SUSPENDED: The father of an 11-year-old in Owings, Maryland, is claiming that his son was suspended for 10 days from Northern Middle School for simply talking about guns on a school bus. The mere discussion, according to Bruce Henkelman, led the bus driver to send his sixth grader back to the school to be questioned by the principal. The child’s conversation apparently centered around the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting — a touch-point of controversy in the nation’s ever-contentious gun control debate.

Henkelman charges that his son did not speak of guns in a negative or bullying manner, as WMAL reports, and that the boy merely said that he wished he had a firearm so that he could protect himself against bad guys.

“He said, I wish I had a gun to protect everyone. He wanted to defeat the bad guys,” the father told WMAL. “That’s the context of what he said. He wanted to be the hero.”

While that’s the family’s story, it’s unclear exactly what unfolded. If the boy’s words were so favorable, one wonders why the bus driver and the principal would choose to punish him — although, stranger things have certainly happened. But so far, according to WMAL, school officials have been relatively tight-lipped about their side of the story.

The principal and a sheriff’s deputy, according to the dad’s account of events, questioned the middle school student following the bus debacle — and Henkelman claims that it didn’t end there.

“He started asking me questions about if I have firearms, and [the deputy said] he’s going to have to search my house. Search my house?,” the frustrated father told the outlet. “I just wanted to know what happened.”

In the end, a search was not performed and the situation eventually simmered.

The incident unfolded in December, but Henkelman is just coming forward now. And it seems he has some backers who believe that the middle school mishandled the situation.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) maintains that the boy was mistreated by the school. While the district claims that the student broke a code (exact details have not been shared), the ACLU holds that the suspension, based on the information that was reported by WMAL, was not the best course of action.

The 11-year-old was initially given 10 days out of school — a punishment that was later reduced to one day.

“It’s appropriate for school officials to investigate when there is a concern about student safety,” said ACLU staff attorney Sonya Kumar. “But based on what’s been described to us, once the school official concluded that all the young man wanted to do was to be safe at school and that he posed no risk to anyone, the suspension was really inappropriate.”

Rather than punishing the child, Kumar said the school should have been assuring him that he would be safe.

A disturbing video of police barging into a woman’s home without a search warrant, demanding her identification – only to learn she was not the person they were looking for – has emerged on Youtube, demonstrating just how unprofessional police can act when they don’t realize they are being recorded.

The video stops at 2:31 when one of the cops spots it and turns it off.

The video begins with police banging on her door, demanding her identification. They tell her they have an arrest warrant for a woman named Robin Edwards.At this point, it is not clear where the incident took place, but I’ve sent the woman, who goes by the username, Robynstorm2, a message, requesting an interview.

The woman tells them her name, which sounds like it is Robyn Rockman.

They then insist she is Robin Edwards but changed it after getting married.

She corrects them by saying her maiden name was not Edwards, but something that sounds like Waterman (hopefully I will eventually confirm the names).

Either way, they barge into her house as she is looking for her identification.

According to comments she posted on Youtube, the cops busted down her bedroom door, handcuffed her and rummaged through her prescription bottles before releasing her and going on their way.

She also insinuated that Robin Edwards was possibly her landlady, which might explain why police showed up to her door.

Fifth-grader suspended at overnight nature camp for bringing Swiss Army knife

A fifth-grader in Cupertino, California was suspended and threatened with expulsion for bringing a small Swiss Army knife on a school-sponsored, science-oriented camping trip.

In early April, Braden Bandermann’s class set off on Garden Gate Elementary School’s annual, week-long pilgrimage for fifth-graders to Marin Headlands, just north of San Francisco.

Before leaving, Braden did what any Silicon Valley 10-year-old faced with the perils of nature might do: He packed his trusty Swiss Army knife. As any camper knows, the multi-tool device is nothing if not versatile. Braden’s particular model contains a can opener, tweezers, a toothpick, a nail file, a tiny pair of scissors and a small blade.

The little blade landed the boy in big trouble.

“They called me,” explained Tony Bandermann, Braden’s father. “They said, ‘You have to come and get him. He has a weapon. He needs to be suspended or possibly expelled.’”

At the time, the elder Bandermann was on a business trip in Sacramento, roughly 100 miles away. His wife, Braden’s stepmother, was at the camp with Braden, but they had arrived by bus and had no private transportation. (Braden’s mother was also unable to go to the camp so that he could serve a suspension.)

