Arming educators: Trump, gun violence and schools

In the fantastically grim voice of security public relations, "FASTER training enables teachers, administrators and other school employees to stop school violence quickly and administer medical aid immediately."

Carno's sociological vision is primitively fatalistic. The enemy can be defeated – with force. "We need to talk about fortifying doors. We need to talk about a lot of things, but we also need to talk about arming staff, because everything can be defeated."

For Trump, a crude deterrence theory passes muster. The person behind the gun is a coward who, on knowing that there are no gun free zones, will resist temptation. Such apocalyptic scenarios remain the stuff of gun policy in US debates, and suggesting a crude irony at work: to keep people safe, they must be reassured they are in gun zones.

With such a stance, the right to bear harms remains unabridged and unchallenged. What matters is the mentality behind using them. Given that such individuals are often broken on inflicting carnage, rational appraisals of deterrence seem weak. What Trump's America looks like after the Florida school shootings is a more militant, and militarised space rife with suspicion and pathological insecurity.