Pew finds that there's majority support -- in some cases, overwhelming support -- for many gun policy changes championed by liberals. There's also majority support for a proposal that comes from the pro-gun right: putting more armed security guards and police officers in schools:
But notice which idea is rejected, 57%-40%? The notion of arming more teachers and other school officials.
The NRA's Wayne LaPierre focused on cops in his notorious public statement last month, but arming other school personnel is the sort of idea that's at the heart of gun worshippers' true thinking. Read any fervent defense of America's gun culture and you'll see that what's being defended is the idea of citizens as the main line of defense (against crime, against tyranny, against murderous insanity). Gun fans want lots and lots of guns despite (for the most part) not having a professional need for those guns, so they want to portray themselves as potential amateur cops and guards and soldiers, ready to serve at a moment's notice.
But the public isn't buying it. Americans want guns in schools, but they want those guns carried by people whose job it is to provide security. They don't want a nation in which anyone might turn cop or soldier at a moment's notice.
Sorry, gun culture -- you're probably going to win the legislative war, as usual, but you haven't won Americans' hearts and minds.
