Anti-Gunners Triggered By Toy Gun on Zoom, Hysteria Ensues
No matter how cynical I get about the sheer idiocy of the anti-gunners, I simply cannot keep up.
Every so often, we pro-Second Amendment citizens are treated to a glimpse of the raw hysteria that seethes just beneath the surface of the average anti-gunner, and today we’ve got a doozy: It seems that for one school district in Pennsylvania, Zoom video teleconferences with parents and students are a chance to sic the police on a family for the dastardly crime of allowing their seven-year-old to own a toy gun. This is the first time we’re aware of that a school has attempted to enforce one of their famous “zero-tolerance” policies in someone’s private home…and it would be enraging if it weren’t so hilarious.
According to this article courtesy of NRA’s ILA, here’s what happened:
A segment on the May 15 edition of the Todd Starnes Radio Show included an interview with Sheila Perez Smith, the mother of a 7–year—old first grader. Perez Smith recounted how the child had received a plastic toy gun as a gift, which quickly became the boy’s “favorite new thing.”
During a school-related Zoom call with his classmates and teacher at the Cumberland Valley School District, she said, the boy was seated with the toy next to him. He was not, however, interacting with it in any way.
After the call concluded, the family received an email from the child’s teacher “basically saying that another parent of another classmate had been very uncomfortable by the fact that the gun had been in view of the Zoom call.”
But that was not the end of the incident.
Within a couple of hours, Perez Smith said, an officer from the Hampden Township Police Department came to their home and asked the family to step outside so he could question them about a complaint involving a child and a gun.
This news story has so many layers of idiocy that it’s like a lasagna made entirely of WTF. Let’s take a moment to slice through them, shall we?
First, the slightly burnt cheesy layer that everyone fights over: The “zero tolerance” policies that schools everywhere have enacted in a knee-jerk response to violence committed by minors don’t really mean “zero tolerance.” They mean “zero thought.” If you have a zero-tolerance policy, that means that nobody ever has to be an adult and examine each individual “offense” on its own merits. Therefore, as far as they’re concerned, a plastic toy gun is the same thing as a Ma Deuce.
Second, we’ve got a nice layer of privacy-infringement pasta. Zero-tolerance policies are beyond stupid, but that’s how things are right now and everyone has more or less accepted it; after all, “zero tolerance” doesn’t apply to what happens when the school isn’t currently in loco parentis-ing. But this toy gun was not discovered in the child’s backpack at school. This toy gun was with the child, in his home. It was merely visible on the Zoom call.
Now our questing forks have found soft, stupid manicotti cheese. This whole thing started because a parent was “made uncomfortable” by the sight of the toy gun. Let’s all take a moment to acknowledge that the parent wasn’t “uncomfortable.” That parent was thrilled at the opportunity to try to impose their own beliefs on another family…and to do it at the point of a real gun.
Oh boy, here’s the greasy, spicy sausage! Yes, the “real gun” in question was in possession of the law-enforcement officer who actually took time out of their day to respond to a complaint of a toy gun visible on a Zoom call. In Pennsylvania. The last I heard, it was perfectly legal for Pennsylvanians to own real guns, as many as they want, even if they have children. Let’s go back to that article, shall we?
The boy’s parents explained that it was only a toy gun and showed it to the officer. They went on to reassure the officer that they have no actual firearms in their home and that everyone in the residence was safe and well.
Perez Smith indicated she thought that would have ended any concern over the matter. Nevertheless, she said, “I did not feel that it was something where they said, ‘We understand. We just had to follow through.’ They took if very seriously, as if there was some sort of chance that we had weapons in the home.”
She also said the police officer made a point of continuing to lecture the family about the necessity of keeping children away from any sort of guns, even once he understood there was no danger to the kids.
Yes, yes, I’ve just double-checked, and as it turns out Pennsylvania law says that parents do not give up their Second Amendment rights when they take a baby home from the hospital. In fact, Pennsylvania has special youth seasons for rifle and shotgun hunting. Golly, it sure would be tough for a 12-year-old to take advantage of youth turkey season if his family isn’t allowed to have a gun while he lives there.