The school principal, Brandi Hucko, allegedly wanted Bandermann to rush to the site of the science camp, pick Braden up for a one-day suspension and then deliver him back to camp.

Bandermann told The Daily Caller that he was frustrated over Hucko’s insistence “that I risk my job and go get him out of the program for a one-day suspension all over a Swiss Army knife.”

The multi-tool instrument did not present a threat, Bandermann believes.

“I went to the very same trip when I was a child at the same school, and I had a very similar Swiss Army knife,” he said. “In fact, most of the kids did.”

Principal Hucko disagreed. According to Bandermann, she was adamant that punishment must be swift and severe.

Consequently, Bandermann told TheDC, school officials forced Braden to serve a one-day suspension at camp. He was allegedly isolated in a teacher’s lounge area from all the other children. He was forced to eat meals by himself. He was forced to sleep in an area separate from all the other children. He missed an entire day of activities.

Bandermann believes school officials overreacted.

“This is not Sandy Hook,” he said. “Get real. He brought a stupid Swiss Army knife to camp.”

Bandermann said that he suggested to Hucko that perhaps someone could take away the knife and discipline his son once he was returned to the urban comfort of Silicon Valley. However, Hucko would not negotiate.

The Cupertino Union School District would not respond to questions from The Daily Caller. School district representative Jeremy Nishihara said answering questions would violate Braden’s privacy.

Garden Gate Elementary’s parent handbook, available on the school’s website, stipulates a stern “zero-tolerance” policy for “violence, weapons, and drugs on school campuses or at school activities off campus.”

“State Law, district policy, and regulations of [sic] California Education Code support Zero Tolerance by requiring the immediate suspension and recommendation for expulsion of any student who possesses or furnishes a firearm, knife, explosive, or similarly dangerous object on school grounds or at a school event off school grounds,” the policy reads.

“Our schools also have prevention and intervention programs to help students make decisions, solve problems, and deal with conflict,” the policy also adds.

This incident is the latest in a long line of extraordinarily strong reactions by school officials to things students have brought to school — or talked about bringing to school, or eaten at school, or taken to a nature camp — that vaguely resemble weapons but aren’t, actually, anything like real weapons.

In rural West Virginia, an eighth-grader was suspended and, astonishingly, arrested after he refused to remove a t-shirt supporting the National Rifle Association. When he returned to school, he wore the same shirt, as did several other students in a show of support. (RELATED: Eighth-grader arrested over NRA shirt returns to school in same shirt)

Officials at an elementary school in small-town Michigan impounded a third-grader boy’s batch of 30 homemade birthday cupcakes because they were adorned with green plastic figurines representing World War Two soldiers. The school principal branded the military-themed cupcakes “insensitive” in light of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. (RELATED: School confiscates third-grader’s cupcakes topped with toy soldiers)

At Genoa-Kingston Middle School in northeast Illinois, a teacher threatened an eighth-grader with suspension if he did not remove his t-shirt emblazoned with the interlocking rifles, a symbol of the United States Marines. (RELATED: Junior high teacher tells kid to remove Marines t-shirt or get suspended)

At Park Elementary School in Baltimore, Maryland, a student was suspended for two days because his teacher thought he shaped a strawberry, pre-baked toaster pastry into something resembling a gun. (RELATED: Second-grader suspended for having breakfast pastry shaped like a gun)

At Poston Butte High School in Arizona, a high school freshman was suspended for setting a picture of a gun as the desktop background on his school-issued computer. (RELATED: Freshman suspended for picture of gun)

At D. Newlin Fell School in Philadelphia, school officials reportedly yelled at a student and then searched her in front of her class after she was found with a paper gun her grandfather had made for her. (RELATED: Paper gun causes panic)

In rural Pennsylvania, a kindergarten girl was suspended for making a “terroristic threat” after she told another girl that she planned to shoot her with a pink Hello Kitty toy gun that bombards targets with soapy bubbles. (RELATED: Kindergartener suspended for making ‘terroristic threat’ with Hello Kitty bubble gun)

At Roscoe R. Nix Elementary School in Maryland, a six-year-old boy was suspended for making the universal kid sign for a gun, pointing at another student and saying “pow.” That boy’s suspension was later lifted and his name cleared. (RELATED: Pow! You’re suspended, kid)

A federal judge signed an order Monday blocking implementation of a Utah law prohibiting some Bureau of Land Management and Forest Service employees from enforcing state laws anywhere in Utah after the U.S. Department of Justice argued the law was unconstitutional.

