Republicans tried to protect Betsy DeVos, Donald Trump’s education secretary nominee, from herself, giving her a lightning-fast confirmation hearing at a time of day guaranteed to draw less news coverage. Yet she still managed to make a name for herself with the view that guns might be useful in schools because grizzly bears. Speaking about a Wyoming school, she said:
I would imagine that there’s probably a gun in the school to protect from potential grizzlies.
But don’t worry, because “my heart bleeds and is broken for those families that have lost any individual due to gun violence.”
Funny story about that gun to protect from potential grizzlies, though. A teacher at a grizzly threatened school told a reporter that guns weren't used in the school to protect from those potential grizzlies, because bear spray was sufficient. It turns out that bear spray isn’t just sufficient, it’s better than a gun if you find yourself in a too-close encounter with a grizzly:
In March 2012, the Journal of Wildlife Management published Tom Smith and Stephen Herrero’s “Efficacy of Firearms for Bear Deterrence in Alaska.” The paper’s prosaic title didn’t prevent it from grabbing headlines around the country. For the first time, bear researchers had provided compelling statistical evidence that firearms were less effective in protecting individuals against bear attacks than many folks previously believed, including the researchers themselves. Among their conclusions were 1) that “firearm bearers suffered the same injury rates in close encounters with bears whether they used their firearms or not,” and 2) that “bear spray [has] a better success rate under a variety of situations ... than firearms.”
DeVos’s invocation of bears wasn’t just funny, it was instructive. She was put on the spot, knowing she had to defend the idea of guns in schools, but she also had to be careful in answering a senator who represents Newtown. So she went to bears, despite ignorance on the subject. But it’s not just bears DeVos doesn’t know much about. She also doesn’t know much about education, but she does have an awful lot of money to spread around to Republican politicians and advocacy groups, and in her world, that entitles her to have opinions about—and to make policy on—whatever she pleases. That means sending public education money to private and privatized schools with no accountability.
Unfortunately, Donald Trump is sending all of America’s public school students to DeVos-world by putting her in charge of the Department of Education. In that role, DeVos and her determination to gut public education will have the chance to threaten the futures of a whole lot more kids than ever face a grizzly bear, with or without a gun.