States keep violating Gun-Free School Zones Act

In the United States of America, you're supposed to be allowed to have a gun in your home. I'm also not against allowing concealed carry in most cases.

But new legislation in Iowa and Tennessee has raised questions about why schools are permitted to violate federal gun laws. These states are about to join several others in allowing teachers to carry guns in school - which has a real potential for not only accidents but also deliberate violence.

There's a federal law called the Gun-Free School Zones Act of 1990. This law was ruled unconstitutional not long after it passed, but it was rewritten to apply only to guns that had moved in interstate commerce - which happens to include almost all guns. The law says you can't have a gun in most situations within 1,000 feet of school property.

The law has a few exceptions, one of which is that this law is not supposed to apply in people's homes. Yet a woman was convicted for having a gun in her home, because it happened to be in a school zone. Unbelievably, another federal court later upheld this conviction. Federal authorities warned a New Hampshire town that hunters would be violating the law if they used the town's public hunting grounds, as part of it was within 1,000 feet of a school. The law is also broad enough that it's easy for people to violate it just by traveling with their gun in their car, even when it wouldn't otherwise be illegal.

In short, this law has been used to go after hunters and people who have guns at home. So why are states allowing guns in schools? Why are schools above the law?

This is selective enforcement at its worst. The heavy hand of this law comes down hard on those who seem to pose no threat. Yet authorities look the other way as guns are introduced in schools, which should be a refuge against violence. But even without all the guns, schools have become some of the most dangerous places, and it's because some schools have such dangerous administrators - who have a history of running roughshod over the well-being of our young people.

Why are people punished for guns in their own home while our schools are allowed to become a potential firing range?