by George Detweiler

About the author: George Detweiler writes for the New American, a conservative biweekly magazine.

In these days when being a victim has become trendy and politically correct, the genuine article can still be found. Matt Billington, a 17-year-old junior at Filer, Idaho, High School, is a case in point. Billington lives on a farm in a western state where guns are as important a tool as a hay rake, a tractor, or a plow. Billington uses his father’s .22-caliber pistol to hunt squirrels and rockchucks after school on the farm where he works. Rockchucks can be a substantial factor in crop destruction.

But when Billington forgot to remove the pistol from his vehicle before he went to school—in spite of the fact that the gun was unloaded, had not been taken out...