are we all getting a litle paranoid?

[michael clubb]

Late yesterday afternoon, some kids went to the school grounds, after school hours, to play with their toy 'airsoft' rifles. They had been doing this frequently and their parents were all fully aware of the activity. This time there were still some teachers on campus and SWAT was called. The kids were surrounded and arrested at gunpoint.

What do you think about this? 

 

[michael clubb]

nah Prunella, the orange tips were still there.

[michael clubb]

Actually, the kids (boys and girls) were cutting accross the grounds to get to the wooded lot behind the school where they play. They do this every friday and have done so without incident until now.

[Bull]

If they wre just "cutting aross" wouldn't they have been gone by the time the police showed up?

[Bob Stepp]

Are you serious??? they called SWAT??? Are these people insane???

[Bull]

After looking up airsoft and looking at images, it may not have been a terrible reaction.

[Bull]

[Bull]

Anderson said all nine boys will be arrested on charges of bringing a dangerous weapon onto school grounds. It is a crime to take anything that appears to be a weapon onto school grounds in Washington state, even a toy gun.

[Bob Stepp]

There again...more proof that authorities have no idea how to enforce a so-called "no tolerance" law.
Holy Mary Mother of God.....is there no common sense, no ecercising of the brain left anywhere.?????
(nice array of weapons there , Sir....those yours???)

[CraigD]

None... Nada... Zilch... Zip!

[michael clubb]

I suppose it's possible to think the worst when you see a bunch of kids with rifles but they were only 13 or 14 years old, a little rag-tag band, and I can't imagine not checking it out a bit before calling SWAT. Or maybe I can. Maybe we are all so paranoid that the most innocent of events, if they are out of the ordinary for us, is cause to call the authorities. The times they are a changin'. When I was a kid, everyone had BB guns. In 3rd and 4th grade my friend and I used to walk down the road with shotguns on our way to shoot pumpkins and pop cans. Nobody thought anything of it. If I did that today, the police would swarm me like ants and off to jail I would go. Too bad for the world, I think.