VOLUME 17 ISSUE 6 An Integrated Curriculum For The Washington Post Newspaper In Education Program Know Your Perspective ■ Post Editorial: “Are you serious about gun control, Mr. Trump? Prove it.” ■ Editorial Cartoons: Tom Toles: Taking Aim at Gun Issues ■ Read the Editorial Cartoons: Tom Toles: Taking Aim Discussion Questions ■ Guest Commentary: “Why I’ll never carry a gun in my classroom” ■ Student Activity: Action, Change and Points of View ■ Word Study: “The squishy definition of ‘mass shooting’ complicates media coverage” ■ Post Editorial: “Guns are killing our inalienable right to life” Mar. 9, 2018 ©2018 THE WASHINGTON POST VOLUME 17 ISSUE 6 An Integrated Curriculum For The Washington Post Newspaper In Education Program The First Amendment guarantees an open exchange of ideas and protects the individual’s rights of conscience. Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes expressed this idea: “I think that we should be eternally vigilant against attempts to check the expression of opinions that we loathe and believe to be fraught with death, unless they so imminently threaten immediate interference with the lawful and pressing purposes of the law that an immediate check is required to save the country.” In 2016, 2017 and 2018, many POINTS OF VIEW individuals found their voices. They discovered other women who shared their experiences and marched. Men and women declared #TimesUp. They fought for and against removal of Civil War statues from public places. Some contributed to causes, many used social media to spread their views, others dressed in black to visibly show their solidarity. This marketplace of ideas can be confusing, confrontational and contradictory — especially as students are hearing opposing ideas and deciding what they believe. As shootings resulting in death and injury have taken place in elementary, middle and high schools and public venues, with increasing incidence and numbers of victims, students know this is not an ideological exercise. The debate over the right to gun ownership and the right to a safe environment, the differing views of who at what age and with what restrictions should be allowed to purchase a gun, has real consequences. The health care needs of individuals is real. The responsibility of legislators to their constituents versus to financial backers is real. With respect for the law and the First Amendment, editorial writers, editorial cartoonists, columnists and writers of letters to the editor are among those who express knowledgeable points of view. Mar. 9, 2018 ©2018 THE WASHINGTON POST VOLUME 17 ISSUE 6 An Integrated Curriculum For The Washington Post Newspaper In Education Program Are you serious about gun control, Mr. Trump? Prove it. PRESIDENT TRUMP had very to simulate the rapid fire of illegal little to say about gun control in his machine guns. “We cannot merely first year in office, even after 58 take actions that make us feel like we people were killed on the Las Vegas are making a difference,” said Mr. Strip in the deadliest mass shooting in Trump. “We must actually make a modern U.S. history last October. But difference.” this week — in the aftermath of the That approach, though, is guaranteed school shooting in South Florida that not to produce immediate action. claimed 17 lives and amid a rising The agency that regulates firearms, student movement for gun control the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, — Mr. Trump signaled he is open Firearms and Explosives, made clear to modest gun-control measures, — first in 2010 and again in 2013 including a ban on “bump stocks” — that it does not have the legal and improved background checks. authority to ban bump stocks. An We would like to believe that Mr. attempt to ban the devices through Trump is sincere when he says he has regulation would prompt a battle that been deeply affected by recent events would likely tie the issue up in court and wants to bring about change. But for years and allow continued sales of his approach to one needed reform — bump stocks. No doubt that’s the aim banning the bump stocks that were of the National Rifle Association, used to such terrible effect by the Las which coyly suggested it supported a Vegas gunman — raises questions ban even as it opposed legislation to about just how serious he is. bring it about. Mr. Trump said Tuesday he has If Mr. Trump is genuinely ordered the Justice Department to committed to banning bump stocks, issue regulations that would prevent he should back legislation sponsored the devices that can be attached by Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) to legal semiautomatic weapons that would bar them, along with other 3 Mar. 9, 2018 ©2018 THE WASHINGTON POST VOLUME 17 ISSUE 6 An Integrated Curriculum For The Washington Post Newspaper In Education Program