Airsoft BB guns are not real guns. Photos of airsoft guns are not real guns. Some teachers, though, are hysterical idiots. Tony Katz has the story on his web site:

[Joseph C.] Phillips, best known for his role as Lt. Martin Kendall on The Cosby Show, lives with his wife and three sons in the San Fernando Valley. In addition to being a regular fill-in host for Larry Elder on KABC radio in Los Angeles, he owns Daddy J’s Wingshack, where his 15-year-old son works and earned the money for an Airsoft bb gun. Last week his son brought a digital camera to school to show his friends a picture of the Airsoft. On my radio show Saturday, Phillips explained that as his son was showing off the single photo, his Social Studies teacher, a Mr. James DeLarme, walked by. As his son described the incident, DeLarme “snatched” the camera out of his hand and asked him about the photo. When his son explained that it was a picture of an Airsoft bb gun, DeLarme declared the police would have to be notified and promptly left the room to confer with another teacher. The two teachers scrolled through all the photos on the camera, finally handing it back to the boy. Then, in front of all the students, DeLarme asked him, “Do you have any animosity towards your classmates?” and “Are you angry at anyone at school?”

The school reportedly never even notified the parents that a teacher had snatched the student’s property, rifled through his photos and threatened him with police action. The teacher involved has a history of anti-firearm (but not anti-airsoft gun) activism, but evidently doesn’t know a real gun from a toy. The school backed the teacher.

Common sense is dying in this country.

I understand having a snap reaction to seeing what looks like a photo of a gun. Some BB guns are built to look like the real thing, but even an informed glance at a photo of one should be enough for a knowledgeable person to figure out that they’re not looking at a real firearm. What we don’t seem to have are enough people who know the first thing about firearms, in positions of power over our kids.

Is it too much to ask that our educators have some real-world education?

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