John Oliver explains why the NRA loves Trump's arm-the-teachers idea, and teachers hate it

John Oliver trashes Trump arm-the-teachers proposal

(Image credit: Screenshot/YouTube/Last Week Tonight)

last updated 26 February 2018

Last week, the U.S. continued its post-Parkland discussion of gun laws, "but don't worry, because the president has said that he is determined to stop this from ever happening again, and he even gave us a glimpse of his new plan," John Oliver said on Sunday's Last Week Tonight. President Trump introduced his unfortunate idea to arm 20 percent of America's teachers with some unfortunate phrasing, Oliver noted. "'You're going to be dead, and it's going to be fast' is already the slogan for Carl's Jr., so you can't use that."

"Trump's support for this clearly terrible idea seemed to develop over the week," Oliver said. "He actually focus-grouped it on Wednesday during a listening session featuring survivors of the shooting," and it went down like a lead balloon — not that Trump seemed to notice. "That is Donald Trump in a nutshell: proposing a terrible idea in a tone-deaf way, then refusing to acknowledge he just lost the popular vote," he said.

There are lots of reasons why arming teachers is a terrible idea, from the fact that shooting people isn't their job to the logistics of getting 700,000 teachers armed and trained for combat. "It's no wonder the NRA likes this solution — it involves buying hundreds of thousands of guns, and that's their solution to everything," Oliver noted. "They'd probably deal with climate change by pointing a Glock at the ocean and daring that motherf---er to rise." Among the groups opposed to arming teachers is teachers, and Oliver suggested that a teacher's calm didacticism might be the best way to show Trump the errors of his proposal. Watch below. Peter Weber

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Explore More

Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.