A longtime high school mascot in Buena Vista won't be packing any heat this fall.

Parry McCluer High School, whose sports teams are known as the "Fighting Blues," has for years used a takeoff on the Warner Bros. cartoon character Yosemite Sam as the school's mascot.

But while the Buena Vista school's version of ol' Sam will continue to wear his pirate garb (unlike the cowboy get-up of Bugs Bunny's perennial foil), broad-brimmed hat and menacing sneer, gone are the flintlock pistols Sam had waived in the air as a sign of his fighting spirit.

Parry McCluer Principal Haywood Hand said the decision to create a new logo this year, sans firearms, was a simple one, really.

"If we have zero tolerance of guns in schools, we don't want to have them in our logo," he said in a statement released Friday. "It is hypocritical to promote a mascot with a gun in each hand."

School officials turned to Mariner Media in Buena Vista to redefine the mascot. Illustrator Chris Johnson said he was told to remove Sam's guns but preserve his personality as a "spirited buccaneer."

"I gave Sam the same sort of posture as Notre Dame's leprechaun," Johnson said.

While Sam's new likeness will grace Parry McCluer's student handbook and sports programs this fall, changing his former likeness on the school's grounds won't be so easy. The old mascot logos will be replaced over the next three years as funds become available.