Stop It: We Are Not Going to Arm Teachers

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This is big. Mother Jones just merged with the Center for Investigative Reporting, and this is the first time we’re asking for the donations we rely on. So we lay it all out for you in “Less Dreading, More Doing,” and we need to raise the First $500,000 in online donations by June 22. It won’t be easy. Please help if you can.

Students training for a license to carry a concealed weapon in Chino, California.Jebb Harris via ZUMA

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The ability of Donald Trump to drive the news media is spectacular. Every newspaper is leading with Trump’s call to arm teachers, and in the Washington Post Philip Bump even goes so far as to figure out how much that would cost (about $1 billion). I don’t blame Bump for doing this—it’s the kind of thing I’d do, after all—but it’s insane nevertheless. We’re not going to hand out Glocks to third-grade teachers. Most teachers don’t want to be armed. And having lots of guns around schools is pretty much begging for trouble anyway.

Mostly, though, it’s insane. We’re not going to arm teachers. Trump knows it. The NRA knows it. It’s just a random tarball tossed out to distract attention from the obvious problem. And it works.