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DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) – After a spate of campus shootings, one man’s mistake at a local high school football game raised concern – and landed him in handcuffs.

Kip Underwood says it was a habit. Everywhere he went, so did his gun.

“I just keep it for protection,” says Underwood. “I never want to have to pull it out.”

His gun is now in police custody, and so was he last Friday. He tucked the handgun in his pocket for a football game between Highland Park High School and Dr. John Horn High School, where his daughter is a cheerleader.

“I didn’t think it was any big deal to take it in the stadium, because there was no sign,” says Underwood.

He has his concealed handgun license. But a CHL instructor says Underwood should have known that high school sporting events are among gun-free zones. A spectator noticed the weapon when it fell out of Underwood’s pocket.

“Four cops came up and got me and took me down. When four cops come up, everybody’s looking,” says Underwood. “I was in shock, totally in shock.”

Highland Park High School neighbor John Parsons calls the situation very scary.

“Bringing a loaded gun to a football game where the stadium is on the campus, I think that’s not very good choices being made there,” he says.

Underwood spent a night in jail and now faces a misdemeanor charge of unlawfully carrying a weapon. He says he learned his lesson.

“Keep it off school property until the laws change,” he says.

Underwood says he has a court date in November but he is hiring a lawyer and is going to to try to fight the charges – and to get his gun back.

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