High School Students Try To Do Journalism On Guns, Gun-Humpers Freak Out

This must be the politest society in anime

The wingnuttosphere is up in arms -- concealed, openly carried, and hidden in the underwear drawer where their kids will never find them -- over an "invasive" survey that some Texas high school journalists put together to gather information on whether students' families owned guns and what their beliefs on regulation of guns were. Or as this headline from a gunhumping blog howled:

 
 SO SCARY! OBAMA'S BEHIND IT!!!

Credit where it's due -- The Blaze actually took the time to find out what was going on before freaking out that Hendrickson High School in Pflugerville, Texas, was part of a sinister plot to register and then seize all the parents' guns. According to a school district spokeswoman, the survey was distributed by the student journalists to other students -- about 100 of them -- as part of a story the students were working on for the high school paper. The survey was done without the knowledge of administrators, and was not, as some of the more panicky blog stories claimed, mandatory. Here's what all the fuss was about:

 
 That's not a bad survey, as high school surveys go

Our Secret Wonket Operative in Pflugerville writes,

People are freaking out all over Facebook. And they are preparing for the commie liberals to pry their guns out of their cold dead hands [...]

The thing that most of these websites fail to mention (although the Blaze sort of glossed over it) is that the principal sent out an email [Reproduced on the school's website -- Dok Zoom] saying that it was for a journalism project (the kids wanted to write an article in the school newspaper about gun rights and gun violence) and that it was NOT put out by the school district or administration. No one is trying to make a database of your precious guns or take them away.

Well, that's just what you've been programmed to think, because your mind has been corrupted by this ugly vile little snark mob! Besides, as we all know, any information-gathering by any entity -- from census takers to doctors -- is clearly an invasive attempt to destroy our LIBERTY and do mind control on our children.

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Clearly, our Pflugerville correspondent hasn't considered the obvious fact, as an article at Alex Jones' Home For Constant Panic points out, that innocent high school students are being coerced into finking on their parents:

[T]he survey can be used against the student and his family.

“Have you or anyone in your family ever used a gun in a self-defense situation?” another question asks. “If so, please describe.”

That question is particularly alarming because there’s no statue [ sic ] of limitation prohibiting an anti-gun prosecutor from charging someone with murder for using a gun in self-defense.

And Child Protective Services could also use the survey as a pretext to take kids away from a family.

Also, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms is increasingly partnering with public schools and sheriff departments and its agents could use the answers provided in a school gun survey to target parents with help from local officials.

Overall, the survey follows an emerging trend by public schools to probe their students’ private lives.

The web link proving that schools are teaming up with the ATF to "target parents" goes to an overview of ATF's anti-gang outreach programs.

Since these were high school students, we suppose they haven't actually had any lectures on how to write a disclaimer to please a university's Human Subjects Committee -- it might have reassured parents a little if the paper had included a note that the survey was for a journalism class (with the teacher's and the student journalists' names and contact info, even?), that individual answers would be kept anonymous, and that the self-defense stories would only be used with permission, and with no identifying information. And sure, "Name and grade" should have been left off, for the sake of anonymity. Then again, this being Texas, maybe that wouldn't have helped at all.

Needless to say, gun-humpers were ANGRY and OUTRAGED at this UNCONSTITUTIONAL infringement of their rights, as a glance at the Facebook page of a pro-gun radio show that publicized the story shows.

• Outrageous! Id send it back blank and written sideways in huge black letters over the top: NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS!!

• Answer the form with a single .556 bullet hole on the Fun slot. Maybe a second hole next to Freedom

• And Pflugerville ISD will turn it over so your family can be fined, prosecuted or added to some list. Wow!

• This is complete bs not only does it violate the 2nd amendment but its also violates personal privacy and is used to probe children for information about their parents. They've been doing these things in school for a while now.

• This is a repeat of history they did this very thing in nazi germany before ww11

• Doesn't matter if its a journalistic survey it crosses the line. This wouldn't be answered in my home. And this is the reason that any poll similar to it is not accurate. Who in their right mind would respond truthfully to something like it?

And even after the explanation in The Blaze that the survey was produced by high school students researching a story on attitudes toward gun ownership, a lot of commenters insisted that the liberal teachers had to have put them up to it, since no high school student would ever think to ask questions about a politically divisive issue. We're not sure where those folks went to high school; possibly Don't Question Me Or I'll Beat You homeschool. Also too, our Wonkette Operative in Pflugerville notes they find it amusing that

these idiots have no problem responding with, “They’ll meet the barrel of my gun” comments when we are talking about petty theft in the neighborhood, but they are freaking out over someone asking if they have guns. Um, you volunteer that information on a public forum every single day!

In any case, now the student journalists have something to write about: "How We Tried To Do A Journalism And Got Called Communists."

[ The Blaze , via tip from an Alert Wonkette Operative in Pflugerville / InfoWars / America's Freedom Fighters ]