“Guns don’t kill people; people kill people.” Although that may be true, it doesn’t seem to be putting the moms at this Kalamazoo music school at ease whenever they see this dad show up in his kid’s music class.
“Michigan is an open carry state, so you’re allowed to walk around with your gun out in the open as long as it is legally purchased,” said a report by Scary Mommy.
“The dad in question is totally within his rights to bring his handgun onto school property, which is how the families attending the toddler music class at the Kalamazoo Regional Educational Service Agency’s West Campus have ended up in this mess.”
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The terror of a shooting incident in Kalamazoo, not a month ago, where an Uber driver shot and killed six people from his car, is still fresh in the community’s mind.
No one can really blame a parent from taking drastic measures to ensure their children’s safety, but most parents aren’t convinced that guns are needed.
“There are people that are concerned on both sides of this issue,” Kalamazoo County Prosecutor Jeff Getting told NCB4i reporters. “There are people that think they are better off by being protected themselves by having their own weapon.”
People in the community have been vocal about the controversy.
Margaret Wilson, whose 3-year-old is in the class, voiced out her concerns in a meeting, saying that the father and his gun have created fear and crippled learning “by A) having the gun in the classroom and B) by the response by bringing in more guns to deal with the gun that’s there.”
The father, who chose not to be identified, was also at the said meeting, but refused to comment on the issue at hand.
READ: Toddler accidentally shoots another in the head after finding a gun in mom’s purse
While other open-carry advocates came in support of the father, they were outnumbered.
“Despite a lot of fears and a lot of concerns—I don’t want to say they’re illegitimate—but despite those fears, in the end, they don’t come to fruition,” Tom Lambert of Michigan Open Carry Inc. said.
At the Michigan Court of Appeals, there two pending cases dealing with the issue of open carry in schools, one ruled in favour of a father open carrying while the other in favour of a school that argued it can enforce a gun ban.
While the general consensus was that parents are threatened by guns and asked for legal action be taken, after the meeting the superintendent only said that he “has a lot to think about.”
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