JONATHAN ERNST/REUTERS Jonathan Blank, left, and Julia Cordover, who survived the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School mass shooting, listen to President Trump during a meeting on school safety and guns at the White House on February 21. devices that have been created to AR-15 rifle underscores the need for circumvent the intent of federal gun better controls. laws. And he should recognize that Mr. Trump also signaled interest eliminating bump stocks falls far in legislation that would strengthen short of a solution to the epidemic the system of national background of mass shootings. Semiautomatic, checks as well as raise the minimum assault-style weapons — like the one age for purchase of certain weapons. used without a bump stock at Florida’s Congress should take his cue and Marjory Stoneman Douglas High pursue measures, including pending School — continue to pose a risk to legislation on background checks, public safety and should be banned or, that would enact these small reforms. at the very least, subject to stringent Though not an adequate response to regulation. That a 19-year-old with the students, it would be a start. a history of troubled behavior was able to easily and legally acquire an — February 21, 2018 4 Mar. 9, 2018 ©2018 THE WASHINGTON POST VOLUME 17 ISSUE 6 An Integrated Curriculum For The Washington Post Newspaper In Education Program Tom Toles | Taking Aim at Gun Issues Mass shootings are not new to Americans. In 1949 a WWII veteran killed 13 people who happened to be on the same streets. Thirteen were killed at Columbine High School on April 20, 1999, by fellow students. When 17 students and staff were killed at a high school in Florida, students voiced their pleas for adults to do something. To let theirs be the last school mass shooting. Tom Toles also expressed his point of view on the issue. For each cartoon, Toles’ alter ego appears in the lower right corner to emphasize the word play, satirize actions, expand the image or add another dimension to his point of view. “Read” each political cartoon before answering the questions. February 23, 2018 Reading, ‘Riting and Reloading February 25, 2018 The Kid Gets It February 27, 2018 The Legal Age February 28, 2018 Gun Threat 5 Mar. 9, 2018 ©2018 THE WASHINGTON POST VOLUME 17 ISSUE 6 An Integrated Curriculum For The Washington Post Newspaper In Education Program Tom Toles | Taking Aim at Gun Issues Read the Editorial Cartoons February 23, 2018 Reading, ‘Riting and Reloading 1. What is the profession of the main figure in the editorial cartoon? 2. What does she carry? To what is this a reference? 3. Tom Toles often uses puns and word play. Give three examples found in this editorial cartoon. 4. Summarize the issue to which Toles alludes. What is his point of view on the topic? 5. What is your point of view on this issue? February 25, 2018 The Kid Gets It 1. Editorial cartoonists use labels to be sure their subject is clear. What does “NRA” stand for? 2. Who are the two figures in the cartoon? Why are they in this relationship? 3. Is the comment in the balloon that of the NRA or Toles? Explain. 4. Instead of the alter ego commenting in the lower right corner, NRA makes an alternative statement. To what does “their sacrifices” refer? 5. Sketch your own editorial cartoon to comment on students’ relation to the NRA and its stands after the mass shooting at a high school in Florida? February 27, 2018 The Legal Age 1. Toles uses iconic symbols. Who are the three figures pictured in the editorial cartoon? What are they doing? 2. Many suggestions have been made to address shootings at schools. To which one does Toles refer? 3. What is meant by “legal age for being a shooting victim”? Is this statement ironic? Who would disagree with this? 4. Editorial cartoonists give their points of view on complex issues. Put in your own words what Toles’ alter ego might mean. 5. What is your point of view on this topic? February 28, 2018 Gun Threat 1. Who is the figure commenting in this two-panel visual commentary? Who is “him”? Why the “huff, huff”? 2. This editorial cartoon responds to a comment made on Feb. 26 at a White House meeting with this country’s governors. The president said he would have “run in even if I didn’t have a weapon.” What is the news peg to which he is referring? 3. The building is labeled. What is implied by the change of attitude and action — a tackle to a hug? 4. Through a comparison, what idea is the alter ego expressing? 5. Summarize the point of view that Tom Toles is presenting. 6 Mar. 9, 2018 ©2018 THE WASHINGTON POST VOLUME 17 ISSUE 6 An Integrated Curriculum For The Washington Post Newspaper In Education Program Why I’ll never carry a gun in my classroom BY VICTORIA BARRETT Several years ago, and a wide range of I taught a student irrational behavior.