Pro-gun Parkland student responds to teacher who blasted him over gun photo

Kyle Kashuv, the pro-gun Parkland, Florida, student who was questioned by school security officers after he shared photos of himself at a shooting range, is hitting back at a teacher who attempted to drag the high schooler's name through the mud by discrediting his thoughts on the Second Amendment and free speech.

What's the background?

Kashuv said that the photo in question, a snap from a gun range trip with his father, led school security to call him out of class for interrogation over the photo.

On Twitter, Kashuv captioned the photo — as well as the accompanying videos: “It was great learning about our inalienable right of #2A and how to properly use a gun. This was my first time ever touching a gun and it made me appreciate the #Constitution even more. My instructor was very informative; I learnt a lot. #2A is important and we need 2 preserve 2A."

It was great learning about our inalienable right of #2A and how to properly use a gun. This was my first time ever touching a gun and it made me appreciate the #Constitution even more. My instructor was very informative; I learnt a lot. #2A is important and we need 2 preserve 2A pic.twitter.com/4rcOZbpl88

— Kyle Kashuv (@KyleKashuv) April 21, 2018

Kashuv told The Daily Wire about his experience, and said that several security officers began “intensely” questioning him Monday over the postings.

Kashuv told the outlet:

Near the end of third period, my teacher got a call from the office saying I need to go down and see a Mr. Greenleaf. I didn’t know Mr. Greenleaf, but it turned out that he was an armed school resource officer. I went down and found him, and he escorted me to his office. Then a second security officer walked in and sat behind me. Both began questioning me intensely. First, they began berating my tweet, although neither of them had read it; then they began aggressively asking questions about who I went to the range with, whose gun we used, about my father, etc. They were incredibly condescending and rude.

Then a third officer from the Broward County Sheriff’s Office walked in, and began asking me the same questions again. At that point, I asked whether I could record the interview. They said no. I asked if I had done anything wrong. Again, they answered no. I asked why I was there. One said, “Don’t get snappy with me, do you not remember what happened here a few months ago?”

They continued to question me aggressively, though they could cite nothing I had done wrong. They kept calling me “the pro-Second Amendment kid.” I was shocked and honestly, scared. It definitely felt like they were attempting to intimidate me.

I was treated like a criminal for no reason other than having gone to the gun range and posted on social media about it.

After the story began making its rounds on the internet, TV host Montel Williams caught wind of Kashuv's school experience and tweeted about it.

He wrote, “So @KyleKashuv, went to a gun range *WITH HIS FATHER outside school hours. I don’t understand how that justifies being interrogated by rent-a-cops and then by a sworn officer without giving his parents the chance to be present?”

How did the teacher respond?

The Marjory Stoneman Douglas teacher, Greg Pittman, apparently took issue with Williams’ tweet as well as Kashuv’s decision to visit the gun range and very vocally made that clear.

Pittman blasted Kashuv as "attention-seeking" and more over his outspokenness in wanting to preserve Second Amendment rights in the U.S. — a stark contrast to the apparent messages being sent by anti-gun student activists like David Hogg.

Also, Pittman seemed to call Kashuv's intelligence into question while attempting to defend his own points of view.

"Poor taste is being kind," Pittman said of Kashuv's decision to post the offending photos and videos from the shooting range.

You can read more about the exchange between Williams, Pittman, and Kashuv here.

What's Kashuv saying now?

In a statement to TheBlaze, Kashuv deftly hit back at Pittman's criticisms, pointing him to history and constitutional law to support his points of view as well as the facts that he'd laid out on social media over the last 24 hours.

"The fact an American History teacher didn’t know the purpose of 2A is scary," Kashuv told TheBlaze. "He’s making unfounded allegations about me that are reprehensible saying I’m only looking for attention among other claims."

Kashuv continued, "[Pittman] should go read the Bill of Rights again because clearly he doesn’t understand it."

"Also, I would recommend he takes a look at The Federalist Papers," he added. "I also recommend he re-reads the concurrence of Tinker and JDB v. NC. It may help him see why he’s wrong from a legal [angle]."