Newt Gingrich says 'only long-term solution' to school gun violence is arming teachers

Newt Gingrich says he believes that one way to keep school students safe is to arm teachers and administrators with weapons.

What did he say?

The former Republican Speaker of the House appeared on Fox News' "Fox & Friends" Tuesday morning where he discussed his take on school safety after last week's school shooting that took the lives of 17 people and injured many more in Parkland, Florida.

Gingrich said that an important step in ensuring the safety of America's children is to arm those capable of defending the safety of those same children.

"I think the only long-term solution ... depending on the size of the school, is a minimum of six to eight teachers and administrators who are trained in the use of firearms and have conceal carry permits and are prepared to defend the kids," Gingrich continued.

"Every school in the country is supposed to be a gun-free zone. If gun control worked, how come it didn’t work?" he added.

Gingrich noted it's important to be "realistic," and indicated that there has to be a safety net in place to protect children in instances in which measures taken to ensure safety might be lacking.

"I think we have to be realistic: we're not going to confiscate guns on a scale to make us a disarmed country, and the truth is sooner or later, somebody's going to slip through the net because the civil liberties problem," he explained. "If you go out and you pick up every person who's a little weird, you are really infringing on the right of people to be free."

.@newtgingrich: Every school should have a minimum of 6-8 armed teachers who are trained in the use of firearms and are prepared to defend students pic.twitter.com/vMS3XnEFNG

— FOX & friends (@foxandfriends) February 20, 2018

What else?

The Claude ISD in West Texas implemented a program in 2016 where staffers were trained to carry concealed weapons and taught what to do if ever faced with an active shooter.