Townhall Media/Beth Baumann

When a firearm-shaped object is pointed at you, it’s usually not a time for cool, rational thought. If you’re armed, you react. Because of that, you may end up defending yourself from someone who wasn’t really a threat, though you couldn’t know that at the time. The media will likely lambast you for shooting someone armed with a toy.

But in split seconds, you don’t have time to evaluate the “weapon” first.

Yet in the calm, acting like an airsoft gun is equivalent to a firearm isn’t just silly, it’s irresponsible. However, that’s what one Pennsylvania school did recently.

According to an email sent to parents today and a note on the school’s website, a student brought the airsoft gun, without ammunition, to school. After PSSA testing concluded, another student told a staff member they heard from others the airsoft gun had been brought onto school property.

Airsoft guns are used in a recreational sport similar to paintball, but they shoot tiny, plastic BBs or pellets.

Administrators searched the student and the student’s locker and found an airsoft pistol inside the student’s backpack in the locker.

“Although the airsoft pistol did not contain any ammunition, possession of a weapon or any replica of a weapon on school property is a violation,” according to the school district’s letter. “Local law enforcement has been notified and appropriate disciplinary measures will be taken.”

Now, bringing an airsoft gun to school isn’t something I think is fine. People can get hurt with one of those if someone is careless, so I get the idea of punishing whoever brought it.

However, sending a letter home to parents? Over what’s a toy gun? Seriously?

In the era of Zero Tolerance, schools have lost their ever-loving minds when it comes to any gun shaped object that strays onto campus. They treat any gun-like item as being the equivalent to a firearm itself, and that’s hardly realistic, especially when it’s been shown off as a toy. There’s no risk, no threat, and yet there is?

I mean, why else notify law enforcement, which I’m sure has much better things to occupy their time than a middle school kid with a toy gun.

Folks, this is what the decline of Western civilization looks like.

I’m not saying the kid shouldn’t be punished. If the rules say not to bring something and you bring it anyway, punishment is appropriate. What I’m saying is that this situation escalated beyond anything resembling rational thought. Had the school said a student had been threatened with the airsoft gun, some of this might make sense.

But, like most cases of what looks like Zero Tolerance orthodoxy, sense and reason go out the window. They’re just ephemeral concepts to the righteous do-gooders who have pushed for these rules to be in place and will brook no arguments against them. Who cares if some kids lives get ruined in the process for no good reason? All that matters is that kids are protected from airsoft guns and Pop Tarts.