Ah, we have reached the bottom of our WTF lasagna and are just chasing those last crumbs around our plates. Don’t worry, though; there’s sure to be more. As the COVID-19 crisis has closed schools all around the country, teachers and administrators are being asked to observe their students during these video teleconferences for signs of domestic abuse. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with that, of course. The problem is that so many of these people seem to think that a family that permits their child to play with a toy gun is an abusive family…and that means we’re going to see more stories like this soon.
Boy, it’s a good thing there WEREN’T any real guns in the house. The family might have been locked up for being legal gun owners. How DARE they?!?
But seriously – “No, Officer, you may NOT search my house. Have a nice day.” Then close the door.
Yeah. Ok, so now going forward we have zoom screens. Cloth screens that block off ALL of the room. Can you guess what’s on it?
Every beautiful firearm from forgotten weapons. Then don’t talk to or allow any cops in. Then sue them for harassment.
Let’s all concentrate on the most important part of this article . Trace has given me the idea to make a lasagna during the Covid-19 outbreak I was getting tired of banana nut bread anyway..
One important thing about this story is the, ever increasing, instances where a person claims to be “made” to feel uncomfortable. It somehow has become the “norm” for folks to get away with not being able to control their own “feelings” and forcing others to become responsible for them. It’s as if it is now acceptable for me to say, “because you purchased a beautiful new home, you ‘made’ me feel inadequate because I can’t afford one”. Additionally, your “feelings” are nobody’s responsibility but your own. The media, the liberal left and even some conservatives have made us feel it is permissible to make others responsible for things they have no control over…I seem to remember that Nazi Germany used much the same argument in order to eliminate a whole race of people that made them, “feel uncomfortable”.
The first thing I would do before the next Zoom call is take several shotguns and rifles out of the safe, and mount them on the wall (unloaded of course) behind the boy! LOL! I’m serious. Then when the cops come to the door ask them to mind their own damned business and shut the door. As much as the anti-gun zealots would like to make it so, it’s not illegal to have a gun in the house where there are kids.
Forget being triggered, one of those gibbering parents would have a heart attack if they saw that.
Amen!!!!!!!!!!
Instead of “keeping guns away from children”, which is the left’s hope of instilling life-long irrational fear; how about teaching children about firearms, how to use them and what they can do as early as possible.
100%!!!!!
ABSOFREAKINGLUTELY!!! THAT, along with true and direct parenting, is a huge problem in this country today. Try teaching things to your kids, it is NOT only the responsibility of the teachers. Parents are the FIRST line of teachers out there. Fact. If you add up the hours in an 18 year old kid’s life, it is 157,680 hours. Kindergarten is a half day, so that is 9 months of half days (792), grades 1-8 are maybe 7 hours, but i will go with 8 (14,256) and 6 hours a day at high school (4,752). These are average, 9 months, 22 day months. But it clearly shows, in my example, families have influence or the ability to influence for about 137,880 hours. If they go to day care, sports, and summer school, so be it. BUT, not every kid does. EVen so, take another 20,000 hours off, it is still 75% of a kids life, the parent SHOULD HAVE DIRECT CONTROL OVER THEIR KIDS. THAT is missing.
There is considerable comment on the police officer giving a “lecture” .
1st, they had to respond and investigate to a call, no matter what.
2nd, perhaps the officer was covering his butt, and his dept’s butt by giving a safety lecture.
3rd. and perhaps he was totally behind the kids family and was trying to help them by carefully telling them things they should know, and letting them read between the lines to be able to fend off future attacks from the school board or social services people.
I would have told the cop, Yeah there is a gun, so what is the problem. Then proudly showed him the targets he shot this morning and said as soon as he is done with this school stuff he has to clean it. My daughter shot her first 22 at three and a half (shes 27 now so to late to turn me in) . It’s no ones business whats sitting next to my kid in my own home.
Do these dinks realize that their hysteria makes me and others hysterical and we go out and buy more real guns? And ammunition?
