Don’t get distracted by all the jabber over arming teachers with weapons. That’s a red herring from the President and the radical right-wing NRA to keep you away from talking about what’s really at issue here: stopping the sale of assault weapons, raising the age for purchasing any guns, and seriously tightening background checks.

Teachers — the ones affected by this absurd palaver — don’t want to be armed. Most of them say, rightly, that where will the country get the money for this, and why aren’t teachers getting more money for what they actually do: teach our children. Teachers are among the most underpaid of professionals in this country, and trying to arm them, adding to their mission, is ridiculous. It’s just conversational fodder for Trump and the NRA.

This nation wants more controls over the sale of guns. A huge majority of people polled say so. Millions of them. Far more than endorse the NRA position. And by the way, the NRA has something over five millions members; there are tens of millions more who are not members and who oppose the NRA effort to prohibit any sort — ANY sort — of controls over the sale of guns.

And by the way, gun manufacturers share in the blame for the situation this country finds itself in right now. They have supported pro-NRA politicians to the extreme, and their lobbyists have done everything possible to prevent action on gun control.

But the tide may be turning. Just today Dick’s Sports Goods stepped up and announced it will halt the sale of assault weapons and raise the age to 21 for anyone to purchase guns. That’s a positive step; hooray for Dick’s, which will now get my business. And kudos too to Delta and MetLife and other big organizations that are cutting business ties with the NRA. That’s responsible corporate behavior.

And that’s a signal that the NRA and its radical supporters are suddenly — and we hope finally — losing favor with their criminal insistence on spreading guns throughout the population. It also seems like the United States is growing up a bit. We all pray it continues.