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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsCalifornia School Shooter Allegedly Had a Hit List of People Who Bullied Him
By Daniel Politi | Posted Friday, Jan. 11, 2013, at 10:59 AM ET
When the 16-year-old student walked into his first-period science class late on Thursday he was carrying a shotgun and apparently knew exactly who he was targeting when he opened fire at Taft Union High School. Officials in the small Kern County community, around 120 miles northwest of Los Angeles, are investigating reports that the boy had a hit list of students he felt had bullied him that he had compiled last year, reports the Bakersfield Californian. He had intended targets. There's no question, Kern County Sheriff Donny Youngblood said.
Rebecca Jackson, a 17-year-old senior tells the paper the shooter was anti-social and constantly afraid of ridicule. Few people would talk to him because he said "really weird, random crap." That seems to be why no one took him seriously when he had hinted at his plans the day before the shooting.
He had told me yesterday, some more of that crap. He was joking that he was like gonna kill (the victim) and I thought that it was just a joke because he usually jokes around like that, like telling people that he's gonna kill them, or skin them alive or something, or eat their puppies, Jackson said. So I really didn't take that seriously, and he was going around all day telling people that, you know, he was, he might not be there tomorrow and not to worry about it, he might not be around for a little while. No one actually thought that he would do this.
After critically injuring a classmate, who was apparently a football player, the science teacher, Ryan Heber, managed to talk the student into giving up the shotgun. "I don't want to shoot you," he told the well-liked teacher, who managed to provide enough of a distraction to allow 28 students to escape the classroom, reports the Associated Press. The suspect is in custody. The injured boy is in critical, but stable, condition and is expected to survive.
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http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2013/01/11/taft_union_high_school_shooting_hit_list_bullied_students.html?wpisrc=newsletter_jcr:content
d_r
(6,907 posts)you are a hero.
That's what brave people do, right there.
MineralMan
(146,317 posts)dkf
(37,305 posts)MineralMan
(146,317 posts)The deal is that you don't know anything about this student or the student he shot. You have some unsupported claim of bullying.
In any case, bullying needs to be dealt with by school administrators or even the police. It's not up to the bullied person to bring a gun to school and shoot those he believes have bullied him.
So, how sad are you supposed to be? That's up to you, I guess. I'm pretty sad that another school shooting has taken place. I'm pretty sad that bullying isn't properly dealt with.
But how you feel about it isn't my business.
bluestate10
(10,942 posts)Part of the response to gun violence must focus on mental illness and bullying in addition to keeping guns out of the hands of dangerous people.
MineralMan
(146,317 posts)by kids shooting other kids, though. The solution has to come before it gets to that point.
mikeysnot
(4,757 posts)Where did he get the shotgun from? Let me guess.... mmmm. A law-abiding responsible gun owner? Perhaps? Maybe....
One more question, does a shotgun qualify as a long gun?
MineralMan
(146,317 posts)it probably belonged to a family member. Taft is a small town outside of Bakersfield, CA. Lots of people there hunt and own shotguns. I own a shotgun, myself. Mine is not accessible to any high school students, but when I was a high school student, there were three shotguns in my home. I never took one to school and shot anyone, though.
Recursion
(56,582 posts)There are Federal and state limits on shotgun choke and barrel length that don't apply to rifles, for instance. The AWB limited what kind of "tacitcal" shotguns one could have (which is troubling to me since the "tactical" features it banned weren't ones that made them more deadly but ones that made them more safe to operate, which is why military shotguns have those features, which is why they "look military" .
They're also the only kind of weapon I've ever personally owned, years ago, when I was working on my grandfather's ranch, and they're very useful at killing snakes and coyotes.
nadinbrzezinski
(154,021 posts)Pab Sungenis
(9,612 posts)is that we lionize the bullies whose own actions force their victims to snap and kill them. We treat the oppressors as the victims. We let their blood wash their sins clean and transfer them all onto their victim who could see no other alternative but to take up arms.
When we stop treating bullies like heroes then maybe we'll be able to start solving this problem.