Politico Morning Education reports on a new poll:

 

POLL: MOST TEACHERS DON’T WANT GUNS IN CLASS: Polling out this morning by Gallup found that teachers overwhelmingly say they do not want to pack heat in the classroom, even with special training – a proposal the Trump administration has made a central focus of its response to the school shooting in Parkland, Fla.

– Nearly three quarters – 73 percent – of teachers said they oppose school staff carrying guns, and nearly 60 percent said arming staff would make schools less safe, according to the first nationally representative survey of teachers on the topic since the Feb. 14 shooting.

– Despite that, 20 percent of teachers strongly or somewhat favor the proposal, and 18 percent said they would be willing to go through special training to carry a gun in school buildings – indicating President Donald Trump may be on to something with his repeated estimate that as many as 20 percent of teachers could be “gun adept” enough to be armed in class.

– The new poll comes as the Trump administration pushes a school safety plan that includes the potential of armed school staff – something the president has repeatedly called for in the wake of the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School that left 17 dead and another 14 injured. The White House is backing a new Justice Department program that would aid states that seek to train teachers and other school personnel to carry firearms, as part of a package of steps to curb school violence.

– Most teachers don’t want the option, though. Eighty-two percent said they would not be willing to undergo the training. Gallup noted that it remains to be seen whether the majority of teachers who oppose the idea would agree to teach in a school where teachers are armed.

– Of the 18 percent of teachers who said they would undergo training to carry, two-thirds are very confident that they would be able to effectively handle the gun in a live shooting situation and one-quarter are somewhat confident, according to the Gallup poll. Gallup also found that a quarter of teachers said they currently own a gun and those who do are four times as likely to say they’re willing to undergo training to carry in school.

– Voters, however, have been more split on the idea. A Gallup poll this week found 42 percent of Americans support the idea and 56 percent oppose it. A POLITICO/Morning Consult poll last month that found 50 percent of voters supported the idea and just 42 percent opposed it. Benjamin Wermund has more.