HB155, sponsored by Rep. Mike Noel, R-Kanab, makes it a class B misdemeanor, punishable by a $1,000 fine and six months in jail, for federal employees who are not certified law enforcement officers to enforce any state law within Utah.

The federal regulations governing the officers and land have been written to incorporate state laws and local ordinances.

After a conference call with attorneys for the state and federal governments, Judge David Nuffer signed a temporary restraining order blocking the law from taking effect until a June hearing on a longer-term injunction. The law had been scheduled to kick in Tuesday.

Ultimately, the Justice Department is asking the judge to strike down the law as unconstitutional.

“BLM and Forest Service employees who operate in the State of Utah will subject themselves to potential criminal penalties under state law by continuing to perform the duties required of them under federal law,” the federal government wrote in the brief.

During the legislative hearing on the bill, Noel said he worked with staff attorneys to try to ensure the bill was not given a constitutional note by legislative attorneys — meaning there is a high likelihood the bill would be found unconstitutional by a judge.

Noel said federal officers in rural Utah have been stopping and detaining residents on county roads. He argued that the county sheriffs who are elected and more responsive to residents should be the ones enforcing the law.

Utah Attorney General John Swallow said that his office will “vigorously defend” the new state law. “We don’t want Utah citizens going before a federal magistrate for a speeding ticket,” Swallow said in a statement. “We are concerned about the federal government once again encroaching on states’ rights and we will vigorously defend the constitutionality of HB155.”

There is a decades-old dispute about the ownership of thousands of roads, trails and dirt paths across federal lands and Utah is suing for ownership of them.

Noel says HB155 was drafted narrowly, applying only to BLM rangers and Forest Service protection officers and employees and had the support of sheriffs. He said it makes sense that officers should be trained and certified if they are going to enforce Utah laws.

For example, BLM rangers are stopping people for speeding on state and county roads, Noel said, when Utah never gave them permission to do that.

“That, to me, is an overstepping of their authority,” he said. “If we can’t stop this, how do we stop them from encroaching on any area of states’ rights and matters of federalism?”

Noel said the issue is important to all Western states, so he would like to see the courts resolve it.

“It’s a question that needs to be answered,” he said, “and I’m OK with them coming back and saying, ‘Let’s get the courts involved and let them decide.’ ”

Kane County Sheriff Lamont Smith told a legislative committee during the session that untrained BLM and Forest Service employees are abusing their discretion in issuing speeding and other citations. “It’s an assault on the sovereignty of the State of Utah,” Smith said.

When 33-year-old Jersey City resident and gun owner Keith Pantaleon went to bed on January 24, he never imagined he would spend the next 35 days in a prison cell for his legal purchased gun.

Pantaleon, an African-American Wall Street technology specialist who told The Daily Caller he was threatened by police during his arrest, is a victim of “draconian” and possibly even racist law enforcement, according to his attorney. Police were in his home without a warrant when they discovered what the attorney says were his legally purchased firearms.

“What they did was criminal at best,” Pantaleon said, describing how he frantically reached for a day planner containing his firearm when he heard strange noises at the entrance to his apartment.

“It wasn’t until I saw my landlord in the front of my apartment that I realized they were cops,” said Pantaleon. He then tossed the day planner back on his bed, came out of his bedroom and tried to close the door, when one of the officers pushed past him into the bedroom, picked up the day planner case and opened it. Upon seeing the gun, the police officer instructed the other deputy to “lock him the f*ck up,” Pantaleon claimed.

Police had been called to the apartment by a tenant concerned that the building was not properly heated. Officers demanded access to Pantaleon’s apartment because the boiler was located in it.

“The cop came out of the bedroom and started saying, ‘Oh, you brought a gun, if I only knew. … You are so lucky, they should be wiping your blood off the floor right now,’” Pantaleon said. “I was in shock, and the way these guys were behaving … I was in fear for my life.”

Police went on to thoroughly search his home.

“They had no warrant, they definitely didn’t have my consent, and none of the arresting officers Mirandized me. It wasn’t until I saw a detective from a major crimes unit that he Mirandized me, a little over 15 hours later,” said Pantaleon. “What good are my rights if I’m not allowed to exercise them?”

The officers found Pantaleon’s other firearms and ammunition, which his attorney, Evan Nappen, said were completely legal.

