WASHINGTON – U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan dismissed the idea of school employees being armed as a “marketing opportunity” for gun makers.

Really? Having responsible school staff trained and equipped to respond to a crisis is “not serious” because it might lead to more money for gun makers?

Nevertheless, the Huffington Post reports:

People who say that teachers want to carry weapons are just pushing “a marketing opportunity,” according to U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan.

“The vast majority of teachers have spoken pretty loudly and said they’re not interested in being armed, so that’s a red herring,” Duncan said at a small Thursday morning meeting with reporters at the U.S. Education Department. “It’s an opportunity to sell more guns, that’s a marketing opportunity, it’s not serious.”

Duncan’s remarks come after the National Rifle Association suggested, in the wake of the Newtown, Conn. mass elementary school shooting, that armed teachers may be a solution to halting school violence. “The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun,” Wayne LaPierre, the NRA’s chief executive officer, said at the time. A gun advocate in Michigan suggested that armed teachers could have minimized the damage in Sandy Hook Elementary School.

But Duncan said it’s not what teachers want. “Teachers have spoken loudly and clearly,” he said. “I’ve talked to hundreds and hundreds of teachers. There are one or two out there but that’s not where people are at.” In fact, a National Education Association poll found that only 22 percent of its members favored a proposal to arm teachers and other school staffers; 68 percent opposed this idea, including 61 percent who indicated they strongly oppose it.

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That 22 percent is theoretically 600,000 school employees who could effectively respond to a crisis, but no, it’s just a “marketing opportunity” for gun makers.