I had this thought this morning..
the kid killed his mother for access to the firearms..
she was a collector..
Were these fireams in a safe?
Would a safe have prevented this?
I had this thought this morning..
the kid killed his mother for access to the firearms..
she was a collector..
Were these fireams in a safe?
Would a safe have prevented this?
A .45 in the hand of the principal who rushed to the scene might have prevented it, but probably not much else. If he couldn't have gotten the guns, he'd of probably run them down outside, with an automobile.
A safe would only have worked if he didn't have access to the keys or combination.
If I Ever Became An Evil Overlord:
40. I will be neither chivalrous nor sporting. If I have an unstoppable superweapon, I will use it as early and as often as possible instead of keeping it in reserve.
If he needed to kill his mother to gain access to the weapons used to kill the the students..........What did he kill his mother with???
"The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not." Thomas Jefferson
I think she was shot....
If I Ever Became An Evil Overlord:
40. I will be neither chivalrous nor sporting. If I have an unstoppable superweapon, I will use it as early and as often as possible instead of keeping it in reserve.
I'll say it again... Arm the priciples in the schools... Pilot's on the planes... and we would be safer...
Still talking about the guns and not addressing the real problem; like a doctor treating the symptoms and not the disease.
Back when I was growing up, all the states had state sanatoriums where the mentally ill were sent for treatment to either cure them, or to keep them away from the public where they could do harm. It wasn't the best solution, but it worked. Then the state budgets began to get bloated with other things, and Federal mandates further blew up the state budgets. Less money meant some things had to be cut. State sanatoriums were one of the first to be defunded. Thousands and thousands of the mentally ill were just turned out on the streets to fend for themselves.
A lot of them were shut down in the 1980s and it's still going on now, THIS YEAR! There are no longer facilities to take care of these people, so families have to either keep them at home, or if they are violent, turn to the justice system and have them imprisoned for any violent acts. The mental health facilities available now are totally, wholly, woefully inadequate to take care of the people who are in dire need of the services.
And lets be honest here. It is NOT the business of the Federal government to be the 'authority of last resort' to take care of the problem of the lack of facilities for the mentally ill. It falls under the powers of the States to take care of the business of the State. The states ran the facilities before, and should do so again. States can cut funding for stupid stuff and do what they are mandated to do, which is to take care of state issues which include mental health facilities.
Blaming guns or access to guns is not the problem. Lack of mental health facilities to deal with the problems of the mentally ill IS the problem.
“I know that you believe you understand what you think I said, but I'm not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant.” Robert McCloskey
But if he didn't have access to the guns?
I would also add to Mike's excellent post that the stigmatization of mental health issues, and the way we treat families who have members with mental health issues is partially to blame. In some cases, people are unwilling to seek treatment for themselves or family members because of the negative repercussions that can come from being "crazy" or having a "crazy family member." I don't know if that's the case here, but we can have the facilities to treat people and if they either don't go or are placed there by people who observe them, we still run the risk of them causing problems.
If I Ever Became An Evil Overlord:
40. I will be neither chivalrous nor sporting. If I have an unstoppable superweapon, I will use it as early and as often as possible instead of keeping it in reserve.
What would happen? Could he not have killed someone else for guns, or just run over a bunch of kids when school's out? We don't know what happened, if this was pre-planned or a sudden snap. Trying to come up with a solution when you don't know the problem is just wasted energy.Originally Posted by Buford
If I Ever Became An Evil Overlord:
40. I will be neither chivalrous nor sporting. If I have an unstoppable superweapon, I will use it as early and as often as possible instead of keeping it in reserve.
He was 20 years old. He was not as far as I can tell adjudicated mentally defective and not prohibited from buying his own firearms. So what's your point? What possible difference would it make if he had bought his own rather than steal those belonging to his mother? He would have only been deprived of the pistols since he had not attained the age of 21 years. He committed suicide with a pistol, but could just have easily done that with the rifle. Come on, Buford, you're better than that!
“I know that you believe you understand what you think I said, but I'm not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant.” Robert McCloskey
I've seen several references to this kid being quite smart, even brilliant. Wouldn't be too great a stretch to imagine that he'd come up with something.
Originally Posted by Slanteyedshootist: I didn't hear that. I was busy travelling faster than the speed of stupid.
Tim Mason
add to that "socially awkward" One have his 10th grade classmates said "He wanted to be left alone, and we left him alone" His mother had pulled him out of school and was home schooling him as he was not dealing with the social pressures well... another ingredient in the soup to consider.
The .270 Winchester is a "damned adequate coyote rifle." -Elmer Keith
Firearm Safety Rule #8 : No matter how responsible he may seem, never give a loaded gun to a monkey.
I guess his home curriculum didn't include the 10 rules of firearm safety being as his mother had firearms.....or maybe that was for next semester. Her Pysch course wasn't on there either, cause he seemed to fail Anger Management.
If I was on a school board, I would be talking to the LEO of my city/county on how to circumvent the no gun zone problem so a couple school faculty could carry.
When I was in high school, the local PD had an Auxilary Force (we called them the Narc Squad). Sheriffs have used Posses' in modern times. I'm sure there are still ways (trained volunteers) teachers could be 'deputized' and be legally able to carry in the NO gun zones the same as a LEO
"The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not." Thomas Jefferson
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