Mom charged with buying guns for son

[sinkingfeeling]

Source: MSNBC.com

NORRISTOWN, Pa. - The mother of a 14-year-old suspected of plotting a school attack has been charged with buying him weapons, offiicals said Friday.

Michele Cossey bought her son a .22-caliber handgun, a .22-caliber rifle and a 9 mm semiautomatic rifle, authorities said. The teenager, who is home schooled, felt bullied and tried to recruit another boy for the possible attack at Plymouth-Whitemarsh High School, authorities said.

Castor, the district attorney, blamed the boy’s parents for his alienation and violent fantasies. Authorities said his father had a conviction for vehicular homicide in Oklahoma.

“I’m very, very upset about the role, the lack of oversight that apparently the parents had in this case,” Castor said. “We need to recognize that parents are the primary persons responsible for teaching young people the difference between right from wrong.”


Read more: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21253029/

---

Ah, raising another Freeper!

[Kagemusha]

1. If they can back that all up in court, by all means, go after the mother.

This is not cool stuff.

[Lasher]

2. Is it illegal to give a gun to your son or daughter?

It looks like the parents are suspected of having encouraged their son to plot an attack, and I'm guessing that's the case they're trying to make. If parents are going to be thrown in the slammer for giving their teenagers guns, we'd better be building some bigger jails.

[slackmaster]

3. Yes, PA law prohibits letting a minor possess any gun unsupervised

It's also a violation of state law to give a firearm to a minor.

http://www.bradycampaign.org/legislation/state/viewstate.php?st=pa#juvposs

[piedmont]

16. They can possess with permission OR supervision. nt

[slackmaster]

23. Ah, OK.

I'll be watching this one closely.

[Xithras]

35. Depends on where you are. My daughter got her gun at 13.

Of course, it sits in my gun safe and only comes out if she asks. When she does ask, she's accompanied by me unless she's plinking on the mini-range behind our house.

It's just a .22 bolt.

[tridim]

4. Gee thanks NRA!

Anyone have the quotes where they advise buying guns for kids so they can learn how to shoot early in life?

[slackmaster]

5. No, and I'll bet you can't find them either

Because that's not what they actually say.

[tridim]

6. I've seen them.. Off to Google. nt

[slackmaster]

7. NRA's "Information for parents" page, link to brochure

http://www.nrahq.org/safety/eddie/infoparents.asp

...If your child has toy guns, you may want to use them to demonstrate safe gun handling and to explain how they differ from genuine firearms. Even though an unsupervised child should not have access to a gun, there should be no chance that he or she could mistake a real gun for a toy....

I applied that principle when I was a parent of a young child.

I have no doubt that you can find some propaganda that suggests the NRA is giving mixed messages, but their official stated position (or their official propaganda if you wish) is to not allow any child unsupervised access to a firearm.

[Plucketeer]

9. NRA

Nonsensical Rationale for Arms :crazy:

Should Rightly be TDC = Tools of Death Club

[-..__...]

26. The "tools" in the gun control movement...

will leave no stone unturned when the "safety" of children is involved...

Moms Insisting on Licensed Tools

[slackmaster]

29. Please consider that the NRA represents less than 5% of US gun owners

Most of us are pretty reasonable people.

[sinkingfeeling]

8. Isn't Eddy Eagle a part of the NRA's kiddie program?

http://www.heralddemocrat.com/articles/2006/01/30/local_news/anews03.txt

<snip>

HOWE — Twenty-five children got an up-close-and-personal, educated experience shooting guns Sunday afternoon, led and supervised by members of the Howe Police Department.

The two-hour seminar and shooting competition were the first of their kind, not only for Howe PD, but also in the area, because they focused primarily on children 6-10 years of age.

Police Sgt. James Doyle started things off classroom style with a gun-safety curriculum established by the National Rifle Association. Because the majority of the children there were about 6 or 7 years old, he kept it short and simple. As the classroom wound down, children had a surprise visit from Eddie Eagle, the NRA gun-safety mascot. Eddie shook hands and high-fived it with everyone. The students, and their parents, then filed outside to the temporary shooting range.

