LACEY — The New Jersey chapter of the NRA is threatening to sue this township's school district over a policy that prohibits students from possessing weapons on or off school grounds during the school year.

The legal threat was issued after a post on a local Facebook group claimed two students were given a week of detention for sharing a picture of firearms captioned "fun day at the range." 

Schools Superintendent Craig Wigley told the Townsquare News Network that the information in the post was "inaccurate" but declined to provide details.

A lawyer for the Association of New Jersey Rifle and Pistol Clubs, which is the state chapter of the National Rifle Association, sent the district a letter on Thursday demanding that disciplinary actions against the students be rescinded and expunged, and that the district revoke its student firearms policy.

The gun-rights group says the district's zero-tolerance policy — which bans any student from being "in possession of a weapon of any type for any reason or purpose whether on or off school grounds during the academic year" — violates the First and Second Amendments of the U.S. Constitution and the free-speech protections of the state Constitution.

The policy that the letter quotes does not specify whether the possession is lawful or unlawful.

Students who violate this policy face long-term or year-long suspension and an evaluation by a child study team.

One of the comments on the Facebook group was from someone claiming to be one of the two students who were punished.

"They said our punishment was for 'disrupting the school climate'" despite the picture being taken with "completely legal weapons in a privately owned shooting range," he said.

The controversy comes amid heightened sensitivity in New Jersey schools about guns and threats following the Feb. 14 massacre in Parkland, Florida. In the weeks since, numerous students in New Jersey have been arrested and charged with making threats against schools or perpetrating hoaxes.

One 18-year-old in Nutley was charged with sharing a shooting range video with the Foster the People song "Pumped Up Kicks" and creating a virtual video-game school where his character shot people.

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