Did you go to school and ask to see in print the rules that states thats not allowed ,and states the punishment?
NO WRITTEN RULES = NO PUNISHMENT!
Morons are everywhere.
Allow me to lighten the mood a bit. If we are going to complain about anti-gunners not knowing the difference between full auto and semi auto, or between a clip and a magazine, then I must call out Trace. The cheese in lasagna is ricotta not manicotti. Manicotti is a tubular pasta, not usually found in lasagna.
@Ziggy You took the words right off my comment box lol I was about to say that same thing! GMTA
You have to wonder did the lady who called know it was a toy gun and tell the police that or did she know it was a toy gun and told police it was a real gun? Maybe Johnny was doing his dry fire exercises before the video call and didn’t have time to put his gun away. Either way the busy body mind everyone else’s business type is a problem for the rest of us. These people need to get a life and worry about their family and not everyone else’s business. Kids getting in trouble for making a finger gun, biting their sandwich into the shape of an “L” and therefore a gun is ridiculous just like everything else that the left has done to this country. That police officer should be ashamed that he continued once he found it was a toy. The 2nd amendment was put in the Bill of Rights because of people like this woman. Let’s pray that we don’t have to use it but if it comes to it we do.
I’m stunned a police officer made a visit. What any of us do in our home is no ones business, unless of course it is criminal. But a child in my home near a firearm isn’t criminal.
When you are dispatched you have to go (except in coward county, FL) It is what you do when you get there that makes the difference. He should have just told them someone who is HUA complained about the toy gun instead of making some big deal about it.
@KimberproSS An officer must follow up on all complaints. I would be interested in seeing his report just in case down the road that “parent” who complained ends up in court on related charges of “false reporting”, etc. Now as far as the officer stopping once he knew of the toy they have to cover all bases in case again court time. Had that of been me my child would not be in that class or school after this that’s for sure. I would have also made a production of finding out the parent’s name who made the report. Then again I have a “Zero Tolerance” policy regarding dealing with stupids period!
Elect leftists with zero sense and this is what you get.
It’s the attack of the killer Karens.
She wants to talk to that cop’s boss to get him fired for not taking those kids away.
Ok, we’re talking about layers? Let’s look at the layers of a heavily NRA-weighted article on the matter.
1) They stuck the most ridiculous picture of a toy gun they could find at the top of the article to set the tone.
2) There are several cases of opinion injected into the report, such as, “The problem, she believed…” and, “I don’t believe the accusation was made with concern for my own child…”
3) Who could really tell from a Zoom call how real or fake a gun might have been, and what was the proximity of the child to the gun? We were not there and I can find no recorded video or screen grab of that call, so we don’t know. “See something, say something” – isn’t that a motto of our Federal Government’s industrial and national security programs? (Yes, it is.)
4) Inflamatory terms like “lectured” and “busybodies” and “intolerance” are used.
5) Quotes are pulled from an article that, itself, was a 3rd hand account of someone’s interpretation of an event, and a 4th hand account of what that same someone said they thought someone else (the cop) was thinking (“…continuing to lecture the family about the necessity of keeping children away from any sort of guns, even once he understood there was no danger to the kids.”). This is an article about and article, both replete with opinions and interpretations.
6) We don’t know how much that cop knew about the situation when the home was visited. It’s entirely plausible that all he knew going in was that there was a report concerning a child with a gun at a school-related event.
Here’s the bottom line: The school received a notice and had to follow through with an investigation. Imagine if they hadn’t followed through and that concerned parent was right, the school ignored it, the police investigation was performed in a less than conscientious manner, and something bad actually did happen, however implausible or unlikely to the author and some commenters on this article? Then the conversation would turn to: Why didn’t anyone say anything? The kid was right there on a school-related zoom call showing off the gun he planned to use on his classmates! The narrative would certainly shift.
