There is strange case of "zero tolerance" in Arizona where a 13-year old boy was suspended from school for drawing a picture of a gun. At least some thought it was a gun. I saw the drawing on TV, and it was hard to tell what it was. It was apparently some sort of futuristic ray gun, if it was a gun at all. Apparently the school perceived the drawing as a threat. This is another case of political correctness run amok. Something has happened in America that has caused us to lose perspective.

When I was in high school back in pre-historic times there were a lot of guns at school, but no one was ever threatened or shot. We had a rifle range where we practiced with 0.22 rifles. One kid brought in a 0.45 pistol and put a dent in the metal plate that deflected the bullets downward. Guys came to school in pickups with rifles in a rack in the rear window. The high school was all "Anglo" and I never felt threatened there.

In junior high school I saw a lot of "zip guns." Once a guy brought a 0.38 to school, and managed to discharge it in the hall which was empty at the time and the bullet hit high up on a locker, so didn't ricochet down the hall. (I saw the gun before school started, but didn't see the event so the story may not be true, but there was a hole in a locker.) I don't think the teachers ever realized what had happened because guys frequently shot off "baby giant" firecrackers that were quite loud. I did feel threatened in junior high because about half of the students were Mexicans, and they carried knives, which they threatened people with, and used to steal lunch money. They got my wallet once. Three Mexicans were killed by other Mexicans in knife fights in my three years in junior high school. The Mexicans had no interest in school and almost all of them dropped out, and didn't go to high school.