Father Open Carries Gun to School; Schools Come Up with Interesting Solution

The schools of Huron Valley, Michigan face something of an odd problem recently: what to do about parents open-carrying guns in school. It’s a complex problem, in a very particular place…and the administrators of that place have settled on an equally unique solution.

Yesterday, a parent picking up his child from school walked onto the grounds with a pistol strapped cowboy-style to his hip. The school hasn’t identified the man, but his presence poses a sticky conundrum for officials.

On the one hand they’ve got, of course, the SECERND AH-MEN-DERMENT! In Michigan, it is currently illegal to carry a concealed weapon into a school, even if you have a concealed carry license. But, by Michigan law, those with a concealed carry licenses are permitted to open carry anywhere, including school grounds.

On the other hand, you’ve got…a school, and the fact that it’s impossible to tell the difference between the “good guys” with the concealed carry license, and the psychos who could whip that gun out at any time and start blowing children away. Schools don’t exactly have the luxury of taking anyone’s word for their good intentions — which is precisely why they have the “emergency procedures they do.

Kim Root, Director of Community Relations for Huron Valley schools, explains how they’re planning to deal with those who would turn every elementary school into an Open Carry rally:

“What we would do is we would apply our emergency procedures in the instance that someone chooses to open carry. For example whenever someone chooses to open carry on school grounds, we would apply our emergency procedures which would include going on lockdown.”

When those “emergency procedures” are triggered, the school automatically calls 9-1-1 to get police on scene. Once the police arrive, and determine whether or not the person is a threat, the school goes off of “lockdown,” and daily activities commence. It could take an hour or more to clear a lockdown, during which time all school functions effectively stop, and students are locked in classrooms unable even to go to the restroom.

And they’re going to do this every. Single. TIME. someone open carries a gun into a school.

Said Kim Root:

“We will use our emergency procedures to ensure that we are doing what the community has asked us to do. And that is to protect the safety of our students first.”

Of course, this policy will have two other, slightly less positive effects on the Open Carry crowd. First, it will do exactly the opposite of what the Open Carry people are trying to accomplish. Which is: normalization of weapons, violence and threats thereof. Second, it’s bound to create thousands and thousands of brand-new voters, all asking the same questions, and arriving at the exact same sentiment:

“What do you mean I can’t go to the bathroom? Because of some Open Carry guy? Ugh…what a bunch of a**holes.”