Last Thursday, when Donald Trump proposed arming teachers as a response to the Parkland gun massacre, his suggestion was met with widespread horror and ridicule. Teachers dismissed it. Lawmakers shied away from it. And critics pointed out that the idea had originally been proposed by the N.R.A. in the aftermath of the Sandy Hook shooting, in 2012.

Yet Trump is nothing if not stubborn. During a meeting at the White House with a number of governors on Monday, he defended his proposal even in the face of strong opposition from one of his guests, Jay Inslee, the Democratic governor of Washington State. In initial news reports, the exchanges between Trump, Inslee, and several other governors were overshadowed by the President’s laughable claim that even unarmed, he would have tackled the Parkland school shooter. But the discussion of the merits and demerits of arming teachers is well worth revisiting. It vividly illuminates the collective madness that beckons when you have an unprincipled man like Trump in the White House, the G.O.P. in control of Congress and the majority of states, and a dogged refusal to do what practically every other civilized country does: introduce some meaningful restrictions on gun ownership.

Inslee—speaking after Trump had delivered lengthy opening remarks stressing the need for some action—brought up a program in his home state that gives the family members of disturbed or depressed individuals the ability to obtain court orders to seize their guns. After recommending this common-sense program to Trump, Inslee moved on to the President’s proposal to arm teachers, at which point Trump interrupted to say he wasn’t calling for all teachers to be armed, “a small portion that are very gun-adept.”

Inslee, a longtime advocate of gun control who is serving his second term, wasn’t impressed by this qualification. “I have listened to the biology teachers, and they don’t want to do that in any percentage,” he said. “I have listened to the first-grade teachers that don’t want to be pistol-packing first-grade teachers. I have listened to law enforcement who have said they don’t want to have to train teachers as law-enforcement agents, which takes about six months. Now, I just think this is a circumstance where we need to listen—that educators should be educators and shouldn’t have foisted onto them the responsibility of packing heat in first-grade classes.” As Trump looked on in silence, arms crossed, Inslee went on, “I just suggest we need a little less tweeting and little more listening, and let’s just take that off the table and move forward.”

Rather than accept Inslee’s recommendation, Trump called on Greg Abbott, the Republican governor of Texas, who explained how his state has already adopted a “school-marshal program,” in which teachers and other school employees are given weapons and firearms training. “And, candidly, some school districts, they promote it,” Abbott said. “They will have signs out front, a warning sign that, be aware, there are armed personnel on campus.” Asa Hutchinson, the Republican governor of Arkansas and a former U.S. Attorney who once developed a school-safety program for the N.R.A., spoke next. His said that his state, too, had “licensed certain school districts and those who want to be trained to handle an active-shooter situation.”

Trump seemed pleased as punch, particularly by Abbott’s contribution. “Well, I think that’s great,” he said. “Essentially, what you are saying is that when a sick individual comes into that school, they can expect major trouble, right, major trouble. The bullets are going to be going towards him, also. . . . You know what’s going to happen, nobody’s going into that school.”

In making this argument, which follows the logic of the jungle, and of failed states like Yemen and Iraq, Trump seemed blissfully, or purposely, unaware of the fact that many school shooters end up shooting themselves, and, therefore, might well be immune to the logic of deterrence. Adam Lanza, who killed twenty-six people at Sandy Hook Elementary School, shot himself in the head before the police arrived. Similarly, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, the two Columbine shooters, made no effort to escape after carrying out their massacre, and they shot themselves after the police arrived.

Trump also didn’t deign to explain how a teacher with a handgun could be expected to fend off a disturbed teen-ager with an AR-15, or how students might be expected to react to the sight of their teachers carrying guns. Instead, he asserted that arming educators would be cheaper and more effective than hiring more armed guards, or relying on local police officers, such as the ones who failed to stop Nikolas Cruz at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, in Parkland, Florida. “They don’t love the students; they don’t know the students,” Trump said dismissively. “The teachers love the students. They want to protect the students.”

The thought of teachers expressing their affection for their students by bringing high-powered weapons into their classrooms is grotesque. For a sitting President to endorse such an idea is almost beyond comprehension. But as the discussion illustrated, Trump wasn’t merely outlining his own vision. In this area, as in so many others, some gun-friendly red states have already adopted the twisted N.R.A. logic, at least in fledgling form.

The most that can be attributed to Trump is that he is putting his own unhinged spin on this decivilizing agenda. Repeating his earlier claim that he didn’t want all teachers to have guns, he said, “I want highly trained people that have a natural talent, like hitting a baseball, or hitting a golf ball, or putting.” At this point, he joined his hands together, as if he were gripping a putter on a golf course, and moved them back and forth. “How come some people always make the four-footer and some people under pressure can’t even take their club back?” he asked. “Right? Some people can’t take their club back. You don’t know what it is.”

For a moment, he seemed to lose his train of thought. Was he rethinking his claim that he would have confronted Cruz? It was hard to tell, and he quickly moved on, saying, “The bad guy has to understand that there is a big price to pay when they mess around with our students. You can’t just say we are going to harden our schools. . . . You have to let people know they are going to suffer the ultimate price. And you know what? And I said it before, you’re not going to have incidents, they are not going to do it because they are innately cowards.” He’s off his rocker, of course. But when it comes to guns, he is far from alone.