I thought briefly about going to law school twice: once in college, when I spent some time wondering what i was going to do with the BA in English I was going to be getting, and another time during my, er, introduction to the family court system. Both times, the challenge of paying the bills while paying for law-school tuition was the clinker.
But if I'd known then how much work Second Amendment lawyers were going to be getting in 2025? I might have given it a little more thought. Because I might be putting a down payment on a private island.
Because it seems there is no shortage of bureaucrats who do things that just seem to scream "Sue Me Now!".
Which brings us to the case of Jack Harrington, a high school student at Hillsboro-Deering High School, in New Hampshire, who was also 18 years old, and thus legally an adult with a constitutional right to keep and bear arms just like every other law-abiding adult.
Mr. Harrington was pulled over by the police; he informed the cops that he had his legal firearm stored legally in the glove box.
Everything was above board, until the school found out that Harrington owned a gun:
Weeks later, on April 24, school officials asked him about that conversation, confirmed he owned a gun and began to “badger” him about searching his truck. State law prohibits students from bringing firearms onto school property.
Though Harrington said he never brought the gun to school and had no intention of doing so, the school resource officer told him, “You can say whatever you want, we’re going to search it anyway,” the lawsuit claims.
And that's exactly what they did, showing even more contempt for the Fourth Amendment than for the Second.
Cue the lawyers, whose petition printer goes through enough toner these days to make Greta Thunberg gag up her skull:
OUTRAGEOUS ABUSE OF POWER: Jack Harrington, a lawful gun owner, was pulled from class and had his vehicle searched by NH school officials without cause or consent—all because he owns a firearm (stored safely at home). This 4A breach won’t stand.
— SAF (@2AFDN) October 16, 2025
Full complaint here:… pic.twitter.com/JJjRG8RpKH
It's almost enough to make you want to protest against...kings, or something:
“Being public about exercising your private rights cannot be grounds for being harassed and searched on campus,” said SAF Director of Legal Operations Bill Sack. “The apparent position of the school district here is ‘choose to exercise one right, give away another.’ That’s just not how it works. If simply being a gun owner is legal justification to be harassed and searched by authorities, what would stop them from submitting gun owners like Jack to searches every day? And what’s their proposed solution to avoid that abuse, that he sells his privately owned firearm?”
As noted in the complaint, “…after the Interrogation in which Jack repeatedly refused to consent to a search and after Jack’s parents were contacted by phone and similarly refused to consent to a search, Defendants searched the Subject Vehicle anyway, finding no firearm.”
“This is the type of fearmongering response we’d expect elsewhere around the country, but not in a state that allows its adult residents to legally own and possess firearms,” said SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb. “This case is about as cut and dry as it gets when it comes to infringing on the rights of a citizen, and we look forward to vindicating Jack’s rights in court.”
One hopes Mr. Harrington can start sizing up a new truck and a fat stash of extra money for his post-high-school plans.
