Conservative host Glenn Beck and "historian" David Barton on Tuesday debuted a new show called "Foundations of Freedom" and suggested that history proved that school shootings could be prevented if all elementary school children were armed.
After pointing out that some areas of the United States required every household to own a gun in the late 1800s, Beck told Barton that "everybody grew up with a gun" and it was "part of school."
Barton noted that guns were only fired in schools at the time to stop criminal activity.
"The great example, in the 1850s you have a school teacher who's teaching," the historian explained. "A guy, he's out in the West, this guy from New England wants to kill him and find him. So, he comes into the school with his gun to shoot the teacher, he decides not to shoot the teacher because all the kids pull their guns out and point it at him and say, 'You kill the teacher, you die.' He says, 'Okay.' The teacher lives. Real simple stuff."
Barton added: "There was no shooting because all the kids -- we're talking in elementary school -- all the kids pull their guns out and says, 'We like our teacher, you shoot our teacher, we'll kill you.'"
"Kids did not shoot each other," Beck insisted.
"No, no," Barton agreed. "Two accidents I have seen in 200 years of everybody having guns. It just didn't happen."
Barton's book, “The Jefferson Lies," was pulled from stores by his publisher last year after it was criticized for grossly misrepresenting President Thomas Jefferson.
(h/t: Right Wing Watch)