Officers then took Pantaleon to police headquarters and charged him with the unlawful possession of a variety of items, including two handguns, a rifle, an “assault rifle,” a large-capacity magazine, and certain ammunition.

The assault rifle is an AR-15, which Nappen said is “one of the most commonly owned rifles in America.”

“Being in your home is an exemption for possession of handguns, rifles and shotguns. They poured on absolutely false charges. The handgun charges have no basis whatsoever,” said Nappen.

Pantaleon said the officers knew the charges were false.

“I heard these two cops speaking to each other a couple doors down from me, when I was in lockup at the West District. A couple hours after they pulled me out of my home and threw me into the cage in their precinct … one of them said, ‘I know these charges are BS, but this is what you have to do if you want to be a cop-cop.’”

Pantaleon said he doesn’t know for sure why the officers reacted in such a hostile manner.

“Let’s see, a black guy with guns, in Jersey City, in the middle of the night? Take your pick,” he said. “Would their reaction have been different if I was not black? I don’t know. What I can answer is, they broke into my house, they’re the ones who committed the crimes that night, and I’m the one who ended up in jail for 35 days.”

According to Pantaleon, both of the arresting officers “appeared to be white.”

Armed Libertarian activist and radio host, Adam Kokesh plans to lead an armed march on Washington, D.C. this Independence Day.

Launched as a group on Facebook, the “Open Carry Armed March on Washington” hopes to get 1,000 armed supporters to march into the nation’s capital with loaded rifles.

The group plans to meet at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia.  From there, they will march across the Memorial Bridge into Washington, D.C. and continue down Independence Avenue. All while armed.

While Virginia permits open carry, Washington, D.C. does not issue any permit/licenses to carry a firearm.

The Facebook page states:

“This is an act of civil disobedience, not a permitted event. We will march with rifles loaded & slung across our backs to put the government on notice that we will not be intimidated & cower in submission to tyranny.”

The event is said to be non-violent and states that if the armed  group is met with physical resistance, they will turn back.

“There’s a remote chance that there will be violence as there has been from government before, and I think it should be clear that if anyone involved in this event is approached respectfully by agents of the state, they will submit to arrest without resisting.”

An update states that Kokesh is already coordinating with authorities in the DC area and is encouraging them to honor their oaths and help escort the march along their route.

Libertarian and political commentator Lew Rockwell, on the Monday edition of the Alex Jones Show, warned that the march is equivalent to entering the gates of Mordor, and agreed with Alex that the event could easily be provocateured to demonize the growing liberty movement.

Below is the Facebook post in full:

On the morning of July 4, 2013, Independence Day, we will muster at the National Cemetery & at noon we will step off to march across the Memorial Bridge, down Independence Avenue, around the Capitol, the Supreme Court, & the White House, then peacefully return to Virginia across the Memorial Bridge. This is an act of civil disobedience, not a permitted event. We will march with rifles loaded & slung across our backs to put the government on notice that we will not be intimidated & cower in submission to tyranny. We are marching to mark the high water mark of government & to turn the tide. This will be a non-violent event, unless the government chooses to make it violent. Should we meet physical resistance, we will peacefully turn back, having shown that free people are not welcome in Washington, & returning with the resolve that the politicians, bureaucrats, & enforcers of the federal government will not be welcome in the land of the free.

There’s a remote chance that there will be violence as there has been from government before, and I think it should be clear that if anyone involved in this event is approached respectfully by agents of the state, they will submit to arrest without resisting. We are truly saying in the SUBTLEST way possible that we would rather die on our feet than live on our knees.

You are welcome to attend unarmed as a supporter, or armed with a recording device.

We especially invite law enforcement officers to stand with us armed however they feel is appropriate.

If this page gets to 10,000 attendees by June 1st, & we have the critical mass necessary to pull this off, (1,000 actual attendees) we will march. Please spread the word, share this event, & invite all your friends.

UPDATE 130506 Now that it’s undeniable that this is going to happen, allow me to make clear how. There will be coordination with DC law enforcement prior to the event. I will recommend that they do the best they can to honor their oaths and escort us on our route. Failing to provide that commitment to safety, we will either be informed that we will only be allowed up to a certain point where we would be arrested. If this is the case, we will approach that point as a group and if necessary, I will procede to volunteer myself to determine what their actual course of action with someone crossing the line will be at which point fellow marchers will have the choice of joining me one at a time in a peaceful, orderly manner, or turning back to the National Cemetery.

