It’s a darned shame, because you know they meant well. A small group of teachers and students from the United for Success Academy in Oakland decided a good way to communicate the tragedy of gun violence would be to make a movie about it. But the budding Spielbergs decided to film their epic in a public park. And that’s when everything went wrong…
Other park patrons saw the three guns being used in the filming and were alarmed. Someone called the Oakland PD who arrived at the scene with guns drawn. Fortunately, the cops realized what was happening before firing on anyone. Then they inspected the “props”.
Two of the guns were, in fact, “replica weapons.” The third, however, turned out to be a real rifle, brought by one of the students.
The teacher and counselor who were, um, supervising this little extracurricular activity were arrested. They’ve since been placed on administrative leave for what school officials called “a serious lapse of judgement.” It’s not clear, though, that they even knew the gun was real. The student is in juvy hall on gun charges.
Fortunately, no one was hurt during any of this. Not by the carelessly handled rifle, nor by the police. What possessed the student to use a real rifle is a mystery. [ED: authenticity?] The student’s parents will likely receive a visit from the OPD to determine how a middle school student had access to the firearm. Looks like a good chunk of the kid’s college fund may be spent on legal fees.
[Have a special firearm you’d like professionally photographed? Contact Dan Zimmerman through his website or email him at dan@danzphotography.com.]