Don’t Lose Focus

President Trump’s coming off as a bit obsessed with the idea of armed teachers as a key answer to school shootings. He’d be better off sticking to the moves he already has in play. To be fair, at Wednesday’s meeting with state and local officials, Trump also reiterated his support for tighter background checks on gun buyers, especially with regard to mental health, and for raising the age to buy long guns, as well as his push to ban the sale of bump stocks.

Yes, better school security belongs on the agenda. But most specifics of how to do that vary enormously from community to community — and many, many areas have few if any ex-military teaching in their schools.

Getting most of America to embrace arming teachers would require as huge a cultural shift as getting the nation to repeal the Second Amendment and collect the 300 million-plus firearms now in circulation: However much sense either move makes to some folks, it’s not realistic for the near future.

(If some towns in Texas or Tennessee want teachers to carry, fine — states and lo- calities should have great choice in their own level of gun regulation, without federal interference. Just don’t tread on New Yorkers’ choices.)

In any case, Washington should now be focusing on practical changes that make sense at the national level — such as raising the age to buy long guns to 21 (matching the handgun age) and massively improving the background-check system.

And banning sale of the assault rifles that seem to be mass-shooters’ weapon of choice.

It’s also worth looking at getting tougher on straw buyers, people who buy guns for those who can’t pass a background check. And at requiring background checks for private gun sales as well as those by commercial dealers. Tougher gun laws won’t do much good if they’re easy to end-run.

Congress can certainly consider funding increased school security, and funding research into what makes mass shooters tick so that society can stop them before they act.

But the immediate goal ought to be keeping weapons out of the hands of the crazies in the first place.