Maine state lawmaker Dawn Hill (D-York) has introduced legislation to ban students from keeping BB guns or replica firearms in their cars while on school property.
According to The Boston Globe, Hill said she “introduced the measure in response to an incident at a high school in Kittery last summer when a resource officer found a BB gun in a student’s car.”
The BB gun was not used for unlawful conduct, and the owner of the BB gun explained there was no intent to use it unlawfully.
But FOX News reports supporters of the bill say it will prevent tragedy and will keep police officers from finding themselves in a position where they mistake “realistic-looking [fake] firearms for the real thing.” Kittery Police Department school resource officer Rachel Horning said she is committed to doing whatever she has to do “to protect [herself] and others.”
Said Horning, “If [a] juvenile presents that lookalike weapon and refuses to drop it, I will act.”
The Maine Civil Liberties Union (MCLU) sees the bill as overreach, especially since the BB gun which spurred the bill was not even used in a threatening way. The MCLU says the proposed law is one more way to give young people a criminal record, thereby barring them from assistance and programs they might need later in life.
Follow AWR Hawkins on Twitter @AWRHawkins.
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