The world is a scary place to live.
And even more so today, with the hot debate over gun control taking the fore-front in political, legislative, and moral discussion (notoriety). Now, no matter what side of the fence you stand on with gun control, I'm sure that there is universal agreement that children secretly walking around school with guns will send many a parent in a state of panic!
This is just what happened at our local Natomas Middle School (proximity). According to local news outlets, on February 7th, a child at the school was caught with the weapon after appearing to secretly conceal it with another student. Scary! And perhaps what's even scarier is that the incident wasn't immediately reported to parents at the school, nor even surrounding schools. It hits even closer to home for me because my co-workers children go to school at the elementary next door!
Sure, the gun wasn't loaded, and maybe the kid was trying to be a show-boat, who knows? But none-the-less, knowing that a child could bring a gun to school that easily- especially given the HUGE surge in gun awareness recently-makes us all question, once again, how safe are we, REALLY?!!
The 13-year-old, who can't be identified because he is a minor, was immediately taken into police custody, and it's believed it was a gun owned by his parents. Not surprising, because according to a study by The Injury Control Research at Harvard University, almost two million children live in homes with an unlocked and loaded gun.
More insight on the story in the link below.
I heard about this incident and it is terrifying that a minor would come to school with a gun. The child as well as the parents should be punished for this incident. It is not okay for a child to possess a gun. This is the reason why Columbine and other unfortunate incident transpire. I think the parents should be punished for not having their gun locked in a gun secure cabinet and it should be required for each gun owner to have a secure cabinet for their guns. I was informed about this incident by a voice message from the Superintendent and then shortly a email from the Natomas Unified School District. Good job.
ReplyDeleteI agree that this is scary. I think that though I will not post an opinion about what side of the fence I am on regarding gun control (and I am not sure that I have decided), I think that is is extremely important that parents and other authority figures are careful about where they leave dangerous firearms.
ReplyDeleteGreat overlap with media values, Ty. You do a good job of describing not just the horror of this event, but showing the larger impacts on parental concerns -- which does create proximity. Certainly, as Yasmeen points out, the influence of this type of event goes well beyond the school attended by the student. I am like Jenny, as I'm not sure where I stand on this issue. But my brother is a teacher at Thurston Middle School in Springfield, Oregon. A number of years ago at Thurston High School there, after a student killed his parents (teachers in the district, known to my brother), he then arrived at school and killed students. He had been a student at the middle school and was known to my brother, also. Though it's been a number of years ago, I never will forget hearing the words "Thurston, Springfield, Oregon school and shooting" that morning on the radio.
ReplyDeleteTy,
ReplyDeleteyou're right maybe they were trying to show-boat but I'm not willing to take a chance with them deciding to fire it after show-boating. this is a slippery slow, do we limit guns altogether and impede on out constitutional rights or do we sort of deal with the situation and hope for the best? tough to answer