Inslee Statement Re: Federal Proposal to Purchase Firearms for Educators

— from Governor Jay Inslee’s Office —

Gov. Jay Inslee today issued the following statement regarding the news today that President Donald Trump’s Education Secretary, Betsy DeVos, is considering using federal education funds to purchase guns and provide firearm training for educators who work in the classroom.

“I cannot believe we’ve reached a point in time where our national leaders’ response to the deadly scourge of gun violence in America is to put more guns in schools and ask our hard-working educators to take on the additional roles of security guard and SWAT officer.

“Education funding should be used for education. Most of our schools are already under-resourced, and pitting the need for new textbooks, classroom supplies and improved STEM programs against the purchase of new pistols is a debate that doesn’t deserve a minute of our time.

“If this administration is serious about improving school safety, I invite them to meet with the teachers and students who say there’s so much more we can do to provide additional mental health supports, provide better social-emotional learning and, as importantly, muster the courage to enact common-sense gun safety regulations that we know save lives. Our teachers should be focused on teaching, our students should be focused on learning, and our elected leaders should be focused on fixing gun violence — not escalating it. I call on Secretary DeVos to abandon this wildly dangerous proposal immediately.”