollars from The NRA. Others have suggested focusing on mental health, since the shooter, Nikolas Cruz, 19, was so clearly mentally disturbed.

President Trump has said that he is in favor of stronger background checks and increasing the age requirement to buy a rifle to 21. He has also floated the idea of arming more teachers in schools, which has gotten savage criticism from teachers, an army veteran and even Samuel L. Jackson. "If you had a teacher who was adept with the firearm, they could end the attack very quickly," insisted the President, during a listening session with the surviving students.

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Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School actually did have a school protection officer, Scot Peterson. He was armed with a handgun but failed to prevent Cruz's attack. In fact, while Cruz was shooting students and teachers, he just waited outside. When this was revealed, he resigned from the job. Reportedly three police officers also waited outside, and did not take action until backup arrived. In response to these claims of negligence, the Broward County Sheriff’s office has launched an investigation.

Cruz entered the school with an AR-15, which he purchased legally, and killed 17 people, while wounding 15. Many students ran out of the school. Others who were not close to an exit barricaded themselves in closets to hide. The assistant football coach, Aaron Feis, heroically shielded students from the gunfire, saving their lives, and later died from a gunshot wound. If the teachers were armed, it's possible they could have stopped Cruz' rampage, but it's also possible there would have been more casualties in the chaos.

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However, President Trump is pretty confident about how he would have acted in the situation. In a meeting with the governors, he suggested that he would have stormed inside like John McClane and fought Cruz himself. "You don’t know until you test it, but I really believe I’d have run in there even if I didn’t have a weapon," said Trump. "And I think most of the people in this room would have done that too, because I know most of you. But the way [the first armed police] performed was a disgrace."

Critics expressed skepticism that Trump would act so bravely. During the Vietnam War, he had multiple military deferments, and cited "bone spurs" on his feet to get out of service. Also, he's 71, and according to his latest physical, one pound away from being obese, thanks to a steady diet of fast food. When's the last time he ran anywhere? It's  easy to say how you would act in a situation, but you don't really know until it happens. However, Trump has always been the opposite of modest, constantly claiming to be "the most" this and "the best" that so I guess this statement isn't very surprising.