Political correctness reached a new height (or depth) when a six-year-old boy in Ionia, Michigan, was suspended from his Jefferson Elementary kindgarten class for pretending that his hand was a gun and pointing the "barrel" (his finger) at another student. The offender, six year old Mason Jammer, made another student in his class feel "uncomfortable."
Young Mr. Jammer had been warned, school officials said, and so the suspension seemed appropriate to them. His mother, however, thought that suspending her son from school was uncalled for. She explained that young Mason does not understand anything about the reason for what is happening (leading one to question how the suspension will change the young boy’s behavior.) The mother added that her son does not even have any toy guns at home. She said "He’s just six and he likes to play." Ms. Mason suggested that some less drastic punishment should be tried, like taking away his recess.
The rather surreal situation seems to assume that it is improper for Mason Jammer to understand, to practice, and to enjoin such constitutionally protected activities as target practice and hunting, recreations that some school systems actually encourage (target practice and archery events are sponsored by many schools in the Midwest as wholesome after-school activities.) The young lad also has tradition on his side — he engages in play that many millions of Americans have engaged in for decades in schools and in neighborhoods.
If the school system worries about misuse of firearms, then perhaps it could provide classes for students to learn how to treat firearms respectfully and how to use firearms safely. Perhaps such a class could also instruct students that the Second Amendment — found in that part of our Constitution called the "Bill of Rights" — provides that the right to own and to use firearms is protected. This sort of learning could enable children, as they grew older, to engage in healthy activities like deer and duck hunting, which have been shown to keep children away from drugs, violence, promiscuous sex, and other self-destructive behaviors.
It seems, though, that the Ionia public school system is unlikely to be the pilot area for such a program.
