Why I Never Say “Arm Teachers”

It’s Grammatically Awkward

By Lucas J. Mather, Ph.D.

The reason I never say “arm teachers”:

“Arm teachers” as misleading as “car teachers” is for letting¹ teachers drive their own car to work, at their own expense, after they’ve been minimally trained and licensed by the state, again, at their own expense.

All school districts car teachers, or auto teachers. That’s a matter of respecting their rights as Americans.

For the nerds: The grammatical reason it’s misleading is that it’s an active verb for a passive activity. You’re not “carring” a teacher for allowing them freedom to drive themselves with their own car. You’re allowing them to be their own driver of their own car under their own training and expense. (How many die in auto accidents (“accident” awkwardly semantically includes crimes–crimes are not really accidents, but we’ll let that one slide) on public property?).

In the same way, the state isn’t “arming” teachers, an active verb, when it allows (passive verb) teachers to be armed at their own initiative, their own training and licensing expense, just like a vehicle. It’s the teacher who arms himself, not the state who arms him. The subject of the active verb, “arm” or, to coin one parallel to drive, “to car,” is not the state. It’s the individual US citizen, a bearer of rights to be respected by the state.

Footnotes:
¹ “Letting” = “Not Criminalizing” innocent conduct. “Letting” means not criminalizing innocent people, for harmless, truly lawful activity as if they needed the government’s permission for innocent conduct such as defending themselves or others from a real threat of great bodily injury or death.

Copyright Lucas J. Mather, 2018
All Rights Reserved
Originally Posted to Facebook Friday June 1, 2018 at 12:25 pm