First of all, I will say that I have limited information to go by, but this is my reaction at this point.  If I cause an up roar, I appologize in advaince.

First of all, I have heard that this 9th grade student 'bragged' about this to friends and parents of friends.  But when confronted, said it was a joke.  Looking at the pics of the kid and the school, this appears to be a fairly good looking neighborhood.  Second, this 9th grader was the victim of being teased and was being bullied.  From the limited info I have, this kid was being portrayed as not a serouse threat or doesn't have "guts" to do this or stand up for himself.  I do not condone his actions.

The school not following up on this "threat" is one error (hind sight is always crystal clear).  I believe that the mentality "it can't happen here" was thought.  I know of local school districts that take any threat, weather in jest VERY seriously!!!!  You say the word SHOOT, KILL, GUN and kids are told to tell their teacher.  It's no joking manner.

Now, my thoughts on this kid.  From what I have seen, heard the news say, this kid was the target of jokes, pranks....basically, he was being bullied.  This might have been going on for a long time, through out school.  Usually a bully picks on one kind through out school.  I don't know specifics, but to me, it appears this kid had enough and somehow, wanted to get even.  With his telling everyone, it was possibly a sign that he wanted help, his way of saying, "Please help me.  Stop me from doing this.  I can't make them stop teasing me."  A psychological pain of being teasted or being known as the class wimp is much more painfull then being physically beat.  The signs are not usually visible.  The individual usually tries to hide it because of humiliation.

My local paper said this kid used a 22(LR?) revolver.  Loaded once.  Not a semi auto, detachable mag rifle or pistol that the anti guns and liberals keep yelling about.  From the sounds of it, this was an easy to get firearm, weather it was one at home or go from "the street".  This, I'm sorry to say, will not aid in pro firearms causes.   Gun hating fanatics(sp-and use their word on them for once) will yell that this kind of incident is reason enough for a 'civilized society' to get rid of 'useless guns.'  I would have to strongly disagree.  The gun was the means that this student choose.  It could have easily been a knife or a bat or poison.  The gun is an object.  I can not fire when it sits empty.  It can be left in place for 100 years and not hurt anyone until SOMEONE picks it up and uses it.  If not a gun.....they will find something else.  Society must help people deal with their pain and anger.  The cause of this......the kid had enough (I say).  Maybe this falls under the battered wife syndrom...maybe I'm stretching.  

Untill people are not teasted, people accept other for who they are, when there is no more prejudice, no more fear of "different" people, when there is respect for others then we are safe.  When people are tollerant of others and their ideas and each respects the other's opinion, maybe that is the time we can be safe.  Before the gun, people use to sword fight...or use their fists.  The gun is not to blame.  We are all to blame for letting things get bad.

Do your part, if you have kids, tell them not to tease others.  When they see others teasing someon, tell them to stop and tell an adult or yell to stop.  The mentality of "I don't want to ge

FINALLY! an intelligent look at the incident instead of just blaming the shooter.

BTT [;)]

people [ARE] responsible for their actions

parents [ARE] responsible for their children

the media [IS] responsible for copy cat crime

this shit [IS] going to make me sick!

What I would'nt give to see a teacher somewhere with a CCW, dispatch one of these teen bastards.

Kaliburz,

I understand what you are trying to say, but I strongly disagree.  Yes the kid was teased...so what!!  We all get teasted sometime thru out life.  I was teasted and bullied endlessly thru highschool.  I was a skinny funny looking kid that everyone loved to pick on.  Then I finally had enough.  Did I pick up a gun and kill the bullies..no!!  What I did do was talk to my Dad and brothers about it and they taught me to stand up and fight for myself.  SO the next time a kid picked on me I faught him, I lost but the teasing stopped.  Why?  Because people knew I wasn't going to take crap from them anymore!!

Now me and the kid in SoCal had the same problem, we both wanted the teasing to stop.  The difference is that I had a family to talk to, that kid did not!!  He came from a divorced home, his dad probably was rarely at home when he got home(little supervision), and he probably did get a whole lot of love from home (being divorced parents and all).

Facts are single family homes,lack of a GOD in their lives, and poor supervision are the main problems facing kids today. So what if the poor kid was picked on, that's part of life,  should we outlaw teasing?  Life is hard, but it's even worse when you have no one to talk to about it(priest/both parents/etc), and that is was contributed to this kids problems!!  

With all that said, I feel sorry for the victoms and the kid.  But I still want to see him punished to the fullest extant of the law, maybe he will now learn accountability.

sgtar15

PS  I do know that there are some great single parents out there, but over all it is usualy best for a kid to grow up in a home with a mother and father, and one of them should always be at the house when the kids get home.

Sgtar15,
I agree with you somewhat.

In elementary school and junior high I was picked on for being bigger than the other kids, both in highth and weight. I don't understand why they just did, adults usually back down from me. Well I finally took enough shit and gave some back. I even got into a couple of fights in the principals office. After a couple of months of beating ass I was involved in a parent teacher conference where the pricipal deamed me to have an anger control problem. I calmed down after that.

My point, for a few years I was ridiculed quite a bit but I corrected that problem without killing anyone. However with the media constantly showing how kids are getting even with guns kids now see this as their way out. The media broadcasts this everytime it happens so it appears to be nearly as common as the schoolyard fights of my day.

Sure part of the problem is adults not securing their firearms, but hey, I had my own gun cabinet when I was 12. I think the true root of the problem is the breakdown of cumminication between kids and their parents and the media making school shootings look commonplace.

I know that this is truly a bunch of rambling but its what came to mind.

