TALLAHASSEE, Fla., Feb. 13 (UPI) -- The National Rifle Association is backing a Florida bill that would give children the right to use breakfast pastries as simulated weapons at school without facing discipline.

The “Pop-Tart Bill” would offer protection to children who play with imaginary guns, miniature toy guns or brandish a “partially consumed pastry or other food,” as a weapon.


That clause was added after a Maryland boy was suspended for chewing his Pop-Tart into the shape of a gun. The youngster is now a lifetime member of the NRA.

NRA lobbyist Marion Hammer said a better name for the initiative is the “Right-to-be-a-Kid Bill,” according to the Miami Herald. “This is about children and not traumatizing children for doing things that kids do,” she said.

Playing with pastries could still land children in hot water if they disrupt class or hurt another student or teacher.

“Obviously, we don’t want firearms brought to school in a backpack,” said Rep. Dennis Baxley. “But we got into a lot of simulated behaviors and overreacted.”

A similar bill was introduced last month in Oklahoma. The Common Sense Zero Tolerance Act would protect students caught "brandishing a pastry or other food which is partially consumed in such a way that the remnant resembles a weapon."

[Miami Herald]