Gov. Inslee to Trump: We need less tweeting here and more listening



Governor Jay Inslee spoke his mind to President Donald Trump at a White House National Governors meeting centered around gun reform Monday.

He touted the success of a year-old program in Washington which allows law enforcement to lawfully remove firearms from someone deemed unfit and he got a little jab in while addressing the president's plan to arm teachers.

Red Flag Law


"The extreme risk protection order system has been supremely effective in allowing family members that realized there's a risk to them separated from their firearm," Inslee said. "It has saved lives, I'm sure in the state of Washington. I would commend it to you for national attention."

In 2014, California became the first state to let family members ask a judge to remove firearms from a relative who appears to pose a threat. Years later, four states including Washington, Connecticut, Indiana and Oregon created their own versions of a red flag law.

This current legislative session, more than a dozen states, including Hawaii, New Jersey and Missouri, are considering bills to enable family members or police to petition the courts to take weapons away from people showing signs of mental distress or violence.

Arming teachers


In Inslee's two-part response, he also stated his opposition to Trump's idea to arm a select number of teachers in schools.

"I think this is a circumstance where we need to listen," Inslee said.

Adding, "educators should educate and they should not be foisted upon this responsibility to packing heat."

Over the weekend, Trump tossed around several ideas on how to prevent future school shootings. One suggestion was to give bonuses to teachers who undergo gun training.

“These people are cowards. They’re not going to walk into a school if 20% of the teachers have guns — it may be 10% or maybe 40%. And what I’d recommend doing is the people that do carry, we give them a bonus. We give them a little bit of a bonus,” Trump said. “They’ll frankly feel more comfortable having the gun anyway. But you give them a little bit of a bonus.”

Inslee said he listened to teachers and law enforcement in Washington state and neither side likes the idea of carrying a gun "no matter what percentage" of teachers might be obligated to do so.

"I just suggest we need a little less tweeting here and a little more listening," Inslee closed.