This week’s furor over the treatment of a 9-year-old Staten Island, NY student who got in trouble for having a tiny LEGO figure with a rubber gun can be ultimately credited to the same hysteria that prompted the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence into declaring war on Starbucks.
Likewise, the “zero tolerance” mentality of an elementary school principal grows from the same revulsion towards firearms as the hoplophobia recently exhibited by an Evergreen State gun prohibitionist at the appearance of several armed citizens during a recent hearing on an anti-gun measure in Olympia.
By now, the whole country has heard about fourth grader Patrick Timoney, son of a retired police officer, who was taken to the principal’s office for having the tiny gun. This happened in New York, where on Monday, a 12-year-old junior high school student identified as Alexa Gonzalez was arrested for doodling on her desk with an erasable marker. It would be nice to think that it’s something in the water in New York, but this nonsense happens all over the place. I wrote earlier about the foolishness of “zero tolerance” policies here. My colleague, Daniel White, weighs in on the Timoney case here.
Margie Feinberg, a spokeswoman for the DOE, said there is a no-tolerance policy when it comes to fake guns because they are considered harmful to the school community.-Staten Island Advance
Public school officials get away with zero tolerance because in all too many cases, we as a society allowed such policies to be legislated, initially in hopes of preventing violence in schools. Alas, school shootings taught us otherwise, but the policies remain because too many educators have convinced themselves that guns are the problem, not the monsters who horribly misuse them. The process of demonization excluded any notion that the majority of gun owners are a peaceful and responsible lot.
Underscoring the specific vehemence toward guns – even toy guns – was the revelation by Patrick’s mother, Laura in an interview with the Staten Island Advance that another youngster had an action figure that was holding an axe, but only her son was hauled to the principal’s office. It has now been reported that Principal Evelyn Matroianni has apologized to the Timoney family, but one wonders if that came out of sincere regret, or simply because the incident became headline news in several papers and on local and national news networks.
The Staten Island case is no less an affront to common sense than Washington CeaseFire’s Ralph Fascitelli approaching a Washington State Patrol trooper in Olympia Jan. 26 to indicate his personal alarm at the presence of several Open Carry activists in the John A. Cherberg Senate Office Building hallway, and inquire whether troopers had checked those firearms to see if they were loaded. He was visibly not happy when he was advised that open carry, even on the capitol campus, is legal.
His discomfort with visibly armed citizens in his presence is most assuredly of the same vintage as the angst now being generated by his soul-mate Paul Helmke at the Brady Campaign over the Starbucks corporate position (the company has no “policy”) that recognizes private citizens have firearms rights. Starbucks simply has stated that “we defer to federal, state and local laws and regulations” regarding the carrying of firearms by paying customers.
Starbucks does not have a corporate policy regarding customers and weapons; we defer to federal, state and local laws and regulations regarding this issue.”—Note from Starbucks Customer Relations
Since I wrote about that flap here yesterday, gun owners all over the map have been weighing in on chat lists, gun rights, open carry and even hunting forums about their intentions to patronize Starbucks coffee shops. This sends a message to Starbucks that gun owners appreciate the company’s courageous defiance of Brady Campaign demagoguery, and they will back that up with cash purchases.
This is the kind of collective foolishness that makes for lively discussion on talk radio. And that brings us around to this next item.
Carlson back on KVI-AM afternoon airwaves
Veteran Seattle radio talkmeister John Carlson has returned to the afternoon drive time on KVI-AM 570 – now dubbing itself Freedom 570 – after a three-year hiatus that had him squaring off against Ken Schram on sister station KOMO.
Carlson, a one-time Republican gubernatorial candidate who jokes that he “won the silver medal in that race,” has been a conservative voice in the Seattle market for several years. He will continue with the popular Commentators show on KOMO with Schram, but in a shorter two-hour time slot, noon to 2 p.m. (reduced from the 10 a.m. – 2 p.m. time slot they had occupied), giving him time to trot downstairs to the KVI broadcast booth for his 3 o’clock sign-on.
In politics, John has led three successful statewide initiatives, including's first "Three Strikes, You’re Out" ballot measure in the early 90's. Violent crime tumbled by nearly 30% in the decade after its passage. He is listed as one of the America 's 100 most influential alumni of the 20th century.-KVI University ofWashington
Gun owners are still angry at KVI management over the ouster of pro-gun conservative talk host Kirby Wilbur from the KVI morning slot. I have shot with Carlson, as I have with Wilbur. I consider both of them longtime pals, and ultimately, it would be grand if Wilbur showed up eventually on a competing station in the Seattle market.
For the moment, and no doubt well into the future, Carlson will be good company to the firearms community during afternoon drive time.
More from Gun Rights Examiners
Atlanta: Ed Stone | Austin: Howard Nemerov | Boston: Ron Bokleman | Charlotte: Paul Valone | Cheyenne: Anthony Bouchard | Chicago: Don Gwinn | Cleveland: Daniel White | DC: Mike Stollenwerk | Denver: Dan Bidstrup | Grand Rapids: Skip Coryel | Los Angeles: John Longenecker | Minneapolis: John Pierce | National: David Codrea | Phoenix: Douglas Little | Seattle: Dave Workman | St. Louis: Kurt Hofmann | Wisconsin: Gene German
And Don’t forget to visit:
For more info: Assault on Weapons: The Campaign to Eliminate Your Guns.
Comments
Open carry advocates are insane. Your homophobic innuendo is offensive as well. Leave your weapons in your trailers and mobile homes.
Open carry advocates are insane. Your homophobic innuendo is offensive as well. Leave your weapons in your trailers and mobile homes. Per Tim's post.
