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The Latest: Trump's school plan envisions arming teachers

Original Publication Date March 11, 2018 - 4:21 PM

WASHINGTON - The Latest on President Donald Trump's plan in response to school shootings (all times local):

9 p.m.

The White House is pledging to help states pay for firearms training for teachers and repeating its call to improve the background check system as part of a new plan to prevent school shootings.

But in a move sure to please the powerful gun lobby, the plan does not include a push to increase the minimum age for purchasing assault weapons to 21. That's a step President Donald Trump has repeatedly championed.

Instead, a new federal commission on school safety will examine the age issue, as well as a long list of others topics, as part of a longer-term look at school safety and violence.

The plan also forgoes an endorsement of comprehensive background checks for gun purchases, which the president, at times, has seemed to embrace.

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7:45 p.m.

President Donald Trump's plan to combat school shootings will include a push to arm teachers and other school personnel and improve the federal background check system.

But Trump's plan will not include an explicit call on states to increase the minimum age for purchasing assault weapons, as Trump had previously advocated.

Instead, a new federal commission on school safety will examine that proposal, as well as others, as part of a longer-term examination of school safety issues and violence.

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos says that, "far too often, the focus" after shootings has been "only on the most contentious fights, the things that have divided people and sent them into their entrenched corners."

She says Trump's effort is "a pragmatic plan" that will "dramatically" improve safety in schools.

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7:15 p.m.

The White House says President Donald Trump's plan to combat school shootings will include the creation of a new task force and an effort to "harden" schools so they're less vulnerable to attack.

But an official says the Trump plan will not include a call on states to increase the minimum age for purchasing assault weapons, as Trump has previously advocated. The official says that issue will be left to the task force to discuss.

The White House plans to release more details about the plan Sunday night, nearly a month after the school shooting in Parkland, Florida, which left 17 students and staff dead.

In the weeks since the massacre, Trump has held listening sessions with lawmakers, survivors of recent school shootings and the families of victims.

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12:10 p.m.

White House spokesman Raj Shah says President Donald Trump's plan to combat school shootings will include an effort to "harden" schools so they're less vulnerable to attacks.

Shah says Trump will be reiterating his call for improvements to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System in the wake of a school shooting in Parkland, Florida, that killed 17 students and staff last month.

He says Trump will recommend that states raise the legal age to purchase certain firearms to 21 and will call for a task force to study the issue in more depth.

The White House has repeatedly pushed back the date for delivering its formal recommendations.

Shah spoke Sunday on ABC's "This Week."

News from © The Associated Press, 2018
The Associated Press

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