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.
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."
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.
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).
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?