This Is Not Just About Guns

 This morning I awoke with a single phrase in the forefront of my mind, a phrase which can be found on all physical currency in the United States and one we should all bear in mind as we continue the debate (nay, shouting match) about gun laws in our nation.

No, I am not referring to “In God We Trust”. I wouldn’t be writing this piece had that been the phrase — thoughts and prayers have already been covered.

The phrase “E Pluribus Unum” — Out of Many, One — should be serving as a reminder to all of us that we need to stay aware of the bigger picture whenever we consider specific issues affecting the country, lest we miss the forest for the trees.

As we are confronted with and therefore must consider the positions of President Trump, the NRA leadership and those who agree with them, we should not let ourselves be lulled into a sense that this debate over gun laws is exclusively about the right to bear arms.

It would behoove us to remember, for the sake of posterity, that in addition to a staunch advocacy of a questionable (if not wholly inaccurate) interpretation of the 2nd Amendment, another goal of the far-right is to eliminate the Department of Education. We can be reasonably certain this is one of the President’s goals, if for no other reason than the fact that he put Betsy DeVos in charge of it.

Consider for a moment the ramifications of the President’s proposal to arm school teachers with guns in order to serve as a deterrent to potential future murderers of school children, beyond simply the question of whether or not that would actually be an effective method for making our schools safe. Where would the funding for such a program come from? How would the quality of a teacher’s primary work function — the education of children and young adults — be impacted by having to take on yet another responsibility in an already difficult and often thankless job?

The latter question was asked during CNN’s Florida town hall held one week after the mass shooting at Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland. The obvious response to that question was given, which is that we should not expect teachers to take on this unreasonable burden. The President does not take the same stance and continues to advocate on Twitter for arming the teachers.

I think any reasonable person would come to the conclusion that adding this responsibility to the teachers’ job description would absolutely impact the quality of the education they are able to deliver. I also think we can reasonably expect that if this proposal from the President is scrapped, the next proposal is to turn schools into mini fortresses, manned by armed guards and ultimately resembling prisons — certainly not a comforting thought, either.

But let’s say for the sake of argument that one of these two ideas comes to fruition. Does anyone really think that implementing either one of these ideas would be coupled with the drastic increase in federal funding for public schools that would be required in order to see this through? I highly doubt it.

What would happen instead is that the budget for the Department of Education would at best remain stagnant and, one way or another, the funding to implement either of these draconian school safety proposals would come out of that very same budget. In other words, moneys that should be going toward improvement of schools’ infrastructure, quality textbooks, basic supplies and, dare I say it, better teacher salaries, would instead be used to either create a situation in which a school shooting is potentially even more deadly than they’ve already been (in the case of arming the teachers) or to make it more difficult to get to school than it is to board an airplane (mini fortresses).

Thus, in order to make schools arguably safer, the quality of public education will be further sacrificed if the President and the NRA get their way. Your kids may be safer in schools, but they’ll be learning less. And even more guns will be out in the open.

For the far-right, this is their peanut butter and chocolate moment. Don’t let them have it.

#NeverAgain