You know when someone gets really stoned and has crazy ideas for how to break down the constructs that control society and change the way we do things and crush all the evil in the world and turn everything around and everything that comes out of their mouth is really out there and impractical? Well, the sitting President of the United States is like that when he’s completely sober, and yet he somehow managed to get elected to have the power to actually make those changes. How terrific.
At some point during his 2016 election campaign, then-Republican candidate Donald Trump suggested that the school shootings would be less frequent if the teachers in these schools were armed with guns.
Of course, this is impractical and would only open American schools up to more heinous, gun-related crimes. This is a key problem with conservative policies in America – they think that the way to reduce gun violence is to bring in more guns. It’s a really dumb idea, but they think it’ll work. The President of the United States thinks it’ll work.
Now, you might think that having actually been the President for over a year now and listening to the heartbreaking stories and testimonials of the survivors of last week’s school shooting in Florida would have changed Trump’s mind about whether or not arming the teachers with guns would truly fix the gun violence problem in America. But no, of course it didn’t.
He does still believe that this would be a successful solution. He said that, if school teachers were given guns, “Attacks would end!”
This is hot on the heels of Trump banning bump stocks
What makes Trump’s recent statement such a disappointment is that he was just being nudged in the right direction. He was just, like two days ago, trying to get bump stocks banned to reduce the number of fatalities that occur during mass shootings.
That was a start. It was the beginning of the road to tighter gun control laws and an America where droves of children getting gunned down at school every week is not considered normal.
Public school teachers have the most volatile and mentally unstable profession in the United States. They get paid hardly anything, they get given classes of far too many kids who have been conditioned by their previous teachers to despise the prospect of learning anything.
If you give them guns and give them permission to use them in the classroom, they will either kill themselves (best case scenario) or the kids (worst case scenario). If Trump could think about it logically, he’d see that the way to ending school shootings in not to fill every school in America with guns. That’s an insane idea!
What if a kid got a hold of their teacher’s gun?
What if a kid got a hold of their teacher’s gun? Then what? Trump didn’t think of that. Where are the teachers keeping the guns? In a safe? That would keep it away from the kids, but they’d be impossible to get to, if and when a shooter did come. But if they’re not in a safe, the kids could get to it. It doesn’t make any sense.
“Gun-adept teachers/coaches would solve the problem instantly,” Trump has said.
There’s no evidence whatsoever that giving teachers guns would prevent school shootings, but Trump believes it would be a “great deterrent” to potential killers who are thinking about dipping their toes in the school shooting pool and doing one. The President wants to give “a concealed permit” to carry a firearm to every teacher in America who knows how to use one, and also suggested offering them bonus pay to carry a gun at work (we’re into absurdist territory now). Trump said, “I want my schools protected just like I want my banks protected.” Well, he should want the school protected more than the banks. The banks have money in them. The schools have children in them. At least he cares.
