When the current president of the United States calls someone a coward, he speaks as an expert on the subject.

A coward is defined in a number of ways, each fitting him to a T.

The dictionary says it’s a person who lacks the courage to do or endure dangerous or unpleasant things; one who is excessively afraid of danger or pain; and, as in the case of an animal, afraid and depicted with its tail between the legs.

The president — who claims to know more than all the generals and who claims his military high school class was equivalent to serving in the military, the man with the biggest mouth and emptiest head that has ever occupied the Oval Office — calls officers who responded to the Florida shooting cowards!

Apparently, if he had a pistol and no bulletproof vest, he’d still have charged into the school and shot the mentally ill young shooter himself. He claims anyone would have done that — charged a gunman armed with a semiautomatic high-powered rifle. It didn’t occur to him that protocol might have suggested a delay until the armed and trained SWAT team arrived. Nope, he’d have run right in … and he’d have been shot on the spot.

But never mind. He didn’t have to make the choice himself. No one can get in the head of those lightly armed officers who waited the two or three minutes for backup, but nope, it is easy for him to shout “coward!” from his bunker in the White House.

Maybe, just maybe, he and the NRA might want to review the reports of the physicians who treated the 14 teenagers and three teachers wounded at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. Perhaps he should consult those who observed the wounds of the mortally wounded to see just what type of damage the AR-15 caused. They said the victims’ bodies were damaged in ways that can only be described as war injuries. I read that, and I was stunned.

The president and his NRA and Russian supporters want little to no change in the gun laws. That’s notwithstanding the fact that he is always safe behind his Secret Service protectors, and the NRA does not allow weapons of any type at its own conventions.

His suggestion that teachers be armed shows his total disconnect from reality. Moorhead Chief of Police David Ebinger got it right in a newspaper interview last week: Arming the teachers is not a good idea.

Since the president knows little to nothing about what teachers actually do, I can enlighten him (since I know he reads my column). Teachers educate our children. Teachers have to purchase supplies out of their own pockets for the kids because of funding cutbacks. Teachers have the toughest job in the world without the pay such a vital job requires. Teachers do what they do because they love their work and they love their students. But 45 is too out of touch to understand that.

Mr. President, have you ever so much as set foot in a public school?

With his thoughtless comments, the president has accomplished one thing I find very positive. He has caused our young people to issue a call to arms, so to speak, not seen since the protests of the 1960s. He has created an atmosphere in which the youth of America have joined the women’s movement to demand action and accountability.

If the politicians ignore this combined movement, they will be looking for new jobs after the next election. The figures that name the names of the politicians the NRA has bought and paid for have been published again and again. If you want to see the whole list, Google it.

The late Supreme Court Chief Justice Warren Burger called the National Rifle Association leadership “pernicious liars.” He, too, was an avid hunter and owner of guns; but he was outraged at the NRA’s lies and misrepresentations about the Second Amendment.

What Justice Burger said in the past is certainly still true today. Now, as always, the NRA is pushing back against even the most sensible gun regulations. Thankfully, by doing so the extremist group is losing corporate sponsors. Just as it has purchased politicians, it understands that when its own revenue is cut, its leaders will have hell to pay.

For its weak-kneed response so far in response to what’s happening in this country, I say to the politicians: Suck it up … or go find another job. And to the NRA: Go to hell.

Here’s what I suggest in the meantime, while these important political discussions take place: Install metal detectors in all schools. Mark some doors “exit only,” with alarms that sound if someone tries to prop them open, and leave it to local law enforcement and the school administrations to decide the protocols if alarms go off.

Let teachers teach! Amen.