Give Guns To Washington Teachers? Here's How Much It Would Cost

SEATTLE, WA — President Donald Trump has said several times this week that public school teachers should be armed to defend against school shootings. At first, Trump suggested just arming teachers who have had gun training, like retired military personnel. But on Thursday, he said maybe 20 percent of all teachers should be armed.

Public schools are notoriously cash-strapped. Washington has been under-funding public schools in violation of the state Constitution for years, according to the McCleary decision. Now, many state residents will see a big property tax increase to pay for billions in new school funding (not to mention local levies still in effect).

Here's the hard math: There are about 54,000 public school teachers in Washington, according to the Superintendent of Public Instruction. Twenty percent of that is 10,800.

A Glock 17 handgun, which is the gun many police officers carry, costs about $600.

Cost to arm 20 percent of the state's teachers: $6.4 million.

But there's more. A gun needs to be loaded with ammunition. A box of 9mm bullets costs about $15, but varies from store to store. Each armed teacher would also need a concealed pistol license. That costs $48, according to the state Department of Licensing.

Paying for ammo and licenses adds another $680,400 — so now we're up to $7.08 million.

But don't forget training. The Firearms Academy of Seattle charges $95 for an introductory course on handgun use. But tuition for the defensive training class — including shooting at moving targets, accuracy, how to draw a gun - costs $425. You can't take the defensive class without taking the basic class. Cost for 10,800 teachers: $5.6 million.

To keep up that training, teachers will have to go to the gun range. At Champion Arms in Kent, the range fee is $13.50. Going to the range every other month, plus maybe three boxes of ammo per pop, that's another $631,800.

Now the total cost is up to $13.2 million.

One last cost: Trump has suggest that armed teachers should get "a little bit of a bonus" in pay for bearing such a heavy burden. What's a little bit? Last month Walmart promised to give some employees a one-time $1,000 bonus - so let's use that number.

If you're good at math, those bonuses add up to $10.8 million.

A total of $23.2 million is pretty small if it means saving students' lives. But what does that compare to actual school spending? According to the Seattle Times, starting teacher pay varies widely across the state from $37,000 in Spokane to a high of $46,400 in Mukilteo. If you assume and average of $40,000 per teacher, that means you could hire close to 600 new teachers with the $23.2 million that would otherwise go to the gun industry.

But salary costs vary, so it might not be a good comparison. For a better look at the reality of school funding, you only need to navigate over the to crowdfunding site GoFundMe. The site has an entire category devoted to teachers raising money to buy everything from books to calculators to providing students with things like coats and food.

Take Puyallup High School for example. In November, teacher Jamie Mooring opened a fundraiser for the annual "winter wishes" program, which grants the wishes of students in need. Mooring is asking for $10,000, but he's only at $2,300 as of Friday.

With $23 million, you could fund winter wishes at $10,000 a year for 100 years — and still have enough left over to help thousands of teachers across the U.S. meet their GoFundMe goals.

Caption: In this Dec. 27, 2012 file photo, Cori Sorensen, a fourth grade teacher from Highland Elementary School in Highland, Utah, receives firearms training with a .357 magnum from personal defense instructor Jim McCarthy in West Valley City, Utah, where teachers and administrators are allowed to bring guns to school.

Photo by Rick Bowmer/Associated Press