Few, however, are quite as humorous as the recent spate of “finger-gun” incidents sweeping the nation. The venerable organization brilliantly summarized the crime wave authorities are frantically attempting to suppress.
One such showdown occurred on the prominent stage of a National Football League (NFL) matchup between the Cleveland Browns and the Pittsburgh Steelers.
The Sept. 25 contest featured a quick exchange between Cleveland quarterback Deshaun Watson and his tight end David Njoku. The two players were happily celebrating a touchdown and apparently exchanged hand gestures in which they pretended to fire guns at each other.
It was a split-second display that was undoubtedly missed by most. But not league officials.
Because of the “violent gesture,” both were fined $13,659 by the NFL. This even though multiple examples of seemingly far more egregious misconduct were displayed in the game. Watson was also fined — though for a lesser amount — for twice grabbing the facemask of an opponent.
He somehow avoided further financial damage on the more serious infraction of appearing to make physical contact with an official.
Two high-profile players are lighter in the wallet today for hand gestures playfully exchanged in the heat of battle. Other recent finger-gun situations, however, involve much younger suspects.
As in six years old.
An Alabama boy was suspended from elementary school for the horrific crime of pointing his finger at a classmate and making “bang, bang” noises while playing cops and robbers. School officials burst into action and commenced with a disciplinary hearing.
According to the child’s father, Jerrod Belcher, staffers questioned the child and pulled a confession out of him before having him sign a “Class III infraction” form.
A redacted copy of the form showed the six-year-old’s handwriting in large block letters. Some of them were written backwards on the student signature line.
The concerned father said his son “was terrified, rightfully so.”
The child was allegedly guilty of a “3.22 Threat” infraction. This is the “threat/intimidation of [a] student” and includes threatening “to kill, maim or inflict serious harm; a threat to inflict harm involving the use of any weapon, explosive, firearm, knife, prohibited object, or other object which may be perceived by the individual being threatened as capable of inflicting bodily harm.”
Such as a six-year-old’s finger, apparently. It’s the death of common sense.
The school finally and graciously agreed to reduce the crime to a “Class II infraction,” and the child was permitted to return to class. Legal action is being considered, though Belcher said the hope is that it doesn’t reach that point.
However, the family demanded that records of any infraction or disciplinary action be removed from the child’s history. Belcher’s attorney, M. Reed Martz, further wrote to administration officials that “the school must remove any label, warning or other sort of classification of J.B. as a potentially violent or dangerous student.”
Belcher and Martz gave the district a deadline of this week for clearing the boy’s record.
Common sense — if it were used — would dictate that neither of these situations required disciplinary actions. There were many other avenues available to make a point, or better yet simply ignore actions that harmed exactly no one.
But the animosity against the Second Amendment in some circles is so strong that rational thought disappears and is replaced with vindictiveness and unreasonable reactions.
