Today, on its one year anniversary, the mass shooting at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida is known as much for the student activism it generated on behalf of gun control as for the horrific tragedy. Yet Fox News’ The Five threw a metaphorical slap in the face of those student activists by using the anniversary to call for armed “combat veterans” in schools.

Since the shooting, survivors such as David Hogg, Emma Gonzalez and Cameron Kasky became nationally-known advocates who organized the March for Our Lives and have fought for gun safety legislation.

The Five didn’t even have the decency to honor their efforts. Instead, torture-loving chickenhawk Greg Gutfeld argued for placing snipers in schools.

Gutfeld began with a commentary promoting one Florida charter school’s decision to hire two combat vets “to protect students and staff from active shooters.” We saw a clip of the principal saying, “If someone walks in shooting, somebody walks in with a weapon threatening kids, we're not, we’re not going to fool around. We're not going to pause, we’re not going to ask them questions. We're going to shoot them…. Eliminate the threat. You know, if they die in the process that's unfortunate, but better them than one of our students, quite frankly.”

And what if the wrong person gets "eliminated?" Well, I guess that’s just an “unfortunate” mistake but better that than gun control. 

“Well, that is a plan,” Gutfeld said approvingly. “Compare that to the wishy-wash of the Broward sheriff [whose agency was responsible for responding to the Parkland shooting], who was so anxious to blame the NRA that he forgot to look in the mirror at himself.” I’m not defending the Broward sheriff but using the anniversary of such a tragedy to gratuitously smear someone in service of promoting your pet cause is just the kind of loathsomeness you can expect from Gutfeld.

Gutfeld praised the charter school for hiring a “15-year Army vet who served three tours” and concluded that it is “protected by the best defenders on earth.” He added, “Those vets have jobs that contribute to the safety of society.”

Gutfeld didn’t go into whether those vets will get police training. It’s not as though armed combat and protecting children are the same thing.

But without bothering to cite any statistics, Gutfeld declared, “Here’s a fact: the duration of a mass shooting is shortened by the arrival of a second gun.”

Gutfeld acknowledged that “some parents” are probably “spooked by having armed guards with rifles.” Well, apparently, that’s just “unfortunate,” too, because, he said, “others might be resting easier.”

While he was at it, Gutfeld took a gratuitous swipe at the media for not covering the issue with enough nuance and depth – a requirement he obviously doesn’t think applies to himself. He said, “It’s often hard to ponder solutions with a media placing the issue within a prism of two ideas," which is one more idea than Gutfeld had provided. He sneered about other media, "If you aren't for gun control, you want kids to die.”

Then, once again failing to cite a single fact to back up his claim, Gutfeld declared that “wall-to- wall coverage [of shootings] creates a spectacle for copycats who want to leave a mark on the world.”

Predictably, Gutfeld’s three fellow conservatives on the panel eagerly lapped up his shallow editorial.

Watch Gutfeld’s smarminess below, from the February 14, 2019 The Five.