The Week

• We don’t even want public-school teachers teaching our kids.

• Historically, the National Rifle Association has derived its political power from two sources. The first is the broad popularity of gun rights, which is sufficient now to ensure that if the NRA disappeared tomorrow it would be swiftly replaced with a similar outfit. The second is that it has retained its singular focus on gun rights. If, in the future, its influence begins to wane, it will be because it has begun to lose that focus. Consider, by way of example, Wayne LaPierre’s speech to CPAC in the wake of the Parkland massacre. LaPierre was sure to make his case against further gun regulation. But mixed in along with that case were scathing references to “socialists,” condemnations of the Democratic party and the media, and a defense of President Trump against the FBI. Were the head of the GOP to make such a case, it would be entirely appropriate. For the NRA it is not. One need not be a fan of Trump, or a Republican, to support the right to keep and bear arms; if polling is to be believed, self-described “liberals” are by no means unified on the question of guns. Ensuring that they do not become so should be a high priority for the NRA.