If the government treated us the way public schools treat students, we'd have had a new revolution a long time ago. Rights are mere suggestions on a high school campus, at least as many administrators see it. But they get away with some of that because things like lockers are school property.
But they also cross the line an awful lot, and a recent example has earned the ire of a prominent gun rights organization.
No, the student didn't have a gun on his high school campus. That would be a crime, after all.
That didn't stop the school from demanding to search his vehicle, according to a press release from the Second Amendment Foundation:
The Second Amendment Foundation (SAF) has filed a new lawsuit in New Hampshire challenging the unconstitutional search of an 18-year-old high school senior’s vehicle, based solely on the knowledge that he is a legal gun owner.
The case, Harrington v. Crawford, stems from the search of Hillsboro-Deering High School student Jack Harrington’s vehicle while it was parked on school grounds. Harrington lawfully owns a handgun and sometimes kept his firearm in his truck – in full compliance with all federal and state laws – but always removed the gun from his vehicle before going to school. When school authorities became aware of Harrington’s gun ownership, he was subjected to aggressive interrogation by district employees which culminated in his vehicle being searched without consent. The school had no reason to believe Harrington brought his firearm to school, and no firearm was found during the invasive and unconstitutional search.
“Being public about exercising your private rights cannot be grounds for being harassed and searched on campus,” said SAF Director of Legal Operations Bill Sack. “The apparent position of the school district here is ‘choose to exercise one right, give away another.’ That’s just not how it works. If simply being a gun owner is legal justification to be harassed and searched by authorities, what would stop them from submitting gun owners like Jack to searches every day? And what’s their proposed solution to avoid that abuse, that he sells his privately owned firearm?”
As noted in the complaint, “…after the Interrogation in which Jack repeatedly refused to consent to a search and after Jack’s parents were contacted by phone and similarly refused to consent to a search, Defendants searched the Subject Vehicle anyway, finding no firearm.”
“This is the type of fearmongering response we’d expect elsewhere around the country, but not in a state that allows its adult residents to legally own and possess firearms,” said SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb. “This case is about as cut and dry as it gets when it comes to infringing on the rights of a citizen, and we look forward to vindicating Jack’s rights in court.”
Being a gun owner isn't a crime. Being a young American who enjoys shooting and owning guns isn't a crime, either.
Had the school had some reason to believe that the gun was in the vehicle, that might have been one thing, but it didn't. Administrators just knew he carried the gun lawfully away from school, and somehow got it into their anti-gun skulls that his actions were enough for "reasonable suspicion" to search his vehicle.
While "reasonable suspicion" is sufficient to search a student's car on campus in New Hampshire, from what I understand, there doesn't seem to be any evidence that there was any reasonable suspicion. They thought that it was simply because the student owned a gun.
Gun ownership isn't reasonable suspicion of anything. It's a constitutionally protected right, and while minors are often restricted in how they can exercise that right, Jack Harrington wasn't doing anything wrong. He was simply a student and a gun owner, one who didn't try to hide his gun ownership.
Schools have, for quite some time, treated gun-owning students as if they're an inherent threat to the schools. While school shootings are serious and should be taken seriously, just having a gun doesn't suggest that one is interested in carrying out any kind of attack.
There are 400 million guns in private hands in the United States, at least. There have been 16 mass murders in total this year, according to the Associated Press, and not all of those involved a gun.
So, it seems to me that gun ownership is far from an indicator of violent intentions.
That means the school had no authority to carry out a search of Harrington's vehicle without permission.
I hope he takes them to the woodshed and never has to worry about student loans for college.
