During an appearance on Fox News’ Tucker Carlson Tonight Tuesday, Parkland high school student Kyle Kashuv explained how armed school security officers aggressively interrogated him at school on Monday after he posted tweets showcasing pictures of his visit to a gun range with his father.
“It was a clear attempt to intimidate me,” Kashuv told Carlson. “And they used very,very, very harsh intimidation tactics,” he added.
The high school junior insisted he had done nothing wrong. “I mean, I posted a video of me showing my admiration for the 2nd Amendment and telling people to educate themselves about the 2nd Amendment because we can’t trust our government to defend ourselves,” he said.
After pointing out that going to the gun range is still legal in this country, Carlson asked Kashuv what kind of questions the officers asked him.
“It was all very, very weird,” the sixteen-year-old replied. “I … sit down, and the school resource officer goes like this — he says ‘Kyle, you’re taking five AP (advanced placement) classes, that means you’re a good student. Why would you do something like this?'”
Kashuv said the question shocked him. “They came in there with the notion that I had done something wrong by going to a gun range,” he said.
The teen explained that the resource officer mentioned a tweet he had posted from the gun range. He said he asked the officer if he saw the tweet.
“He said ‘no, I didn’t see the tweet — I don’t do Twitter.'”
Kashuv explained that the tweet was just a video of himself shooting a firearm at the gun range and telling people to educate themselves about the 2nd Amendment.
— Kyle Kashuv (@KyleKashuv) April 21, 2018
Kashuv told Carlson that the interrogation truly started when a sheriff’s deputy showed up and sat right behind him.
He said the officers then proceeded to pepper him with a litany of questions: “They go: ‘Who’s gun is it? Who’d you shoot it with? … Is it your gun or your dad’s gun? When did you go?'” Kashuv recounted. “This entire time I was like — did I do anything wrong? I mean — it’s still America the last time I checked. I can go to a gun range and shoot it peacefully.”
He told Tucker that when he asked the officers if he had done anything wrong, one of them said, “Don’t get snappy with me!” And when he asked them if he could record the interrogation, they told him no.
Kashuv went on to tell Carlson that he got the feeling that they were trying to get him to incriminate his father.
“They came in there … saying that I was at fault for exercising my 2nd Amendment right at a gun range,” he said incredulously. “It comes down to this. Why should I be interrogated for peacefully going to a gun range?” Kashuv added that the incident seemed like “a clear road to tyranny.”
Earlier Tuesday, a teacher from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School weighed in on Kashuv’s Twitter timeline, with an opinion probably widely shared by other teachers and students at the school.
As a teacher from Stoneman Douglas, any student posting photos holding guns, knives or other weapons would be questioned. 4 federal cases have ruled in the last 10 years that assault weapons are not protected. Most gun owners would not hold their gun in this same posed manner
— Greg Pittman (@GregPittman1957) April 24, 2018
Kashuv responded that he feels he was illegally detained, noting that his parents were not notified and the officers had locked the office. More than a few lawyers have weighed in, saying that he has a good case against the school.
Mr. Pittman, it was an illegal and unconstitutional detainment. See U.S. Code § 1983 and JDB v. North Carolina
1) the derogatory mentions of poliical beliefs.
2) the LEO in back of me holding my chair.
3) not contacting my parents prior
4) Calling me into a locked office https://t.co/jz1RnHwL1M
— Kyle Kashuv (@KyleKashuv) April 24, 2018
An argument can certainly be made that it was in bad taste for Kashuv to post pictures of himself using the same type of gun the school shooter used, but it is not against the law, nor should it have been a cause for anyone’s concern, given the teen’s track record as a well adjusted student and prominent 2nd Amendment advocate.
I can go on and on… the cases you mentioned have no relevancy here. There was, prima facie, constitutional law broken. I am honestly not even sure what you're talking about.
— Kyle Kashuv (@KyleKashuv) April 24, 2018
It was locked where no one can get in, I technically could've ran out (door opens from the inside) but there was an officer 6-9 inches standing over me. https://t.co/kE5wuE3Qne
— Kyle Kashuv (@KyleKashuv) April 24, 2018
That's actually not what you pointed out. You pointed your ignorance of constitutional law, that you know little about guns by using the term "assault weapon," that you have no problem venting about a student from the school you work at on social media, and that you oppose 1A. https://t.co/03Ow9Oh8MF
— Kyle Kashuv (@KyleKashuv) April 25, 2018
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