News article: Teen wants armor in yearbook photo

[anotheranon]

Rhode Island boy loves Middle Ages, but school cites no-weapons policy.

My opinion - tricky. No weapons at school I can understand, but no photos of weapons (and replica historical ones at that)? But then I think of what if he had wanted to be photographed carrying a gun, and I reconsider.

Thoughts?

Comments

[anotheranon.livejournal.com]

Why would you be supportive of him carrying a sword and not a gun? Both are weapons, both are designed to kill, both are used by a variety of people for completely different reasons.

I think it's because though both are designed to kill, it's fairly obvious that swords in the modern age are an obsolete weapon - the likelihood of a kid carrying a sword to school to attack classmates is almost laughable.

I admit I may be further biased by the fact that guns frighten me because IMHO they're easier for untrained people to use successfully in a heated moment. As such the idea of seeing a picture of a person in their high school year book carrying a gun would give me all kind of uncomfortable ideas about their intentions.

Having said this, a gun that is clearly a hunting rifle or bb gun probably wouldn't create such a visceral reaction, at least for me - it's the mental image of handguns that I find disturbing.

I do agree with you that zero tolerance policies are out of control however.