Thanks to everyone for the vibrant conversation, but we have decided to make the wall of this event page specifically just for announcements and important info for the event. Please feel free to comment, and continue the conversation as you like at: http://forums.adamvstheman.com/viewforum.php?f=13

New homicide statistics from the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) show firearm related homicides have declined 39 percent over the course of 18 years in the United States. Nonfatal firearm crimes have decreased 69 percent in the same time period.

“Firearm-related homicides declined 39 percent and nonfatal firearm crimes declined 69 percent from 1993 to 2011, the Justice Department’s Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) announced today. Firearm-related homicides dropped from 18,253 homicides in 1993 to 11,101 in 2011, and nonfatal firearm crimes dropped from 1.5 million victimizations in 1993 to 467,300 in 2011,” says a press release from the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS).

It continues, “For both fatal and nonfatal firearm victimizations, the majority of the decline occurred during the 10-year period from 1993 to 2002. The number of firearm homicides declined from 1993 to 1999, rose through 2006 and then declined through 2011. Nonfatal firearm violence declined from 1993 through 2004 before fluctuating in the mid- to late 2000s.”

Perhaps one of the biggest findings is that only two percent of state prison inmates who owned a gun at the time of their offense bought it at either a flea market or gun show:

“In 2004 (the most recent year of data available), among state prison inmates who possessed a gun at the time of the offense, fewer than two percent bought their firearm at a flea market or gun show. About 10 percent of state prison inmates said they purchased it from a retail store or pawnshop, 37 percent obtained it from family or friends, and another 40 percent obtained it from an illegal source.”

Highlights from the report include:

• Firearm-related homicides declined 39%, from 18,253 in 1993 to 11,101 in 2011.
• Nonfatal firearm crimes declined 69%, from 1.5 million victimizations in 1993 to 467,300 victimizations in 2011.
• Firearm violence accounted for about 70% of all homicides and less than 10% of all nonfatal violent crime from 1993 to 2011.
• From 1993 to 2011, about 70% to 80% of firearm homicides and 90% of nonfatal firearm victimizations were committed with a handgun.
• Males, blacks, and persons ages 18 to 24 had the highest rates of firearm homicide from 1993 to 2010.
• About 61% of nonfatal firearm violence was reported to the police in 2007-11.

The report, Firearm Violence, 1993-2011 (NCJ 241730), was produced by Michael Planty and Jennifer Truman.

Kiera Wilmot got good grades and had a perfect behavior record. She wasn’t the kind of kid you’d expect to find hauled away in handcuffs and expelled from school, but that’s exactly what happened after an attempt at a science project went horribly wrong.

On 7 a.m. on Monday, the 16 year-old mixed some common household chemicals in a small 8 oz water bottle on the grounds of Bartow High School in Bartow, Florida. The reaction caused a small explosion that caused the top to pop up and produced some smoke. No one was hurt and no damage was caused.

According to WTSP, Wilmot told police that she was merely conducting a science experiment. Though her teachers knew nothing of the specific project, her principal seems to agree.

“She made a bad choice. Honestly, I don’t think she meant to ever hurt anyone,” principal Ron Pritchard told the station. “She wanted to see what would happen [when the chemicals mixed] and was shocked by what it did. Her mother is shocked, too.”

After the explosion Wilmot was taken into custody by a school resources officer and charged with possession/discharge of a weapon on school grounds and discharging a destructive device. She will be tried as an adult.

She was then taken to a juvenile assessment center. She was also expelled from school and will be forced to complete her diploma through an expulsion program.

Polk County School released the following statement:

“Anytime a student makes a bad choice it is disappointing to us. Unfortunately, the incident that occurred at Bartow High School yesterday was a serious breach of conduct. In order to maintain a safe and orderly learning environment, we simply must uphold our code of conduct rules. We urge our parents to join us in conveying the message that there are consequences to actions. We will not compromise the safety and security of our students and staff.”

So, sorry kids. Don’t try any extracurricular science projects on school grounds, especially if they could result in anything resembling an explosion.

Update: Riptide spoke to the Polk County School District about why they felt expulsion was a fair punishment for Wilmot. Their response: kids should learn that “there are consequences to their actions.”

We’ve also obtained the police report from the incident. It shows that Wilmot was mixing toilet bowl cleaner and aluminum foil. Read the full update and the police report here.