At present the most common sort of muzzle found at schools is the one which warns the mouths of those speaking. Some are arguing, however, that the muzzle which is actually needed is the one at the front end of the barrel of a gun, and that it belongs in the hands or on the hip, or down the small of the back, of certain school staff to protect those most vulnerable among us whom we send there to learn.
What has become of us that we are more frightened of words and guns than of the real evil which creeps into a deranged person who would hunt another human to take their life? I am not arguing that what we say to each other isn’t potent. I loved my grandmother dearly, and loved most every word she spoke, but when she told us “sticks and stones will break your bones but words will never hurt you,” I remember looking at her and wondering if she knew very much about how the human heart worked. I had been hurt by plenty of words. But I suppose what she was arguing for was resilience. And in a sense, that’s the same sort of thing people are arguing for when they say “don’t take guns out of the hands of decent and law-abiding folk”, and “why not allow teachers to be trained and armed, or at least put retired military veterans in the schools, many of whom are very…