Let’s all take a deep breath and just try to play devil’s advocate, or if not going that far, at least try to look at things from another person’s perspective. We all have to live together on this big ball of mud and rock and it isn’t beyond the realm of decency to teach our kids to respect the concerns of others, however ridiculous and foolhardy they may think the other person or the other person’s opinion on the matter may be, in order to get along. If that means entertaining their fears a little and having some situational awareness about what objects, even in their own home, are visible during an official school or work video conference and could cause strife, then so be it. Otherwise, we just end up at each other’s throats and, at least so far, there’s no other planet to escape to when things get ugly.
Yes.
Bob Jackson. You are surely an advocate of the devil.
Grow up.
I agree with you, Jon. Bob Jackson certainly sounds like an advocate for the Devil! he is, as I heard years ago, trying to play leapfrog over mouse turds! The article points out the abject ignorance and lack of intelligence displayed by someone viewing the Zoom event, and the school authorities and last, but not least, the law enforcement officer involved. The reference to “see something, say something” is credited to our Federal Government pushes is a direct descendent of the old German Brown Shirts and of many Socialist and communist nations and groups. I would hope that our school authorities and law enforcement organizations and, even, parents and teachers on a Zoom conference would have sufficient intelligence to think for themselves and to act like adults. Sadly, they all lack the courage, intelligence, and thinking ability to act like responsible adults. This is a real shame in the U.S.A., the land of the FREE and the home of the BRAVE!
Don’t defend people that put their noses in places it doesn’t belong. It makes you look like a nosy Nancy yourself. Anti 2nd amendment zealots just look for a reason to bitch about someone taking advantage of having rights. This person probably knew it was a toy and just wanted to complain about something. Sounds too close to “red flag laws” for comfort. See something, say something was meant for national security. Keep your nose inside your mask and think about if the situation was reversed. How would you feel if the law showed up at your house because you let your child use a plastic knife to make a peanut butter sandwich? GET A LIFE AND STOP SCREWING WITH OTHER PEOPLE’S.
Idiot
You are a stupid ass . Your stupidity is so overwhelming it is unbelievable. If there was no crime being reported the stupid police should have told the nosie busybody thank you and let it go instead of showing how stupid they are with there gungho actions.
“My rights do not end where your feelings begin”.
Timothy Anderson. You said it best people need to remover that these days because everyone reacts on their feelings and no one thinks. That’s why we are having the problems we are having with the communist socialist liberal gun grabbers. We let them infringe on our rights for so long with out standing up that now they think we have no rights only they do. They also think their rights and feelings are the only ones that matter. Support the 2nd amendment.
I would have to ask, is this pay backs for a previous conflict between the parents. Did Sheila’s child push little Tommy on the playground 6 months ago. Was she chosen for class mother over the other parent? You know it happens.
Great hypothesis, but snowflakes come unglued with the very thought of someone even thinking a gun, yes even a toy gun, is an abomination to their very existence, I remember an incident several years ago when my grandson was in school, sixth grade actually, when he drew a gun on a piece of paper. Well the teacher and school officials went ballistic, they wanted him suspended from school, along with other ridiculously stupid punishments, Well they backed down when challenged to present the actual Rules showing where this is a violation of the BOE rules of conduct. It just doesn’t exist except in these twisted minds of these chicken little, “The sky is falling” snowflakes! Fight back against these tyrants or we will find ourselves without the freedoms our Constitution affords us.
My grand-daughter’s school does not allow peanut products in the building, due to allergies. I can only imagine what would have happened if the child had been eating a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. OMG!!!
Or, worse yet, a peanut butter and jelly sandwich chewed into the shape of a gun!
Good to hear!! I’m glad the Some american’s still Believe In the American HERITAGE of How this Nation WAS FOUNDED AND PROTECTED with firearms !!! If our Patriots ave up The RIFLES to The Brits — We would be RULED BY A EVIL QUEEN!!!
