No, Donald Trump, you dumbass

Attention Palmer Report readers: sign up for our free mailing list here
-----
Note from Bill Palmer: if each of you reading this can kick in $10 or $25, it'll help keep Palmer Report firing on all cylinders at this crucial time in our nation's history: Donate now


Since he’s illegitimately taken office, the only thing more constant than Donald Trump’s political and criminal scandals has been his consistent ability to embarrass self-respecting Americans just by opening his mouth. This time he’s taken things to a whole new level, and he’s putting the lives of children at risk in the process. This one genuinely pisses me off.

Trump met with a group of Stoneman Douglas High School students. These kids are survivors of a recent mass shooting. They’ve just finished burying their classmates. In a sign of how woefully equipped Trump was to handle such a meeting, his staff literally wrote the words “I hear you” on a note card and gave it to Trump in case he needed something to say in response to the students. Of course he went off script anyway, and said something that was just mind numbingly idiotic.

Trump wants school teachers to carry guns. This is the stupidest idea in the history of stupid ideas. If you’ve never taught school, I have, and I can tell you that teachers are always multitasking in twenty-five different ways at once. The idea that teachers could be on guard for a potential shooter while they’re teaching, and somehow win a firefight that breaks out while they’re in the middle of writing math problems on a chalkboard and answering a question from a kid in the back row, is absurd.

That’s before getting to the ludicrous idea of putting guns in classrooms to begin with. Are the teachers supposed to carry the guns at all times? So now they have to spend all day thinking first and foremost about guarding their holster, like a police officer would, for fear one of the kids might go for the gun? Is the gun supposed to stay locked in the teacher’s desk? How long before one of the kids breaks into the desk? And are teachers supposed to make their way back to their desks during a firefight, and then unlock the box while they’re taking fire?

The idea of keeping a gun in the house for “protection” is utterly absurd. If the gun is properly secured, you’re probably not going to be able to get to it in an emergency. If you keep it within easy reach, statistics show that you and your family members are far more likely to die from having the gun in the house than not having the gun in the house. The idea of having a teacher keep a gun in a classroom is orders of magnitude more absurd. It’s the most dumbass idea of all time. No naturally, Donald Trump says he’s for it.

Attention Palmer Report readers: sign up for our free mailing list here
-----
Note from Bill Palmer: if each of you reading this can kick in $10 or $25, it'll help keep Palmer Report firing on all cylinders at this crucial time in our nation's history: Donate now