Liberty University has stepped up to the plate and offered a great kid, with fantastic academics, and a bright future, a scholarship after he was slapped with absurd felony gun charges because of something simply forgotten on his part. If this doesn't prove that laws need are out of whack then nothing does! And for the record I do not own a gun, do not want to own a gun, do not plan to own a gun, and frankly don't even care for guns...doesn't change the fact that when laws criminalizes simple mistakes it only serves to further illustrate the slippery slope we are headed down as a nation. I'd love to see Appalachian follow Liberty's outstanding lead and offer this young American, an in-state student, a full-scholarship offer so that he will have some options, should he desire to stay in NC or follow a different path than his sister.

http://radio.foxnews.com/toddstarnes/to ... arges.html

Unfortunately the world we now live in. I saw a story about an honors student at Florida HS that was not only expelled but charged with a felony for an unsupervised experiment on the school grounds. These zero tolerance policies rob people of making common sense decisions in such matters.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nati ... t/2130381/

It sure would be nice if we had people in our judicial system (DA's, Judges, etc.) who would show some reasonable judgement in these cases and just dismiss them. School administrators seem to be incapable of exercising judgemtn in such matter these days. I get the "zero tolerance" policy, but people are afraid to use judgment at all. As a society we are moving towards criminalizing everything and making all sentencing statutory.

If this goes to court, I would like to see conservative Governor Pat McCrory show us that he is capable of doing more than strong arming policy through a stacked legislature and just issue a pardon for this kid.

There are at least a few ways this issue can go away. If it actually ends with a conviction, this is a true travesty of justice.

For the record, I do own guns. I follow the rules, but everyone makes mistakes. To punish a kid who made an obvious mistake and too immediate appropriate corrective action is to tell kids that "whatever you do....Don't admit anything!" Funny thing is that the first time I ever shot skeet was in the 7th grade, and it was as part of a school club. One of the teachers brought his shotgun and took the whole club out to the Police Club in Elkin to teach us how to shoot. My oh my, how things have changed!