Thank God For Confidence

KABA linked to the story of a Barre, VT student who is accussed of bringing a gun onto school property. According to local press accounts the school has suspended him and would like to expel him. The only problem, of course, is Vermont recognizes the constitution. That small hurdle leads to local Police Chief Trevor Whipple to eloquently explain the justification for all this attention.

There is a law that indicates that is against the law to have a gun on school property, but we have to show that there is an intent to injure someone, and at this point, we have not found that in our investigation

Not the most clear statement, so lets break it down a bit.

There is a law that indicates that is against the law to have a gun on school property

Uuh, what the heck does he mean by the law "indicates its against the law"??? Either it is or it isn't against the law to have a gun on school property. Having once lived there, and not being aware of any recent changes in Vermont gun laws, I would suspect that nothing has changed and that there isn't a specific Vermont law to this effect. Perhaps Jeff Soyer can fill us in a bit more.

but we have to show that there is an intent to injure someone, and at this point, we have not found that in our investigation

So, if you have no evidence that he planned to shoot someone, why is he being punished?