This is the fear and ignorance I have been talking about. Thanks for coming out of the shadows. We appreciate it.
'Homophobic innuendo?"
Tim: Before making a bigger fool of yourself, click on "hoplophobia" and read the definition.
Tim, You illustrate the amount of brain power that goes into hoplophobic thinking. Are you the principal of a school?
Everyone of these little toy gun things are ridiculous. The people in question have no insight into how much they embarrass themselves...
I have an idea, Have the swat team go into the school, and line up the principle and teachers, go through their desks and pockets, handcuff and arrest any having sissors or nail clippers or nailfiles, all the time saying--zero tolerance---zero tolerance! No exemptions for the ones making the compliants--they might get off their high horses! Their arrogance is astounding!
Tim
I don't think you misread ''hopolophobe''. I don't think you care what it means because you have ''the revealed word'' of The Brady Campaign to Disarm Everyone but Crooks in the form a sneer at a group of people spanning all the social strata by calling them ''homophobic'' and trailer trash. You have been programmed sir, in bigotry, by progressives who think the end justifies the means.
The people who have programmed you don't care about the truth or falsehood of their positions or statistics. They care only about the disarming of the American public. Make no mistake, that is their end. Why else would they take the position they have and yet be so resistant to facts? They try to present themselves as reasonable people yet reason is the last thing that they want to hear. Hence the name calling. As in most arguments, name calling admits defeat. Thus you admit defeat in your opening post, Tim.
MD
"Zero Tolerance" is just another way to say "I don't want to be blamed for making a bad decision."
Zero tolerance is a simple form of indoctrination. They're programming the kids so their knees buckle at the sight of an image of a firearm.. The logic is that when the kids are brought up in such fear, they will not be NRA members.. This is psyche conditioning right out of Stalin's gulag.
Once a Tory, always a Tory, New York, burned to the ground, twice by George Washington, and the traitors who left with the brits.
Following the American Revolution, Evacuation Day on November 25 marks the day in 1783 when the last vestige of British authority in the United States — its troops in New York — departed from Manhattan. The last shot of the American Revolutionary War was reported to be fired on this day, as a British gunner on one of the departing ships fired a cannon at jeering crowds gathered on the shore of Staten Island, at the mouth of New York Harbor.
Why do these people in New York, even go to school?
You lose rights by not exercising them... while I don't open carry. I am proud of those who choose to do so.
Liberals used to claim that they were the party of Rights and Tolerance. Now, when confronted with facts, they spit on the common man and his desire to be free and to exercise their Rights, smear him with hateful vindictive, attribute the very worst motivations to him and then run away petulantly.
This is Character of hateful madmen.
I am proud of the people who open carry. It is interesting to note that those who used to carry a concealed weapon (A hideout gun) were considered the worst sort and those who carried openly were considered honest men.
Over the next year we will be deciding the course of this Country, whether we elect even more hateful Statists to our Government or whether we swing toward Freedom, whether we look to defenders of Freedom like Justice Sanders for Supreme Court or a Statist like that Bowtie Liberal Wiggins. I say, Let Freedom Ring!
Liberals used to claim that they were the party of Rights and Tolerance. Now, when confronted with facts, they spit on the common man and his desire to be free and to exercise their Rights, smear him with hateful vindictive, attribute the very worst motivations to him and then run away petulantly.
This is Character of hateful madmen.
I am proud of the people who open carry. It is interesting to note that those who used to carry a concealed weapon (A hideout gun) were considered the worst sort and those who carried openly were considered honest men.
Over the next year we will be deciding the course of this Country, whether we elect even more hateful Statists to our Government or whether we swing toward Freedom, whether we look to defenders of Freedom like Justice Sanders for Supreme Court or a Statist like that Bowtie Liberal Wiggins. I say, Let Freedom Ring!
When the economy fails and gangs roam the streets you will be glad shotgun bubba and buckshot billybob stood up for the 2nd amendment. The collapse is coming. Buy a gun, stock up on food and water, and start talking to your neighbors. As you can tell from Haiti and Katrina, you will be on your own. Obama is not going to save you. Its still not too late to protect your family.
God Bless America
We have the same group training our FBI, Secret Service, local LEO's and others.. same group bullying Congress to transfer over $28 trillion to their cabal headed by Goldman Sachs/Federal Reserve Bank.. same group pushing homosexual agenda.. same interests used tax payer monies to build an altar to satan in Jerusalem..Same group including Bloomberg, Feinstein, Lautenberg, Schumer pushing citizen disarmament..and of course same group controlling TV, film production and other means of mass propaganda. We have a group of vipers that will not rest till they rule the world. Wake up Americans.
"Zero tolerance is a simple form of indoctrination. They're programming the kids so their knees buckle at the sight of an image of a firearm."
And what's worse, at the sight of one of their paid servants telling them what to do. These little kids are in danger of growing up without the knowledge that most government employment is a form of combined charity and economic self defense to keep these loons out of private companies that might not survive their presence.
why tim so you can steal them
Zero Tolerance is INTOLERANCE!
Courageous parents would provide every student with these toy guns to take to school to show their disdain for the communist policy of zero tolerance.
Tim demonstrates Margie's school system. Margie knows that fake guns are a threat to the school system. Tim knows that people who advocate open carry are insane, homophobic, and live in trailers and mobile homes. Tim thinks that "hoplophobia" is "homophobia." Margie doesn't want Tim to know the difference between one instrument and the other.
Do not let these propaganda-pushers strip you of your 2nd Amendment rights. The citizens of Australia will now tell you that "Once they're gone, they're gone.
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