What Tucker Carlson Said About Teachers Discussing Guns With Students Will Floor You

On Wednesday night's episode of Fox News' Tucker Carlson Tonight, the show's eponymous host made a comparison that's drawn a ton of scrutiny. Namely, in an effort to argue against the National School Walkout in support of gun control earlier that day, Carlson suggested teachers shouldn't be allowed to discuss guns with their students, and likened it to why a teacher can't have sex with their students.

Addressing the nationwide activist demonstrations by American students on Wednesday, Carlson suggested that a teacher talking to a student about guns was an abuse of power comparable to having sex with a student. Bustle has reached out to Fox News for comment.

"Kids who are under the care of a teacher, who has control of their grades and life, are not free agents. They can't act fully independently as you and I can because they are under the control of an authority figure," Carlson told Igor Volsky, the deputy director of CAP Action and a staunch gun control advocate. "This is really simple, this is why teachers aren't allowed to have sex with students, because they're in power and the kids aren't. So why are teachers allowed to direct kids toward a political ideology? It's really simple."

Volsky didn't engage with Carlson's comparison, instead responding that the students who participated in the walkout were doing so because of their beliefs, not those of their teachers.

As Newsweek notes, this is not the first time Carlson has made remarks about teachers having sex with students that have been viewed as offensive. Back in 2014, he called America a "whiny" country for deeming a female teacher having sex with an underage male student an act of rape. While age of consent laws vary from state to state, the type of sexual relationship Carlson is talking about would, in countless circumstances from high school on down, be an act of statutory rape at best. Many states also have laws specifically forbidding teachers from having sex with their students, even under circumstances where both parties are consenting and of legal age.

As for his commentary about students not being able to act or think independently due to the presence of authority figures, Carlson has in the past admitted to exerting that same kind of authority over people he's employed. In 2015, he told Real Clear Politics that he barred writers at the Daily Caller, the conservative news website he founded, from writing critical coverage of Fox News. The reason? Because he also works for Fox News.

"We are the publication — and I run it — that spiked a column critical of Fox News," Carlson said, as detailed by Politico. "It's because I work there, I'm an anchor on Fox. A couple of my employees said, well, isn't it a conflict? And I said yes, it's a conflict for sure."

Despite being the focus of frequent criticism and controversy for Carlson's frequently inflammatory statements ― or, perhaps, because of that ― Tucker Carlson Tonight has been successful as far as ratings are concerned. Currently occupying the 8 p.m. ET time slot vacated by former host Bill O'Reilly after he was fired amid multiple allegations of sexual harassment (allegations O'Reilly denies), Carlson has become a prominent face for the network throughout a period of considerable upheaval.

As for the National School Walkout itself, the event saw high-profile demonstrations in cities and towns throughout the United States. And in some cases, contrary to Carlson's suggestion of the protests being fueled by the undue influence of authority figures, students left their classes despite threats of punishment or suspension from their school administrations.