Student gets armed escort to and from school bus

"Gun-free" schools have been the scene of numerous acts of mass violence while the neighborhoods in which many children travel to and from school pose their own dangers.

While parents aren't allowed to patrol a school hallway with a weapon, their Second Amendment right to protect their children en route between home and school hasn't been removed.

A Michigan father is exercising that right, openly carrying his gun while he walks his daughter to and from her bus stop several blocks from home.

"I don't mean to look intimidating," Michael LaMay said in a recent interview with WZZM-TV in Muskegon Heights.

"Except to criminals. If you're a criminal, I hope I look intimidating," he said.

He said he took action because of a recent rise in violence in his community.

Read what the Supreme Court said in affirming the Second Amendment, in "The Heller Case: Gun Rights Affirmed."

"I've been doing this on a daily basis, every day she goes to school. To make sure she gets there safely and home safely," he told the station. "And with the way things are going on around here, it's obviously become unsafe to just be walking down the streets."

Neighbors called police, and one woman warned, "You don't have a right to walk past my house with that shotgun."

But police, who checked LaMay's history, said what he's doing is allowed under open carry laws.

"It's his constitutional right," an officer explained in the WZZM report.

One woman challenged the officer: "So I can open carry a gun?"

He responded: "You can't," explaining, "because I know your history."

After a door slammed, he explained that the woman is a convicted felon.

Muskegon County Prosecutor D.J. Hilson told the station he is aware of LaMay's daily routine, and although he doesn't advocate it, LaMay is not breaking any laws.