Gun Control Advocate Busted For Allegedly Bringing Loaded Pistol On School Property

A gun control advocate and community activist has been arrested for allegedly bringing a loaded pistol onto school property.

SWAT teams and other law enforcement agencies descended on the Harvey Austin Elementary School in Buffalo, N.Y., after an anonymous 911 call late Thursday afternoon about an unnamed man with a gun on school grounds. About 60 kids were in the building when law enforcement officers locked down the facility for several hours while they conducted a thorough search.

Police arrested licensed gun owner Dwayne Ferguson on weapons violations. Ferguson, 52, a well-known community leader in Buffalo, was at the school as a volunteer mentor in after-school programs.

Ferguson, the head of an anti-violence organization called MAD DADs, apparently was a strong proponent of New York’s SAFE Act, passed in the aftermath of Newtown school shooting at the Sandy Hook Elementary School, that among other things upgraded the offense for anyone other than a law enforcement officer who takes a gun on school property from a misdemeanor to a felony.

[Ferguson] was among local activists who stood with Assemblywoman Crystal Peoples-Stokes last year lobbying for a law that would make possessing a gun on school property a felony. Prior to New York State’s adoption of the SAFE Act last year, in response to the Sandy Hook school massacre in Connecticut, it was a long-established state law that guns could not be brought onto school property. The only difference was that the crime carried less punishment as a misdemeanor. In an ironic turn of events, Ferguson was charged with two counts of criminal possession of a weapon under that law for Thursday’s incident. The law carries a maximum sentence of up to four years in state prison.”

According to local media, Ferguson said he often carries the gun during his business day and forgot that he had it with him at the time. Friends and associates also believe it was an honest mistake. Police have indicated they believe that Ferguson had no “ill intent.”

There seems to be some dispute, however, as to whether he did or didn’t inform police on the scene that he was carrying a weapon.

Ferguson has pleaded not guilty to the charges and was released on his own recognizance.

[image credit: D-Day]