LEE COUNTY, in the mountainous south-west corner of Virginia, is rural, thinly populated, and struggling with the decline of its principal industry, coal. It is closer to the capitals of nine states than it is to Richmond, the seat of Virginia’s government, nearly 385 miles away. There is a cultural distance, too, that is widening. Richmond is a gun-phobic crime hub; Lee County has proposed to arm its teachers with firearms.

In Lee County, and across the Virginia countryside, gun rights constitute an article of faith that has been been strengthened by the tragedy of mass shootings. One of the worst, in 2007, was at Virginia Tech, a university, where 32 students and staff died.

After a massacre this year at a high school in Parkland, Florida, Lee County decided to do what a number of states have aleady done, though the rules vary widely: authorise teachers and staff to carry guns in school. Lee would be the first county in Virginia to do so.

The state's attorney-general, Mark Herring, a Democrat who supports gun control, has erected a barrier: an official opinion that says it is illegal for the county to arm school workers. The opinion carries the weight of law until a judge rules otherwise or the Republican legislature and Democratic governor agree on new statute allowing teachers to carry guns on the job. That is unlikely. School officials haven’t decided on their next move, but it could include an appeal to the General Assembly.

Arming teachers is an idea gaining traction with President Donald Trump. His education secretary, Betsy DeVos, is considering whether funds from a $1.1bn federal programme can be used to purchase weapons and arm and train teachers.

The issue has great political potency. Mr Trump lost Virginia in 2016 to Hillary Clinton but carried Lee County and most of the state’s strongly Republican rural expanse, partly because of his stout support for gun rights. This is largely anathema to residents of Virginia’s Democrat-trending suburban vote troves. But arming teachers makes sense to many in south-west Virginia. Lee County has 11 schools, four of which are patrolled by armed police officers euphemistically known as “resource officers.” The county can’t afford to post officers in its other schools and says that arming teachers, who would have to volunteer, is a cost-efficient alternative.

Lee County’s decision hinges on an interpretation of state law with which Mr Herring, in his official opinion, disagrees. The Lee County school board voted unanimously to have teachers and other employees designated by a state agency, the Department of Criminal Justice Services, as “special conservators of the peace.” Mr Herring said such a designation does not allow them to be armed because they don’t fall under law enforcement or security categories set by the legislature. He was backed up by Virginia’s governor, Ralph Northam, another gun-hostile Democrat. Before he became governor, Mr Northam worked as an inner city doctor who treated children for neurological disorders and before that, troops wounded during the first Gulf war.

His stance has only intensified the resentment many in south-west Virginia have towards Richmond, strengthening the view that the cosmopolitan eastern crescent that controls the state’s politics and economy is deaf to their values. This includes an embrace of firearms as an essential source of personal security.

Mr Herring, a possible candidate for governor in 2021, says keeping firearms out of classrooms is common sense. “The introduction of unqualified personnel with guns raises the likelihood of a tragic accident, or potentially catastrophic confusion during an emergency,” he says.

This debate highlights the bright-line distinctions between America’s political parties and the rigid expectations that increasingly guide their positions and those of their candidates. In this case, Republicans seem to have no choice but to support gun rights in their fullest form; Democrats, to oppose them.

So when the Republican House Speaker, Kirk Cox, a retired high school government teacher from suburban Richmond, announced a post-Parkland study on school safety, he said it would not focus on firearms. Democrats understood that to mean Republicans did not want to inflame gun-rights groups, such as the National Rifle Association.

The study’s recommendations, released in mid-September and dismissed by Democrats as inadequate, include putting more police officers in schools, strengthening electronic surveillance of corridors and classrooms and improving mental health screening of students. They also suggested installing high-tech white boards that could double as bulletproof shields.