PA Bill Number: HB1472
Title: In primary and election expenses, further providing for reporting by candidate and political committees and other persons and for late contributions ...
Description: In primary and election expenses, further providing for reporting by candidate and political committees and other persons and for late contrib ...
Last Action: Referred to STATE GOVERNMENT
Last Action Date: Apr 22, 2024
Lancaster County man who presented knife at school meeting to 'provoke thought' discusses rights, beliefs :: 02/27/2017
Andrew Goslin said he hadn't “thought twice” when he placed his pocketknife on a table at an elementary school disciplinary meeting in 2014.
It was simply a way to “provoke thought” and break through the wall of disconnect he said he was experiencing with New Providence Elementary School officials as they discussed the appropriate discipline for his son, who brought his own knife to school.
A self-employed carpenter by trade, Goslin said he always carries his knife and his sons typically have their knives on them as well.
Goslin previously argued he uses it for whittling sticks with his sons, sharpening pencils and opening tuna cans.
At the school, art teachers have knives and other teachers have box cutters, he said.
“OK, guys, think about what you're saying here,” he recalled thinking to himself as he spoke to the school officials. “Are you going to call the police on me? Aren't we blowing this out of proportion?”
“In my mind it was like: 'Oh wow, I have an argument here. Let's use a prop to get everyone out of this mud where we are not communicating,' ” he said Friday morning at a downtown Lancaster cafe.
Little did anyone know at the time, the case would evolve into a Feb. 16 Pennsylvania Superior Court decision that is shaping legal precedent of how the state's possession of a weapon on school property law is interpreted.
In ordering a new trial for Goslin, the nine-panel court's decision interpreted the statute's language of “other lawful purpose” in a broader context.
The law reads: "It shall be a defense that the weapon is possessed and used in conjunction with a lawful supervised school activity or course or is possessed for other lawful purpose.”
The district attorney's office argued "that to interpret 'other lawful purpose' as 'any lawful purpose' would gut the statute and legalize the possession of weapons on school property unless the possessor is actively using it for a criminal purpose.
By then, it is too late,” District Attorney Craig Stedman said in a statement.
However, the appellate court disagreed, finding the clause as more of a catch-all phrase.
Goslin's attorney, Joshua Prince, referred to the ruling as "the law of the land" that can only be overturned by the state Supreme Court.
The day after the ruling was made, the Lancaster County district attorney's office said it intends to dismiss Goslin's first-degree misdemeanor charge, thus avoiding the need for a new trial.
Opposing viewpoints
Stedman, a Republican who is running for a seat on the state Superior Court in November's election, said the ruling has “frightening real-world implications” and “defies what I believe most would say is common sense.”
“If you extend the analysis out it essentially says if you have a gun for self-defense in general, or a chainsaw because you were cutting trees down, then you can take them into a school anytime and not face this charge,” Stedman said in a statement.
“Especially with what we have seen over the past few years, this is particularly discouraging, and actually shocking, to law enforcement and I would assume parents and teachers as well.”
However, Goslin presented a different worldview of the situation.
“I would rather my child be the victim of a school tragedy then to deprive a nation of their right to defend themselves,” he said.
“I would wager that the number of people that die of a result of weapons in schools is minuscule compared to the ways people die tragically across the globe everyday,” he added later.
Goslin said he believes weapons are essential to a man's freedom and that public schools play a part in developing a concept that government will protect people, thus minimizing the need to maintain reasonable means of doing so themselves.
And he sees no reason why a weapon shouldn't be around a school as long as the person maintaining it is a responsible and caring person.
“How meaningful is a Constitution if those rights stop at the door of any government-funded property,” Goslin said.
A greater armament increases personal responsibility while keeping in check the likelihood of abuse of power by police and the ruling class, Goslin said.
“There will never be enough laws to prevent the possibility of crime,” Goslin said. “Typically, the younger that children are familiarized in a responsible way with weapons. Typically, the safer that individual is.”
Goslin, who was home-schooled, said public schools teach individuals how to “obey the state” and he would remove his two children from the system if he were financially able to do so.
