Not every teacher should have a gun, despite President Donald Trump's call for arming them in light of the Florida school massacre, former New York City Police detective Bo Dietl told Newsmax TV on Thursday.
"I don't think every teacher should be armed," Dietl told "Newsmax Now" host John Bachman. "No one can predict a hero."
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"If I were a school teacher, I would want to pack my 9mm and conceal it, because I know what I'm doing.
"There's a lot of teachers who could."
But, "I don't want teachers to just get a Glock gun just to have a gun on them," Dietl cautioned.
"I want someone handling it who can react, because we all know that it takes five to six minutes for this to happen.
"We don't have enough time for the police to get there," he argued. "The reaction time has to be immediate."
Dietl noted the Columbine massacre in 1999 proved "when you have an active shooter, they're trying to get body count.
"You've got to get in there immediately," he told Bachman. "You can't wait outside. All he'll do is run through his bullets.
"As far as arming teachers, if you have good qualifications and good training, I fully support it.
"People with law-enforcement background or with military background," Dietl said, "people who can go and train and be ready to do what it takes to protect these kids.
"We have too many teachers that put their bodies out and they have no other weapons," he added. "They've taken bullets and died for these kids.
"We've got to give them a little advantage."
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