Sen. Lindsey Graham took time away from stuffing his face with free food at Mar-a-Lago to parrot the NRA, GOP, and Donald Trump’s position that the best way to protect schools from gun violence is to turn them into military prisons. Trump’s stance after 17 students and teachers died at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida was to propose arming 20% of schoolteachers as well as hiring veterans to be armed school guards.
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On Friday, Sen. Lindsey Graham went to his Twitter account to propose reintroducing the idea of veterans who already have a brutal time not getting mental health support from the GOP becoming gun-carrying school security. “We have hundreds of thousands of well-trained former military members who could bring a lot to the table in terms of school security. [Reserve Officers Training Corps] ROTC instructors with firearms training should be allowed to possess weapons to enhance school security,” Graham wrote, in a four-post thread. This coming from one of the highest-ranking officials in the political party that has consistently chipped away at, delayed, and fought against funding and expanding health care to our country’s veterans.
The thread included the NRA myth that the real problem with having so many guns and so few gun safety laws is that it turns schools into “soft targets.” While this pseudo-sociology has been proven one hundred percent false by both data and people far smarter than Lindsey Graham, it is what passes for “common sense” politics from the conservative sector of our government.
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Lindsey ended this short tirade, probably needing something to wash down that yap full of caviar, to write: “Schools should be treated like courthouses, banks, capital buildings, etc when it comes to security.” It is a ton of manure to wade through in so few words, I’ll give him that.
But do not be fooled. Sen. Graham’s version of the “soft-target” myth is simply a soft-power version of Rep. Thomas Massie’s gun-fetish fantasy of turning schoolyards into open carry spaces. It is an absurd idea, proven to not only be ineffective, but to in fact breed the kind of gun violence the country desperately needs to end. The responses to Graham’s weak-sauce were predictable. Here’s a post pointing out the absurdity of this “common sense” take.
To the more sci-fi version of absurdity.
But let’s take a moment to really consider what Sen. Graham is proposing.
I need more analysis.
“Capitol buildings,” Lindsey? Really? How about disgraced Republican former State Rep. Mike Nearman of Oregon who was expelled for conspiring to allow armed protesters into the Capitol building on Dec. 21, 2020?
Are there budgetary concerns about this from the political party that hates spending money on “entitlements” like public education?
Let’s open a discussion with this ancient bit of backward wisdom Mr. Graham is offering.
Here’s a reminder to Lindsey of how active shooter training works.
And finally, the proof of what banning guns, most especially from the “good people with guns” category, affords groups of people.
Elie Mystal is on Daily Kos' The Brief podcast
