It seems America’s government-run education system provides almost weekly examples of pants-wetting idiocy wherever firearms are concerned. Whether it’s students being suspended for infractions such as biting their food into the shape of a pistol, or pointing a pencil at another kid and saying, “bang”, institutionalized hoplophobia runs amok in our public schools. Which is why it’s so sadly surprising when a school system – in this case, in Broken Bow, Nebraska – tacks the other way . . .
Broken Bow High School had decided to allow students who choose to have their senior portraits taken while holding a firearm to do so.
From cbsnews.com:
“Superintendent Mark Sievering says that as district officials talked about the issue, ‘There was a sense that to allow a student to have a firearm, as long as it was done in a tasteful manner in terms of a hunting or sporting-type picture, that that might be OK.'”
Board president Ken Myers is, well, on board, too.
“We have the 1 Box Shooting Club, a great trap range and sporting clays range. A lot of youth are interested in that so that brings up firearms, I guess, a little bit more to the forefront along with the hunting.”
For uncommon common sense and rejecting mindless anti-gun zero-tolerance stupidity, Superintendent Sievering and President Myers are our gun heroes of the day.
May their tribe increase!
“A shot off the bow at hoplophobic schools across america”
Sorry, had to do it.
Guess that’s real progress… students can now have a picture of a gun… as long as it is “tasteful” and only about hunting or sport. What is “tasteful” anyway?
I’d say the closer you are to Seung-Hui Cho, the further you are from tasteful.
https://www.google.cz/search?q=Seung-Hui+Cho&client=firefox-a&hs=uIN&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=gflHVOW2M5bVarf8gNgK&ved=0CIkBEIke&biw=1600&bih=738
Sure, just hope these folks don’t get too hung up on this aspect of it. Personally, I’ll take a gun in the hand to a picture of anything…
Other news accounts mentioned “brandishing,” and pointing the piece at the camera are not allowed.
A good report from the Omaha World Herald: http://www.omaha.com/news/nebraska/guns-in-senior-portraits-ok-if-done-tastefully-nebraska-school/article_e25a4c6e-593c-11e4-ae63-001a4bcf6878.html
Time mag’s online account (http://time.com/3529739/school-guns-portraits/), included the following gratuitious closing paragraph:
“The issue of having guns in or around schools has been especially salient after the Dec. 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary school shooting, an event that prompted policymakers to question whether adequate gun safety laws were in place. Since that shooting, several organizations have argued that several gaps in gun laws still exist despite many states tightening background checks for firearm purchases. Yet Nebraska’s overall gun policies still lag behind other states, according to the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, whose 2013 Gun Laws Scorecard gave the state a D.”
“Lag behind” forsooth!
Sadly, my own state lags behind Nebraska, but we can’t all be the gun control utopias like Arizona or Utah, I guess.
Ah, so no pointing at the camera. I guess these photos wouldn’t fly these days:
http://www.startribune.com/local/blogs/122063344.html
http://ghostsofdc.org/2012/08/22/gwu-girls-rifle-team/
I guess it’s still a step in the right direction, given the libertarian times we live in …
Is that sarcasm, or is there a new meaning for “libertarian”?
To my eyes, the times we live in are a pretty far cry from libertarian.
It was sarcasm.
well if it is highschool and younger then they arent allowed to own handguns, or get CHL’s, so at least on its face hunting/sport is the only legal thing they could be doing at this age. Try not to read too much into it.
Who says the gun being posed with is the students property? The article as far as I understand it suggests that the photos are mostly related to shooting sports but that dose not preclude a student from posing with granddads 1911A1 or dads glock carry piece. Not to mention a kid may be a competitive pistol shooter or be allowed to carry a pistol on his/ her hip at home or the famy business.
no full frontal nudity? I guess?
At my son’s high school, one of the girls there was a national skeet champ (not for the school, but on her own), and the school was very proud of her, bragging about her to incoming students. That was a private school though, and San Antonio is the shotgun sports mecca.
Makes sense since they broke their bow.
Anyway that is awesome, good for them!
Good for them. Here in the Czech Republic we get optional shooting courses at public universities, but no gun-fun in most high schools.
And then you get a high school with security curriculum and it ends like this: http://www.guns.com/2013/10/25/nsfw-czech-high-school-graduates-pose-nude-cover-guns-favorite-rifles/ I wonder whether this would be tasteful enough for Mr. Sievering 😉
That’s pretty cool. In the US, most universities ban guns, because the American universities are the last bastion of socialism in the country.
You can also probably get CZ pistols and rifles and CSA vz. 58s cheaper than we can. I’m moving to Prague.
Last? You, sir, are an optimist.
Guns are not a political issue in the Czech Republic. I think that this is mostly because 99% of those who want them go through the process and get them (and are not bothered any more by it unless they forget to renew the license in 10 years time by simply getting a general practitioner’s stamp and paying 20 bucks). And since concealed carry is the only option, most of the general population never really realizes that there are armed citizens around, because they only see guns either when they meet a hunter at a countryside or during public celebration of WW2 end and similar occasions, like this one: https://www.google.cz/search?q=plze%C5%88+convoy+of+freedom&client=firefox-a&hs=QIv&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=mcFIVO_GAcapygPR74GgAQ&ved=0CAgQ_AUoAQ&biw=1600&bih=738
Dude, that is so cool I can’t even express it. Even my wife got a kick. Thanks for sharing!
What, only dudes can take this class?
You know who was at the top of the class out of the four on the bottom right? The last guy, who was smart enough to turn the rifle the other way so his dink wasn’t touching the side the last three Dinks touched.
In Czechoslovakia we participated in quite a lot shooting at school when I was a student. Even elementary schools had mandatory basic shooting training with air pellet guns and mandatory races with military themes like running with shooting, estimating distances and throwing rubber grenade into the trench. It was called “Contest for guerrilla’s machine gun”. In high school we had similar race with .22s called “Race of military versatility”.
I remember training with a pellet gun in great hall of high school during lunch break. But after so called Velvet revolution my school gave all their air rifles to police to be destroyed. I wanted to buy one instead, but principal insisted on destroying them.
“might be OK”..?..like they need to ask or as if you have a say…you self-righteous twit.
Self rightous twit or not he dose have a say.
Senior portraits are done off campus, by a private photographer that you personally pay for…not a picture in the library during 3rd hour. He has no say. If thats the picture a kid wants to pass to his friends, he has no say. Does he have to let it be published in the year book, I would agree that there he does have some say…its to bad he’s afraid of a picture.
Great…my dad had pictures of him on his high school shooting team circa 1923 in his yearbook. In Kankakee Illinois. And had his rifle openly on the street. He took it on the long-gone trolley too. This is breath of fresh air in an insane world.
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