On Thursday morning, CNN's New Day show ran a full report on the recent cases of two school teachers -- one from California and one from Virginia -- who accidentally fired their weapons inside school buildings as the report hyped the incidents as "shocking reminders of the danger" of arming teachers. The report even included the soundbite of a parent who had been leaning toward supporting arming teachers but who was having reservations.
And, like yesterday's evening shows on CBS and NBC, and CNN's Early Start show, New Day included no examples of guns being used in a beneficial way in its reporting on the subject.
At about 7:45 a.m. Eastern, co-host Chris Cuomo introduced the report: "Critics of the plan to arm teachers in the wake of the Florida school massacre are pointing to two separate incidents now on the same day where trained school employees accidentally fired their weapons."
The piece began with correspondent Miguel Marquez highlighting the risks of guns in schools as a pushback against those who advocate arming teachers: "With debate raging over guns, schools, mass shootings and arming teachers ... with the President pressing an armed teachers agenda, shocking reminders of the danger."
After recalling the case of a teacher in California with law enforcement experience who caused minor injuries to three students when he accidentally shot a bullet into the ceiling, showing a clip of one student with a small wound in his neck from a piece of debris, Marquez noted that the student's father -- Fermin Matthew Gonzalez -- had changed his mind about arming teachers because of the incident: "Gonzalez's father -- who was warming to the idea of arming school staff -- now has second thoughts."
After a clip of the father fretting that more such incidents would happen if teachers are armed, Marquez added: "It did happen again the same day"
Marquez recounted a teacher in Alexandria, Virginia, who accidentally fired his gun into the wall, but injured no one, and then recalled that the incident "has parents questioning the wisdom of arming teachers and staff in schools."
When co-hosts Cuomo and Alisyn Camerota were back on camera live again, they spent more than half a minute commenting, with Camerota noting that some students were open to arming teachers if it is found to actually be effective. Cuomo talked up the down side of insurance companies possibly being unwilling to provide insurance at schools with armed teachers. Cuomo: "There is a practical problem of applying this. You have schools all over the country where they're losing sports teams because they can't get insurance, but you think that carriers are going to insure people who are armed in schools around children? You got to think about the practicality as well."
Not mentioned was that his own show a few weeks ago ran an entire report informing viewers that some states already have schools where teachers are trained in gun use to defend the students, which suggests those schools found a way to deal with any insurance issues.