Jake

GSG9,

I agrre with you on the media thing.  My main point is that a lot of kids are coming from homes where there is no communication with their parents and they are not taught about respect for life.  I have two kids, a 7 and 13 year old, both are 100% comfortable around firearms.  They don't touch them, but they are respectful of them and they know the destrucive power of them.  They also know that their are other ways to solve problems than killing some one.  

A couple of years ago my son complained about being picked/hit on at school.  I told him to tell the teacher or talk to the kid.  When that didn't work, I told him to fight back, he did and problem solved!  Point is my son didn't have any surpressed anger because he had someone to come to.  A PARENT!!

sgtar15

Being from Littleton were the Columbine shootings occured I can testify to whats about to happen. We the gun owners voted in a republican govenor that promised no new gun laws. But he has signed more gun laws than any other govenor. We will not make the same mistake twice. Unfortunately Colorado is becoming alot like Cali in the gun laws. Alot of Cali people are moving to Colorado. The recent school shooting unfortunately is fuel to the fire. As a Littleton resident I hope you endure and fight for your rights.

Amen! Well said. In the next 6-8 weeks we will hear from every talking head/Psychologist/Psychotherapist/Counselor/Shrink/Do-gooder/elitist/shit shoveler that the world has to offer. Every time one of these assholes gets on TV and spouts off their dribble about "how me must get inside this young person's mind" and the tapes will be played again and again untill we all vomit while another kid gets the same idea in his/her head, i.e. Copycat #99. If all this would not play out on TV 2/3 of this kind of thing would not happen again.
Truth be known this kid was so sick of being picked on by jocks, cheerleaders, socialites and the rest of the crowd that is in the clique while teachers, coaches, counselors and principals observed THEIR behavior and did absolutely nothing about it, accepted it as the way things are, drawed their paycheck while protected by "tenure". He was probably from the wrong side of the track and didnt "fit in", didn't wear the designer jeans, $140 tennis shoes, Tommy Hilfiger etc.etc.etc.
Probably finally blew a gasket & saw this copycat crime as a way of gaining notariety.

[puke]

I don't know what made this poor kid snap.  Maybe we will find out (maybe not), but whatever it was, even if you could legislate it from ever possessing anyone again, the next time the reasons would be different.  This is human nature we're dealing with, not a repetitive machine function.  You can't just file some part or clean and lub and expect to solve this type of crime.

When I was growing up, we had gun clubs in high school.  They actually gave us weapons and taught us how to shoot.  We had teams and competitions and dozens of kids all armed and no one took advantage of the easy access to guns to shoot up the school.  All this in NYC!  I can only imagine what it was like in rural America.  Tens of thousands of kids all armed every week in school.  I would like to know how many school shooting rampages we had in the 50's and 60's all across this country.  This with almost no gun restrictions and armed kids in school (for rifle teams and probably their own weapons in cars and trucks) every day.  

Why do some people (spelled I-D-I-O-T-S) think that restrictive gun control is the answer when decades of easy access and availablity of guns did not produce these types of crimes.  Maybe we should be looking at a permissive society where there is no stigma to out of wedlock birth and hate filled music and gratuitous violence from Hollywood.  These are the things that have changed.  Gun control is a convienent scapegoat.

Let me ask you; tens of thousands of innocent people are killed on our roads each year by drunk drivers.  Yet the liberals don't demand the abolition of liquor to solve the problem.  They want lower blood-alcohol levels and stiffer sentences for the felons.  For guns this would equate to mandatory gun safety courses and longer sentences for crimes committed with a gun.  The NRA supports both of these.  But nooooo!  To solve the problem of criminals and guns they want to outlaw guns from everyone.  Even though guns in the hands of honest, responsible citizens prevent crime.  I don't think liquor in the hands of honest, responsible citizens does much good.  It may not do much harm, but it doesn't do much good either.

You can't legislate responsible parents and proper supervision and love and trust.  I'm sure this kid was putting out signs like crazy for some time.  With no mother and a full time working father it was much easier to miss all the signals.  If not a gun, he could have driven a car into a crowd of students waiting for the school bus.  What then, outlaw cars from high schools.  We have over 280 million people in this country.  Each with unique circumstances and surroundings.  Basic probability, with those kinds of numbers, will always lead to human tragedy.  No system of laws and regulations is fool proof.

If someone spouts hate speech and it incites others to riot the next day, would we stand for restrictions on our First Amendment rights.  No, we should punish the rioters for breaking the law.  Somehow, only the Second Amendment can be legislatively repealed for all Americans when criminals abuse the freedoms guaranteed by our Constitution.  Why do liberals feel so threatened by honest citizens with guns?  If the British had enforced the type of gun control that they now want, we would still be having tea at four o'clock and putting our luggage in the bonnet.

Well, my soap box is starting to creak and I'm sure most of you are getting mighty tired of reading my rant.  If you made it this far, you

2 school shootings - within a few miles and a few days of each other - conclusions:

1) Santana High School:

Unarmed security guard encounters shooter after first shots fired (one dead, one wounded). He is unable to respond with equal force. Result: He is shot 3 times in the back as he attempts to escape the restroom and the shooter is able to reload 4 times, expend in excess of 30 rounds total and kill one more and wound 11 more before he surrenders. Shooter dominates...

2) Granite High School:

Armed SRO (school resource officer) is on duty and in an area restroom when shooter opens fire. He is able to respond and wound the shooter with 2 shots - one in the mouth/jaw (a wound that would deter most of us) and one in the rear section. Result: only a few wounded and NO fatalities - shooter as well as other aspiring little cowards learn a valuable lesson.

Should we arm qualified school security personel and perhaps other staff in US schools? Ask the Israelis if they have had much trouble with this type of thing in their schools since arming teachers and administrators many years ago.....

I rest my case [8]

[sniper]
The Sniper