Uh-huh. Especially during hunting season, because they'd want to get some hunting done after school. Although I never did that, it wasn't unusual for people, including high school students, to pretty much always have a gun on the gun rack in their pickup truck. We used a real handgun, loaded with blanks, during a skit in the junior variety show.
What I can't get my head around is the age of this boy - only 6 years old ! Apparently the shooting happened after some altercation with his teacher and was 'not' an accident. I wonder though, is it possible he didn't realise the gun was loaded ? Could it have been a handgun small enough that a 6 yr old could think it was a toy ? I know guns are a part of the American culture for many people, but I've always believed that children were taught the dangers - at least, those children who had responsible parents who would educate them and also ensure that any guns were kept locked away so their child could not get a hold of them. I'm thinking his parents will be having a few questions to answer. Where can a boy that young get a gun other than from his own home ? I do think the school should explain why they have metal detectors but only use them on a 'random' basis, not every child is checked. Having said that though - should the school really expect it to be necessary to check children as young as 6-7 yrs old !
At the age of six, I don't know that a child is capable of understanding concepts of death, as opposed to what they might see on television, where someone is killed in one movie but soon appears in another. Television might teach them that if you get really mad at someone, you point a pistol at them and pull the trigger. I agree that in a sensible world, it would be ridiculous to make six-year-olds go t through a metal detector in order to get into school. I don't know. I suppose that if there are fingers to be pointed, the most logical thing would be to point the finger at the boy's parents, or whoever it was that he got the gun from. I don't remember it specifically, at that age, but I will assume that I had access to a shotgun and another gun, I don't remember if it was the .22 or the 9 mm rifle, that were generally leaning up against the wall by the door, but I would have never thought to touch either of them at the age of six. Shooting a rifle would have been difficult at that age too, I suppose. I don't know; I never tried. I also don't remember, specifically, my father telling me not to touch the guns, so that was probably a message that was conveyed from an earlier age, so I don't remember the conversation but I got the message, nevertheless. My dad had a handgun, as well, but I never in my life knew where he kept that hidden so, presumably, he recognized the handgun as being something that a child might be more likely to put his hands on. That was not left lying around, most likely because it wouldn't be the handgun he'd want to be able to grab quickly if a fox was after the chickens. My point is that most people today, especially including people in law enforcement, social services, and the media, (and probably some of you) would have considered it to be horribly irresponsible for someone to leave weapons leaning against the wall in a house with five male children, but it wasn't, because we had other forces at work that ensured that we weren't going to be shooting people with these guns, or even touching them at such a young age. Whatever that thing is, it seems that too many families are missing that today. Perhaps there is also the idea that, because people generally keep their weapons hidden or locked away from children today, kids are more likely to be intrigued by them. As a child, I wasn't intrigued by guns. I knew what guns were, I knew what they would do, and I knew that they weren't something that I should be touching at the age of six. Had I never seen one before, except on television, and someone inadvertently left one out, I might have been more interested in it. I had a handgun while I was raising my son, but he didn't know that I had it until he was twenty and helping me pack when I was moving to Texas. I raised him in Long Beach and Anaheim, so I wasn't worried about keeping a fox out of the henhouse.
As a kid, there were always long guns around. I wasn't much interested in handguns until there were efforts to make them illegal. I bought a .22 rifle when I was 12 and a deer rifle when I was 15. I wouldn't be able to do that now in many locations. When I moved to Alaska, everybody who ventures into the wild needs to carry some kind of firearm, as we have critters around (beside humans) who can do you some serious harm. A friend in British Columbia told me recently that a wolf walked past his chicken house while his wife was inside tending to the poultry. No tracks when she entered, but a large set of tracks when she exited. Fortunately she didn't open the door to face down a wolf.
I grew up around guns too. I don't think I knew anyone who didn't have guns. Almost everyone I knew growing up hunted. My dad never locked up his guns, nor my grandparents or relatives. My dad's guns were on a gun rack or in a gun cabinet in the house. We knew not to touch them because we were taught very early that guns were not toys. And like some have already said before, some kids had guns on a gun rack in their trucks, when they came to school. No one brought them into school and no one thought anything about it. We just knew better. I don't know why there is so many shootings. It is sad. Is it a generational thing? Is it the violent video games? Lack of family values? Break down of society? I don't have any answers.
I think it is largely the breakdown of the family and society. We can't have fathers and mothers; everybody is just parents and maybe only one in a home at a time.
Maybe too many violent movies in TV / movies / video games we didn’t have / see as kids …..Wonder what this CHILD has told police a reason ? for his actions without reading the story did he target the teacher ? We are not allowed to have guns in Australia unless your a primary producer or in security / police and of course there will always be unregistered guns in the wrong hands
And the parents were not so much drama queens/ Kings. Maybe parents need to spend more time interacting with kids and less time online like Facebook.
Well, guess I'd better not tell my SIL anymore when wife and I go to the Range. I told her about us going this past Saturday morning and sent (IM) a picture of the target my wife shot at with the Sig Sauer .22. First comment she made back was about this student. She is a retired Special Education teacher and heard about this. She is very, and I mean "VERY" anti-gun. I believe she has one, that is, a handgun her deceased husband had, but she's told me that she has no idea how to use it and never wants to. Thing is, will this kind of thing ever stop?? I guess it's one of the "very good questions" of how society is today.
Well, how freakin' ridiculous is this going to get?? "They" keep trying to force us all to electric EVERYTHING, while the power grid can't even support the existing load. This really pisses me off. From The National Review... https://www.yahoo.com/news/biden-administration-considers-banning-gas-163829836.html And get a load of this... apparently gas stoves are racist according to that King of Fools, Corey Booker. From the article, "Senator Cory Booker (D., N.J.) and Representative Don Beyer (D., Va.) wrote a letter to the Consumer Product Safety Commission agency last month urging the commission to address the issue and calling the harmful emissions a “cumulative burden” on black, Latino and low-income households. " Gotta bring race into everything now, doncha' know? So low-income households can afford new appliances? Or will the taxpayers be footing another bill for electric stoves that will suddenly be overpriced and in short supply? Our natural gas bill is the cheapest utility we have. I have been using gas stoves for my entire life and so far, so good. Thankfully I know that open flames require sufficient ventilation, which is all that needs to be taught. Stupid crap.
The dumb-asses better figure out where we are going to get all this electric from. Oh wait! They don't care.
We have gas heat, gas water heater, and gas stove. I guess our home will be condemned soon as unfit for human habitation.
Us too. You would think that as many things as there are collapsing around this administration, they would have a few other things to think about that something that has been going on for over 150 years.