This seems unbelievable to me:

A Montana superintendent of schools said his replica black powder muzzleloader accidentally fired off a round while he was showing the weapon to a class.

The superintendent was giving a demonstration with a replica of a Civil War era gun. how on earth do you forget you loaded that sort of thing?

Then there’s this from the story:

The administrator said he dismissed the class after the students calmed down and immediately called the school board and the parents of the students to explain and apologize for the incident.

“None of them were upset with me,” he said of the parents. He said one father laughed until he cried during their phone conversation.

If you call me to tell me that you negligently discharged a firearm in my kid’s class, I’m not going to laugh.

Big brouhaha over New Dorp boy’s tiny toy gun

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — A 9-year-old New Dorp boy earlier today learned there is no wiggle room in the Department of Education’s “no toy gun” policy — even if the toy gun is just two inches long.

Patrick Timoney, a fourth-grader at PS 52, South Beach, was nearly suspended after playing with LEGOs during his lunch period because one of the action figures was carrying at toy machine gun.

He and his friends had planned a playdate with their respective toys, and were sitting around the cafeteria table when the principal walked in and saw the action figure carrying the fake gun.

While the action figure was a standard LEGO policeman figure, the brand of the gun could not be determined.

The brand of the gun could not be determined? Um, it’s not a gun.

It’s not even one of those life-sized replicas. It is one of those tiny things for Lego action figures. Similar to this:

The principal told the parents that she considered the little piece of plastic suspension-worthy, but a call to a security administrator resulted in only the little piece of plastic being confiscated and given to the boy’s parents.

A message left for Principal Evelyn Matroianni was not returned. However, Margie Feinberg, a spokeswoman for the DOE, said there is a no-tolerance policy when it comes to fake guns because they are considered harmful to the school community.

If someone put this in a movie about public schools it would be dismissed as a fiction. (Hat tip to the reader who sent this in.)

UPDATE: Comment on the NY Firearms board about the uncertainty over the brand of gun:

What about the year of manufacture, lots of potential laws broken here, hard to tell from the pic, but if that thing is not pre-ban, the student is looking at some felonies for sure.

Hilarious.

Rifle Shooting Merit Badge

Incidentally, my son earned his Rifle Shooting merit badge this week while at Boy Scout camp.

He probably shoots straighter than Murdoc, now.

They wouldn’t let him keep his target, though. He tried to get it, but they said “no”. Bummer.

Suspect in machete attack regrets girl’s survival

Having “wanted to kill someone for a long time,” Christopher Gribble picked a house at random and used a machete to kill a woman sleeping in her bed. The woman’s daughter, 11, was also attacked and left for dead. The killer expressed disappointment that the girl survived “because now she has to live with this.”

The killer claims to be disappointed that he didn’t feel any emotion after killing the woman.

Three others invaded the home with Gribble. They cut the house’s power before entering. The woman’s husband was away, though I don’t think the invaders knew that. They just picked a house and went for it.

Friend

Hero dog saves boy, 11, from cougar attack

A golden retriever named ‘Angel’ took on a pouncing cougar in British Columbia. A RCMP constable shot the cougar. Luckily, their office was nearby and he was able to respond very quickly.

“The dog and the cougar were all kind of tangled up as one unit,” he said. But he was able to see the big cat’s hindquarters and fired one shot, hoping to sever the animal’s spine.

When the cougar kept up its attack on Angel, Gravelle moved around to get in front of the cougar, which was less than 6 feet away.

“It was really dark out, and I was just trying to line up my shot as best I could. I could just see about two or three inches of the cougar’s head sticking out from behind Angel, and luckily I was able to get a good shot off,” Gravelle said.

Somehow, the dog managed to survive. She needed surgery, but it sounds like she’s going to be okay.

Falling Bullet Kills 4-Year-Old Boy

A 4-year-old boy was killed by a falling bullet from celebratory gunfire while attending a New Year’s Eve church service in Decatur…DeKalb police spokesman Jason Gagnon said it appears the bullet came through the church’s roof and struck the child in the head.

Seems incredible but this is obviously tragic. I can’t even begin to imagine.

Police are looking into the incident.

Don’t shoot into the air.

At first glance this Willows, California, story seems reasonable: Student expelled for having unloaded shotguns in truck

The board voted 4-0 Thursday to expel junior Gary Tudesko after the weapons were discovered via scent-sniffing dogs on Oct. 26.

Zero tolerance means zero tolerance. You bring guns to school, you’re out of here, mister.

But let’s look at that first sentence again:

The Willows Unified School District board of trustees has expelled a 16-year-old for having unloaded shotguns in his pickup parked just off the Willows High School campus.

Not on school property. Busted anyway.

The school’s principal says that since the area is used mostly by students, he considers it part of the school’s jurisdiction. He also says the school is responsible for students while they travel to and from school.

Does school insurance cover students who get into a traffic accident while on their way to school?

Well, probably not that responsible. That would be crazy.

Now, I’m not really defending this kid for leaving a couple of hunting guns in his car on the street while he went to school. That’s not something I probably would have done. But this school is using dogs to search student cars parked off of school property and enforcing school rules based on what they find.

One thing the principal brings up is the 1995 Gun-Free School Zone Act of 1995 which bars possession of firearms withing 1,000 feet of a school. But non-concealable weapons on private property are perfectly legal. The students truck, I believe, qualifies.

For the sake of argument, let’s say we agree with the 1,000 foot limit. What if students commonly park on a street 1,010 feet from the school? Does that vehicle suddenly pop into the school’s jurisdiction, too? There are limits to jurisdictions for a reason. You can’t just decide to expand your coverage.

Cool:

This spring the NRA Collegiate & Schools Program will be introducing a NRA Intercollegiate Rifle Club Championship that will be open to all levels of collegiate shooters.

This new championship will include NRA College Rifle Clubs, Varsity Rifle Teams, ROTC Teams, and independent shooters, for which there is currently no national championship.

“As a result of the new championship, we hope to see a boosted level of awareness toward collegiate shooting that will help foster rifle programs across the nation,” said Tori Croft, National Manager of NRA Collegiate & School Programs.

Purdue University will be the host of the 2010 NRA Intercollegiate Rifle Club Championship, which will be held April 8-11 at the Purdue University Armory.

The Devil Deer:

A little kid fought off a wild animal attack his buddy with that little stick?

Self-defense is a mindset.

Some criminals in Australia are using toy guns to rob people, so toy guns must be tightly regulated.

I’m on record saying that I won’t allow my kids to go out into the world and play with toys that look just like the real thing. But that’s for their safety. So that they don’t get shot by someone who thinks it’s real.

That’s a lot different than restricting toys.

Banning toys is one of those “reasonable restrictions” that gun control advocates say is they want.