I believe that children should have the right to pretend that stuff is guns. Peow! Peow! I never thought of baking a gun though, I wonder what incident led to this rather specific ban. Probably some elderly teacher once said “What are you baking there Josh?” then Josh spins around with a tommy gun made from a selection of puddings “Just desserts, baby!” then makes that “EH HEH HEH HEH HEH!!!” machine gun noise which gives teacher enough TERROR to report it as such to the head teacher and then proceed to gitmo the kids.
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I hate it when we come full-circle and agree with the right-wing nutzos. (For totally different reasons, natch, and totally different ideas of what constitutes a reasonable response.)
For reasons that still anger me, we lived in Texas for two years when I was in grade school, c. 1980. Upon return from spring break in 5th grade, a classmate was sent home from school for wearing a souvenir t-shirt his parents purchased for him in Jamaica, the place they had spent spring break. The t-shirt said “son of a beach” and had appropriately beachy graphics.
I’ll never forget the stupidity of that day. His parents were understandably pissed. The admins at school could have and should have given him the choice of turning the shirt inside-out or being sent home. They did not offer any choice.
Thanks for pointing that out, heckblazer… I guess it was too much to ask that a Texan legislator would look at the bigger picture. Very disappointing.
In the laws of my state, any weapon or fake weapon or thing that looks vaguely like a weapon is harshly sanctioned, with several narrow and absurd exceptions.
For example: a butter knife hidden in your pocket is legally a felony, treated the same as a loaded shotgun brandished with intent to murder, but a razor-sharp trench knife is a mere misdemeanor. Cite: Delaware law 1457, weapons in a safe school zone, section 1452 (title 11).
http://www.weapons-universe.com/Knives/Trench-Knives.jpg
I kid you not! A pencil topper shaped like an M16 will be grounds for felony charges, but this particular man-killing device will not. Presumably, some VIP’s kid came to school with a trench knife at some point. Switchblades are an even lesser offense… but a pastry shaped like a gun is a felony.
So now this Texan wants a similarly narrow exception for guns. And people wonder why our legal system is a laughingstock.
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Well, in part this is just an example of a terrible law. I mean, you could still suspend kids for playing pretend guns under this law, so long as it wasn’t in one of the ways that was specifically stated. For example, if kids were pretending to be robots with arm-guns and pointing their fists to shoot their guns then you could suspend them without punishment because they didn’t put their thumb and forefinger out. You could suspend a kid for a 2.5" gun.
I don’t argue that this particular person may object to a shirt that says, “God Loves Gays” but really I think what he needs is some sort of legislative counsel to rewrite this law to actually achieve its objective.
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The legislation is poorly drafted because of the nature of his objective. I think he doesn’t have a problem with zero tolerance rules except when they impinge on his pet cause. Therefore he’s seeking a specific carve-out protecting guns and only guns, and trying to be that specific is why his bill sucks. Getting counsel to tighten it up is probably a waste of effort. This Congress so far has passed exactly 22 laws so far, and I bet he knows this bill will fare just as well as the ones he sponsored to repeal Obamacare.
Actually it looks like that section makes selling a trench knife a misdemeanor:
“A person is guilty of unlawfully dealing with a knuckles-combination knife when the person sells, offers for sale or has in possession a knife, the blade of which is supported by a knuckle ring grip handle.”
I will say that I checked not because I disbelieved you but because I wanted to see for myself. Weapons laws can get pretty funky. For example, it’s illegal to import a switchblade into the United States - unless you have only one arm that is.
I think his last name is ‘Wood’. A lot of people seem to want him to lose his job. I see lots of signs around town saying ‘Fire Wood’.
Yep. Switchblade’s a class B misdemeanor, and that trench knife’s a class A misdemeanor.
Hobo pocket knife featuring fork, spoon, and dull butter knife? Felony
Fake sword? Felony
Cake serving knife? Felony
Razor-sharp shuriken, hurled with intent? ***Fel-***Oops, that’s another exception - class A misdemeanor.
Oh, I don’t think it will pass or that it would be a good use of counsel’s time, but I bet if someone were to put forward a bill that was more effective at accomplishing his ends he would be happy for it (even if such a bill “accidentally” allowed children to wear shirts in support of gay rights - he probably wouldn’t realize that part until it was too late), and I think that he really doesn’t intend this bill to be as narrow as it is (what about a kid throwing a pastry like a grenade or wielding it like a sword?).
I like it. The result will simply be that children will not be punished for being kids. (What little boy doesn’t draw guns made out of guns shooting other guns?) I doubt the policy will ever have to be enforced because schools will just not go anti-creativity crazy. Help out the little Calvins already.
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