13-year-old fires gun in middle school bathroom

[CO Liberal]

13-year-old fires gun in middle school bathroom

No one hurt in apparent suicide attempt, police say

By Athima Chansanchai and Jennifer McMenamin
Sun Staff
Originally published September 18, 2003

An eighth-grade boy brought a handgun to Oklahoma Road Middle School yesterday morning and fired a single shot in a school bathroom in an apparent suicide attempt, police said.

No one was hurt in the incident at the Eldersburg school, authorities said.

The boy, 13, took his father's .44-caliber revolver from a locked box at home and brought the gun to school in a backpack, said Maj. Greg Shipley, a state police spokesman.

The boy fired the handgun about 10 a.m. in an empty boys' bathroom while pupils at the school were between classes, police said.

<more>

http://www.sunspot.net/news/local/carroll/bal-ca.shooting18sep18,0,6575760.story?coll=bal-local-carroll

[molly]

1. Guns kill - period the end.

[VermontDem2004]

2. So do knives

ropes, etc.

[Fescue4u]

3. So do paper clips. - period the end.

[MrBenchley]

4. Get a lot of drive-by clippings in your part of the world?

Evidently the RKBA crowd is no longer even striving for plausibility....

[Fescue4u]

7. No. And there's not alot of drive-by shootings either

But I tell ya what. If there WERE alot of drive-by shootings in my neighborhood, I sure as hell would want the ability to defend myself!

[MrBenchley]

8. Gee, and yet where there ARE

drive-by shootings, what citizens want is guns kept out of the hands of criminals...not more guns and a bigger shootout.

[Fescue4u]

10. But you want the impossible.

The entire concept of keeping guns out of the hands of criminals...especially in high crime areas is simply unwinnable.

Well..maybe its not impossible...However it has never in the history of mankind been acheived yet.

[MrBenchley]

11. Tell us another fairy story...

"The entire concept of keeping guns out of the hands of criminals...especially in high crime areas is simply unwinnable."
And yet the problem is drastically reduced in countries with stricter gun control. As we saw in another thread, the entire UK has only as much gun crime in a year as Fort Worth, Texas does....

There are a number of specific proposals that would cut downn on guns in criminal hands immediately....background checks on ALL sales, gun registration, licensing of gun owners, better control on and more frequent inspection of gun dealers, etc.

[Fescue4u]

14. invalid comparision.

There is no nation on earth that is as heavily armed as the US with 200 million guns in private hands.

The UK was lightly armed to begin with and has been quite unsuccessfull in reducing their numbers...All the while their violent crime in soaring.

The truth is, you cannot take 200 million guns out of American hands...But you could destroy America in trying to do so.

[Pert_UK]

12. I may be being horribly naive with this question.........

But EXACTLY HOW does firing at a moving car containing someone shooting at you even vaguely resemble self-defense?

If someone drove past me shooting, I think that I would defend myself by taking cover, rather than presenting a target.

And while we're at it, exactly how could firing at a car on a street be regarded as responsible use of a firearm, in self-defense or in general?

I mean, I can see how you'd view shooting an intruder in your house as self-defense, but this "I'd be so much safer during a drive-by shooting if I also had a gun" shit just stuns me.

P.

[Fescue4u]

15. It depends on the circumstances.

I agree, I would take cover myself as well, especially if it is a classic "tv style" drive by.

However no two crimes are exactly the same and it would be naive to assume that one would never be able to defend ones self against such a threat.

Nonetheless, if I did live in such a violent, crime ridden community, I WOULD definitely be armed...as the miscreates may or may not use a driveby shooting to do their deed.

[Spoonman]

6. That was so brilliant

and inspiring, my eyes are tearing up, from trying not to LMFAO.

[jody]

5. Student should receive max sentence under federal law as follows.

See
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=118&topic_id=10503#10531

[slackmaster]

9. He tried to shoot himself and missed?

Poor kid can't get anything right.

[Pert_UK]

13. Shit yeah, with proper training he'd have killed himself cleanly.....

And THAT'S why we need to teach kids how to use a gun safely and effectively.

:evilgrin:

P.

[furrylitldevil]

16. What I don't understand

Is how people can say that owning or carrying a gun makes them safer. If some complete stranger were to start firing at you, how would having a gun stop that initially? Would carrying a gun magically prevent anyone from shooting at you, or would it just make the bullits miss your body somehow?

[MrBenchley]

17. As Pert pointed out

you never hear the people who claim they have to carry a gun to be "safe" express the slightest wish for a bullet-proof vest or body armor....which is a sure tip-off that safety has less than nothing to do with it.

"Would carrying a gun magically prevent anyone from shooting at you, or would it just make the bullits miss your body somehow?
"
The theory, as expressed by the gun industry's crackpot scientist John Lott, is that criminals just naturally fear guns on the street the way they fear Batman's costume in the funny papers.. In fact, it is utter rubbish....states with CCW laws tend to have MORE crime than states with sane gun laws.

[slackmaster]

18. I think you have a misconception about carrying guns for protection

If some complete stranger were to start firing at you, how would having a gun stop that initially?

If someone is firing a gun at you it's probably too late for any defensive action except duck-and-cover to have any benefit at all. But my neighbor who has a concealed-weapons permit told me that he believes the air of confidence he got mainly from the required classroom instruction (more than from the gun itself) may have prevented some punks from trying to rob him.

HINT: The purpose of carrying a gun for self-defense is not only for defense against people who are armed with guns.

Would carrying a gun magically prevent anyone from shooting at you, or would it just make the bullits miss your body somehow?

Do you really believe your trite, silly question constitutes a meaningful contribution to the discussion, or are you just trying to generally bash people who believe in the right to carry weapons for self-defense?

[MrBenchley]

19. Too too funny....

"But my neighbor who has a concealed-weapons permit told me that he believes the air of confidence he got mainly from the required classroom instruction (more than from the gun itself) may have prevented some punks from trying to rob him."
Paging Charles Atlas....who was that sniveling about me saying "armed neurotics?"