A Harvard Law School student said Wednesday that he was cleaning the handgun other students saw during a class held remotely on Zoom.
Federalist Society (FedSoc) President Chance Fletcher told the Daily Caller that he had attended the class through the video-conferencing platform from his home in Oklahoma, and had been cleaning the handgun prior to the class’ start time. (RELATED: Harvard Cancels Event On Journalists’ Safety After Journalists’ Safety Is Potentially Compromised By Featured Speaker)
“Today I was working on cleaning one of my handguns so that I could go shoot vermin in my Grandmother’s yard after classes,” Fletcher explained. “I wasn’t quite done cleaning my gun before my Criminal Procedure class began, so I went ahead and logged into the Zoom class. I never intended for my cleaning of a firearm to be a disruption. It seems the armadillos will have to wait until tomorrow.”
Within hours, Above the Law had posted an article that gave away Fletcher’s position as FedSoc president, but left out his name. In that article, author Joe Patrice accused Fletcher of “playing with his metallic dick” and compared it to sharing a frame with a dead hooker or wearing a swastika.
Harvard Law School FedSoc President Brings Gun To Class https://t.co/Fes0ypZLeU
— Above the Law (@atlblog) April 8, 2020
Fellow student Douglas Colby told the Caller that the firearm was only visible very a very short time, and that Fletcher did not appear to be intentionally showing it off in a threatening fashion.
“I am in the class with Chance and am a friend of his. I believe he was cleaning his firearm before class and for a few minutes once the class session commenced on Zoom,” Colby said. “However, he did not wave it menacingly or anything of that nature, and for what it’s worth, the firearm was only visible on Zoom briefly. Like Chance, I grew up around firearms, so I was not offended to see someone cleaning a firearm on the computer screen.”