SALT LAKE CITY -- In the middle of a national debate over whether it's a good idea to arm teachers in order to stop mass shootings in schools, a Utah teacher went on Fox News on Thursday to say she already carries a gun to class every day.
Special Education teacher Kasey Hansen said she took a concealed firearms class after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Connecticut killed 20 six and seven year olds.
"They didn't have any defense for them and all they could do was hope that the bad guy didn't come in and shoot up their room, and for me I needed a better option," Hansen said.
President Trump has pushed the idea as a solution to violent attacks in public schools, talking about it in a listening session at the White House Wednesday and again in a speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference on Friday.
"So this crazy man who walked in wouldn't even know who it is that has [a gun] and that's good," Trump told the crowds. "That's not bad, that's good. And the teacher would have shot the hell out of him before he knew what happened."
The National Education Association, the nation's largest teachers' organization, opposes the idea.
"Our students need more books, art and music programs, nurses and school counselors; they do not need more guns in their classrooms," said NEA president Lily Eskelsen Garcia Thursday.
