What Research Says About Arming Teachers

The Trump administration doubled down this week on its support for arming teachers, announcing that it wants to help states provide teachers with “rigorous” firearms training. Trump also appointed Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos to lead a commission to study ways to prevent school shootings; DeVos has said that schools should be able to arm teachers “if they choose to use the tool.” (In a very pointed “60 Minutes” interview on Sunday, DeVos also admitted that she “couldn’t ever imagine” the prospect of seeing an armed version of her own first-grade teacher, Mrs. Zorhoff.) Florida just passed a law that allows teachers to arm themselves.

Meanwhile, a reserve police officer teaching a public safety class accidentally fired his gun in a classroom at a Northern California high school on Tuesday afternoon; one student was struck in the neck by bullet fragments.