Set up were two long guns, attached to a table and capable of shooting only pellets. Only one child could shoot at a time, and experienced officers worked with each child before they were allowed to pull a trigger.

[slackmaster]

20. Strange story - the shooting real guns and Eddie Eagle are two separate things

Eddie Eagle specifically excludes the presence of any real guns.

[saigon68]

27. Save your energy slack

There is a certain circle of behavior here that defies logic

I gave up debating with them a long time ago

[eowyn_of_rohan]

10. Ha! Another freeper alright. Look --

Family proudly flies the American flag outside their home

http://www.philly.com/dailynews/gallery/20071012_D_A___Teen_planning_massacre.html

(the third image)

[theHandpuppet]

13. What's the flag on the right?

Can't tell what that one is.

[DWilliamsamh]

19. It's an Eagles Football Team Fan flag (N/T)

[slackmaster]

24. Definitely a Freeper then

:dunce:

[DWilliamsamh]

38. Speaking from Philadelphia, I hope that was a joke.....

And BTW, flying an American Flag doesn't make you a freeper either. I have the service flags of my father and grandfather and fly them alternately on holidays and birthdays in memoriam and pride.

[piedmont]

17. Flying the American flag makes one a freeper? Well I must be a freeper, then!

:crazy:

[eowyn_of_rohan]

30. WHAT?

From the original post: "Ah, raising another Freeper!

So I see the American flag flying outside the home of a sick, f-ing family who buys an arsenal of weapons for their sick 14-year old son. To me, the combination of the FLAG and the GUNS supported the poster's freeper comment. Got it now?

[slackmaster]

21. I fly the American flag on July 4, Veteran's Day, Pearl Harbor Day, etc.

I guess that makes me a Freeper too.

:eyes:

[eowyn_of_rohan]

32. I fly the flag on holidays too

but I don't buy assault rifles for mentally disturbed kids, then wrap myself in the flag. I imagine you don't either. Gwad. I was responding to something that was written at the end of the original post. The denseness here is stunning sometimes.:crazy:

[Marrah_G]

25. So do I and so does my family

Flying the flag does not make someone a freeper. They may well be RW nutcases, but flying a flag doesn't mean jack shit.

I am still proud to be an American and will fight like hell to get these monsters out of power. They do not own the flag.

[eowyn_of_rohan]

31. Obviously flying the US flag does not make someone a freeper...

I also fly the flag. I was responding to the original post, in which was written "Ah, raising another Freeper!" Flying the flag with an arsenal of guns and weapons in one's home indicates to me RW nutcases, aka freepers. :eyes:

[benEzra]

40. Half of gun owners are Dems and indies, dammit...

Flying the flag with an arsenal of guns and weapons in one's home indicates to me RW nutcases, aka freepers.

Half of gun owners are Dems and indies, dammit...and most gun-owning DU'ers have more of an "arsenal" than this clown did. He had one (1) cheap 9mm (pistol caliber) carbine, a .22LR rifle, and a .22LR pistol. And I dare say a fair number of us own U.S. flags.

The fact that a 14-year old in illegal possession of any guns was trying to recruit other kids for a "school attack" is indeed a scary one, and kudos to the kid who took the threat seriously and reported it. But there was no "arsenal" here, unless you fell for the initial MSM report that showed a photo of a bunch of toy guns posed as if they were real.

[DWilliamsamh]

11. I swear to God Homeschooling will be the death of this country

Talk about creating a recipe for social nitwits who have no coping skills for conflict.

[Jolly Sapper]

15. Homeschooling isn't a problem

Its the people who home school because they are afraid of the world that give home schooling a bad rap.

Kinda like everything else that goes on in this world, its not the tool that's bad its the way the tool is used that can be bad.

[RamboLiberal]

37. I bet he was cyber schooled not really "home schooled"

We have a lot of kids in PA who for whatever reason including not being able to socially cope at school who cyber school since the school district has to pay for it.