I am allergic to bananas. Next time I see a banana I will call the police. It is deadlier to me than a toy gun
What I would like to know is, if we don’t allow our children to play with Toy Guns, don’t you think they will search out the real thing? Also if no children learn about guns, who is going to Defend Our Country by Serving in Our Armed Services? Also a side note, DONT Group All Democrats in one group. I raised 2 girls and taught both of them about and how to use rifles as well as handguns! I am Proud to say that my youngest daughter now loves to shoot and is teaching her kids the proper way to handle firearms. Remember if you Don’t Teach your kids the Facts and Safety precautions of firearms, they will learn from Someone! If You Forbid your kids to touch them, (with Adult Supervision of course) and don’t teach them what to do when they see one, your in for a Tragedy of your own making. If kids know they can ask a Parent to show them a firearm, 9 times out of 10, they won’t even ask. But Deny Them, and they will find a way. Parting thought, If the people who Freak out over just seeing a gun, would have a Heart Attack if they Knew how many people standing beside them, are Concealed Carrying a Hand Gun! God Bless America and God Bless our Veterans
This just makes you a hypocrite as most all DEMOCRATS are! You want your guns, but vote constantly for people to take them away!! Brilliant!! Lately all the hypocrites are buying guns all of sudden.
I agree to make his statement and then to still cling to the dem. party shows a total lack of reasoning.
Hey if a T-shirt with a picture of a gun can kill somebody……………
I wonder how many law enforcement persons have guns in their house and children present. Is this somehow acceptable because they are law enforcement. If this trend continues it will be OMG that person has a knife and nest it will be a hammer or a screw driver. The people making thee ridiculous should be billed for time officer had to investigate or even fined for a ridiculous claim.
There should be action taken against the complainer for its violation of its victims rites.
The next call should have a big NRA poster , a make America Great again one and a Don’t tread on me flag visible in the background. Possibly have someone sitting in the background cleaning their favorite shotgun, no ammo in the room of course. S.W.A.T. will probably be called on that one.
Yeah I can see that now, it will be made into a “Domestic terrorism” incident and they will just bomb the whole neighborhood.
I have yet to understand why the participants (children) need to see each other in the video conference. Wouldn’t it simplify things if each child could just see the teacher? The teacher could still see all the children of course. It’s not as if these features don’t exist in video conferencing tools.
I would think that the schools are getting very close to privacy infringement by allowing 3rd parties (other students and their parents) vision into anothersl minors home.
It is one thing to agree/accept allowing the teacher this view.
That is an excellent point!
The fact that the police lectured the parents, even after finding out it was a toy gun, is as much beyond ridiculous as whoever reported them. Guess he thought he was Big Brother? Why is he imposing anything more into it once it was found to be a toy gun? To me that’s harassment. Don’t get me wrong, I’m pro-police, but not to the point of them lecturing me on how to live my life.
What has happened to common sense???
When I was growing up my sister was a police dispatcher so I spent a lot of time around police officers and one thing that was apparent is that to many became cops so they could throw There weight around and show how big they are.
My Grandmother used to call it “horse sense” because she said it wasn’t so common anymore. She passed in 2005; things haven’t gotten any better
My grandson was written up and sent home from elementary school for using finger guns while at recess?! Add that to this giant layer of WTF
This is so stupid, I am almost a t a loss for words. The police officers should be embarrassed.
Some snowflake Lie-beral DEMONocrat needs to get a life ! WHAT A WUSS ! They are the syndicate of fake, hate, negate, depopulate (abortions), and D O M I N A T E ! The cops should go back and lecture them for a crank call and give them the name of a psychiatrist if a toy gun on a computer screen “makes them uncomfortable!” People like this have the Look-At-Me-See-How-Nice-I-Am Syndrome. Find out what kind of drugs this person has been taking.
This pandemic has moved Big Brother into our homes; video school, tele medicine, ….
It really is becoming Orwellian “1984”.
Are you kidding me, did this really happen in our beloved free country? No! It happened in the socialist, half-as_ed group of used to be free States of Communamerica. It happened because people are growing up being educated by communist standards, not community standards. We all believe what we are taught when young and many people have grown up being taught that the Founding Fathers got it wrong. And that is wrong. If the educational sistem in America is not fixed then everything everyone worked and sweated and died for over the last 200+ years is lost forevermore.