Anti-Gun Snitches and Busybodies | True Stories | USCCA

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Over the course of the stay-at-home order, both my son and my youngest daughter had to complete various school assignments on the computer, and some of that work included classroom Zoom meetings every week. In addition, my son also took group piano lessons via Zoom. And on Tuesdays and Fridays, he was joined by classmates from all over the world. It’s certainly a pretty useful and innovative technology. But as we all know, anything like this can have its downfalls. (I’m not talking about a fictional Skynet-level event. I mean anything from navigating Wi-Fi glitches and figuring out muted microphones to witnessing wardrobe malfunctions and wondering who might be spying on your “private” conferences.)

This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://www.usconcealedcarry.com/blog/anti-gun-snitches-and-busybodies/
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Beyond just guns, this a really interesting 4th Amendment issue. For the purposes of the 1st Amendment, courts consider public schools to be government agencies, and are therefore subject to very strict limits on free speech rules (school newspapers, dress codes, etc.) So if I’m required to send my children to school and that means online class from home, can that equate to government intrusion? If a teacher sees me in the background doing a line of crack* and reports me- as she would be obligated to do- could the court accept her testimony, or would it be an illegal government search?

I expect we’ll see some court cases on this in the future. This seems like uncharted territory.

*I don’t use drugs, but there’s no law in my state that would make my home “unsafe” simply because I had a firearm, so I had to get creative.

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The zero tolerance Policies of the school systems throughout the country Was initially to be a system to protect kids. However, along the way the good intentions were highjacked, not for protection for kids, but used as a wide blanket and one brush to prevent liability against schools.
From the pastry gun, the bubble gun, the finger gun, all the kids were treated the same as suspended because of the word gun, regardless of the object used. There was another incident on a school bus, one kid hd a gun on the bus and waving it around, Another kid on the bus disarmed him. You would think the child that disarmed the armed student will be hailed as a hero and given just rewards by the school board, but that could be no further from the truth. The hero, Was in fact expelled from the school under the disguise of the zero tolerance policy, because he was involved in an altercation where a gun was present. There was no if ands or butts, because a gun was present in the incident he was expelled, no matter the fact that he probably save lives. This is the biggest issue with zero tolerance, no investigation, just sentencing, no innocence just guilty…

Now, with the zoom issue, I understand that people seeing a gun sitting on a table call the please thinking that it was dangerous situation. Did they overreact? Maybe!

Now, it turned out to be a toy gun, But that’s not the question at hand. We have seen kids pull toy guns and cops and be shot. People would argue that cop should be able to recognize a toy gun instantly, but the toy guns are very realistic and sometimes near impossible to tell the difference from a real gun. . Many of us gun owners would argue that you cannot tell if a gun is real or not but just looking at it.

Now with the zoom issue, I understand that people seeing a gun sitting on a table called the police thinking that it was dangerous situation. Did they overreact? Maybe!
Now the question you ask or posed, it’s just government overreach if you were doing a lot of drugs on video. Unfortunately, when you put something on video that everyone sees it’s almost like plain sight laws. So, if you were to do drugs on zoom, they Would show up.

So, when we do videos, no matter the social platform of zoom, Facebook, etc, we are putting out to the public and unfortunately some in the public will react this way.

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That is so wrong in my opinion! He saved lives and secured the gun. Hopefully, he turned it right over to the proper adult as well.

A toy gun can look exactly like a real gun. There are times I’ve had to pick up a gun to see if it’s a toy or real … and I’m in the industry!

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I think the bus bus incident happened in 2013 in Florida but I can’t remember whatever happened with the student but he was expelled at the time.
I agree that we can’t tell a real gun from a fake gun because of guns are so realistic now. If Use a fake gun to rob a store, or pull a fake gun and take the shooting stance, regardless of the gun being fake, the fake gun is used to elicit a response as if it were loaded and real. That is why, people are charged with the armed robbery using a fake gun.

So, should the parent have informed the police with zoom video? I can’t answer that!!

I think, if you are on zoom, you need to be more aware of what you are showing people. You are allowing people to peek inside your private home, we are responsible for what is on your video.

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I think zero tolerance policies are actually there to protect schools, not kids. It keeps administrators from having to make difficult decisions or counsel children who are learning to make good decisions. Instead, the sentence comes before the charge. There’s no liability for principals, they’re just following district policy.

Teachers care about your kids. Organizations do not.

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Completely agree

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I am searching on this site and since this blog post mentioned Red Flag it came up… I am trying to determine if I can utilize my USCCA legal coverage for a Red Flag/ERPO situation? It seems logical that this would be included as part of the legal support offered in the Critical Response Team 24/7/365 coverage included with the membership. Has there been a definitive answer on this?

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This topic of kids, school, and the presence of a gun intrigue me because of an incident in my youth long ago.
While in ”middle school” or ”junior high,” as it known then, boys were required to take ”shop class” each year. We even had required projects to make in both ”woodshop” and ”metal shop.”
One year, our instructor decided to include us in a ”group” project that involved the assembly of a replica of a Revolutionary War period flintlock rifle.
Our teacher did most of the skilled work involved, and the students ”helped” with minor assembly. When the project was completed, our class and the instructor took the rifle out behind the school. Our instructor then gave a lesson on how the rifle would have been loaded and fired.
This was suburban Philadelphia in the mid-1960s, not a rural part of the state.
No police came. No parents demanded an investigation into the unsafe environment.
Politics aside, it seems like a different planet today.

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We the people ALLOW this, we the people can put a STOP to it.

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Glad I read this. We live in PA. No children, however, my husband is constantly aware of the “busybody reaction factor”. We are becoming far more aware and involved in what legislation, rules, regs, and foolishness is already in place or can emerge. Reading up on the PA Red Flag rules now. USCCA is best investment ever. Much appreciated. Stephanie

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