The most famous one of course was Santorum living in Virginia who scammed the school district where he kept his sham PA house for his rugrats cyber schooling.

[jazzjunkysue]

43. Agreed. Parents are not capable teachers in this complex world.

People have always been able to make excuses for attempting to keep their kids to themselves and out of the real world.

It's suppsed to be every american's right to go to school. I don't ever understand why these exceptions are made.

[sinkingfeeling]

12. Update with a list of the 6 charges filed against the mother.

Michele Cossey, 46, of Plymouth Meeting was charged with six criminal counts in connection with buying her son firearms and bomb-making equipment, including a .22-caliber handgun, a .22-caliber rifle and a 9mm semiautomatic rifle.

The charges are unlawful transfer of a fiream, possession of a firearm by a minor, corruption of a minor, endangering the welfare of a child and two counts of reckless endangerment.



http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/10/12/student.arsenal/index.html

[Brigid]

14. Now let me get this straight . . .

The kid says he's being bullied at school, so his parents pull him out of school to homeschool him, then they buy him a gun? :wtf:

[northzax]

28. Hey, he feared for his safety

So they bought him guns for self defense. Why should adults be able to defend themselves with concealed weapons at school (see the thread on the teacher who was being bullied by her ex and wanted a gun at school) while children don't get to protect themselves?

99 percent of children with access to guns never harm anyone, and even have the ability to protect themselves and their families, if need be. We shouldn't let one or two incidentsremove those rights from the great majority who follow the rules.

this has been a message from you local gun nut.

[npincus]

18. ...and the dad? Why just the Mom?

Surely he knew what was going on. He is at least an enabler and at worst an accomplice.

[slackmaster]

22. I haven't seen any mention of him

?

[eowyn_of_rohan]

33. The father had tried to buy a gun for the kid

but couldn't because he was a felon.

"Authorities said Friday that the boy's father also tried to buy his son a rifle in 2005, but was not allowed to because he was a felon, authorities said Friday.

Frank Cossey was sentenced to house arrest for lying about his criminal record when he went to buy a .22-caliber rifle for his son in December 2005, police said Friday. On his application he said he had never been convicted of a felony, but he had pleaded guilty in 1981 to manslaughter in a drunken driving death in Oklahoma and sent to prison, police said."

[slackmaster]

34. A real All-American family

The boy has a marvelous array of role models.

At least the Brady background check system worked that time.

[RamboLiberal]

39. Dad's a real winner as well

In December 2005, the boy's father wanted to get his son a gun for his birthday. He went to Dick's Sporting Goods on Chemical Road in Plymouth Township. He filled out an application for a .22-caliber rifle and lied about his criminal record, saying he had never been convicted of a felony.

In fact, the dad pleaded guilty in 1981 to first-degree manslaughter for driving while drunk and killing someone in a collision in Oklahoma City. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison and released in 1987. Ironically, according to court documents, the father was also a deserter from the Marine Corps.

When police learned that the father purchased a gun illegally at Dick's in June 2005, they went to his house on Church Road and confronted him. He met them on the front lawn. He was polite and soft-spoken, police said.

"He stated that he hadn't been sure if he could buy the firearm or not so he tried to purchase it," a Plymouth Township detective wrote in an affidavit of probable cause.

http://www.philly.com/dailynews/local/20071012_D_A___Teen_planning_massacre.html

[ProudDad]

36. "Ah, raising another Freeper!"

Naw, just another gun nut...


On Edit: PISS ON ALL FLAGS!!!!

[Wcross]

41. Did anyone see the kids "arsenal" laid out in the USA today?

They had all of his airsoft airguns laid out giving the impression they were real guns. The kid had a dozen that looked like AK-47's and the caption was implying they were all real guns. I don't know why the cops confiscated all the toys the kid owned just because they looked deadly. None of the toys they confiscated were deadly in any way.

[benEzra]

42. A lot of people around the 'net fell for that...

OMG!! Toy guns!!