I got a letter yesterday from my daughter's school

[dolo amber]

"A very serious and disturbing incident happened at school today. A student brought a gun to school..."

Talk about having your blood run cold. The neighborhood school was demolished due to disrepair and is being rebuilt...in the interim, the students are split K-3 and 4-6 and are having classes in 2 local churches. My daughter is in kindergarten. Thus, it was a kid under the age of 8 or 9 that did this.

The gun was unloaded, and the child was apparently not doing anything threatening. I think it was just a showing off sorta thing. But it makes you wonder why people can't/don't/won't keep these things locked away where little hands can't get to them.

(I would have posted this yesterday, but I was all sick and didn't feel I could properly participate. :hi:)

[asthmaticeog]

1. What kind of gun was it?

'Cuz you know those cheap 9mm Glock knockoffs don't have the accuracy or stopping power to pose the threat of say a 44. It may have been nothing to worry about.

[DainBramaged]

12. SO, you think like a little tiny kid won't die from a gunshot wound

because it's a "cheap 9mm Glock knockoff"? How do .22's kill then? Did you forget to add "sarcasm" to you post?

[asthmaticeog]

16. You need sarcasm spelled out for you? You're beyond the help of a smiley.

[DainBramaged]

20. Some of us are very tired, long day, pzzztttttttttttttttt grumble grumble

[kwassa]

2. A local kid in this area brought a gun to daycare and accidently shot

aa young girl. The gun went off in his backpack. Fortunately it was not a life-threatening injury.

[dolo amber]

10. Good grief...in daycare?

That's horrifying. :(

[LisaL]

13. And in another account of the same story I read, the kid

actually shot her on purpose while trying to rob her.

[kwassa]

18. Yeah, you are right

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/26/AR2006012602159.html

Scene Set in Day-Care Shooting
Prosecutor Gives Account at Bond Hearing for Boy's Father

By Ernesto Londoño
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, January 27, 2006; Page B08

Moments before an 8-year-old boy shot another child at their day-care center this week, he told her to "give me your money," a prosecutor said yesterday.

"What do you want? Nickels, dimes or pennies? I'm broke," the 7-year-old girl responded, according to the prosecutor. Then a bullet from a .38-caliber revolver pierced her upper right arm.

Montgomery County Assistant State's Attorney Karyn McAuliffe provided that account of Tuesday's day-care center shooting in Germantown during an afternoon bond hearing for the boy's father. Prosecutors said the account was based on the police investigation, but they would not elaborate.

The father, John Linwood Hall, 56, insisted in court that he did not teach his son how to use the revolver. "That is not true. That it not true. That is not true. That is not true," Hall blurted out during the hearing in Rockville as McAuliffe argued that the boy has been "dangerously influenced" by his father.

[cassandra uprising]

3. Good God

:hug:

It doesn't make any sense. Was any action taken against the parents?

[dolo amber]

4. I don't know

I tried to ask about it today, but everyone was all acting like they couldn't say anything...maybe due to the child being a minor and all. :shrug:

[cassandra uprising]

5. Shit, I get scared living my kittens alone

Are you all right? How about your girl?

[dolo amber]

6. She's oblivious

I was less shocked when it first happened. I was all doped up on cold drugs yesterday, and Hedges picked her up. He put the note in my hands and I was like "Wow, that's fucked up." But the more time I've had to think about it... :scared:

Thanks for askin'. :hug:

[Midlodemocrat]

9. I know how you feel, Dolo

Last year, some kid came to my daughter's school with a loaded 9mm gun. They locked down the school, and she text messaged me so I knew what was happening.

The principal was such a dork that she opened the school the next morning because they couldn't find the gun, so they assumed there 'wasn't' one.

Well, guess what? The kid got injured when some boys tackled him as he pulled out the gun, so he ended up in the clinic. He stuffed the gun in a scale and when one of the employees stepped on the scale and discovered she had gained weight overnight....they found the gun.

What. A. Moran. She took such a load of heat for that, she's not there anymore.

[dolo amber]

15. What if the gun had gone off when they stepped on the scale?

What an utterly bizarre place to hide it. And that principle sounds like a dingbat. :eyes:

[Midlodemocrat]

17. The thing that frightened me was that so many different

kids from different 'cliques'(for lack of a better word) that saw the gun, but this stupid principal was so clueless when the dogs couldn't find it, she made the erroneous assumption that there wasn't a gun.

What if this kid told a friend where he hid it and the friend went to school to finish what this kid started? It was obviously a very heated disagreement if someone went to the trouble to bring a gun into school.

Another stellar day for my county's public schools. I swear all of the idiots in power have been educated beyond their intelligence.

[Shine]

7. OMG!!!! I would completely freaked out, too, if I got a letter like that.

that's outrageous! Makes ya wonder about the kid's parents....

Scary, indeed.
:hug:

[dolo amber]

14. It does make you wonder

People who are for gun rights and always "claim" to be responsible gun owners, when clearly stuff like this happens all too often for that to be the case. :(

[x-g.o.p.er]

8. Damn!!

What the hell kind of parenting is going in in a house where a little kid can get a hold of a weapon. Glad you and the little one are okay, and they rake those parents over the coals.

[dolo amber]

19. Thanks x

I won't claim to be the best parent in the world by a longshot, but I do make sure the kids don't drink bleach, y'know? I can't imagine being so grossly irresponsible as to not lock up a GUN.

[x-g.o.p.er]

23. Hey, no parent is perfect...

but I try to keep weapons and poison out of the reach of my kids, too. There's honest mistakes, and there's being grossly irresponsible.

Maybe I'm being too judgmental, maybe they are good parents, but man, how stupid! If nothing else, may they learn a valuable lesson.

The parents, along with the kid.

[henslee]

11. Even at 8 or 9, I'd have had the good sense not to bring a gun to school.

[kwassa]

21. Just to totally freak you out ...

I read an article in the LA Times ten years ago that said that 1500 weapons had been confiscated in the LA public schools that year, of which 700 were guns. The statistic that I found amazing was that 33 guns were confiscated from elementary students.

[CornField]

22. While I think parents get a raw deal most of the time...

This is absolutely something a parent must take responsibility for. If you are going to have a gun in your home, you need to 1) keep it where you children cannot access it; and 2) teach your children to respect the weapon.

:hug: I would have been a mess if it were my kindergartener.