A little piece of me died yesterday…zero tolerance policies are a joke.

I was at the range the other day doing my civic duty and introducing two people to the finer parts of firearms. On my way out of the range to retrieve my ID and membership card I overheard a parent with his two sons. He had just taken them to rent a gun for one of his sons birthdays. They have just gotten finished with their instruction session. The father was going to buy a t-shirt with the ranges logo on the front. The shirt said “Scottsdale Gun Club” on the front and back. It did not have a picture of a firearm. When they were about to check out I heard the kid tell his father “You might as well not buy that, because I can not wear it to school, I will get suspended.” Then he said “I got in trouble just for talking about the range at school.”

I can not explain how bad I felt for this kid. I went to school in the same school district I think this kid did (although I don’t know for sure). And before Columbine I talked about shooting with people who shared the intrest. But after Columbine happened I  had the same conversation, and then was promptly escorted to the principals office. I spent the better part of an hour while they attempted to ask me what kind of guns I had at home. Through the rest of my public school career I never spoke about firearms again, for fear of expulsion.

When did the leaders of the schools, and this country decide that simply talkng about shooting was a scary thing. In high school I shot USPSA and similar events, and looked at it as much as the same thing of high school football. But apparently it isn’t.

Exibition shooting was the most popular spectator sport in America before pro-sports were broadcast on TV. But when exactly did shooting become socially unacceptable? And I pose this question; what do we do to make it more socially acceptable?

After all, it’s for the children…

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