What kind of mother buys troubled 14 year old an "assault" rifle?

[RamboLiberal]

A home-schooled teenager who felt bullied amassed a cache of guns, knives and hand grenades and tried to recruit another boy for a possible school attack, authorities said Thursday.

The 14-year-old was taken into custody after police searched his bedroom in a Philadelphia suburb on Wednesday evening. He had talked about mounting a Columbine-type attack at Plymouth Whitemarsh High School, authorities said.

The weapons included a 9mm assault rifle that the teenager's mother had recently bought for him, Montgomery County District Attorney Bruce L. Castor Jr. said. Prosecutors are reviewing her actions.

Police also found about 30 air-powered guns, plus swords, knives, hand grenades, a bomb-making book, videos of the 1999 Columbine attack in Colorado and violence-filled notebooks, Castor said. The weapons were plainly visible in the boy's bedroom, Castor said.

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hQJTz5etV1jS5HS2aFExRoauSbWQD8S7738G3

Video of kid's arsenal http://www.wxii12.com/news/14320066/detail.html - btw the kid had a hand-painted Nazi flag.

I'd like to read more about this one - but if I was the DA I'd sure be looking at charging her as well! And 30 air-powered guns - I have nothing against air-powered guns but 30 of them! Was this kid fielding his own army?

I put "assault" rifle in quotes cause news media knows diddly about guns but 9mm is still a deadly round and I'm sure this had to be a semi-auto rifle. If kids hunt or target shoot, I can understand they own a gun but except when with an adult it should be in a safe or under lock and key.

[slackmaster]

1. I would speculate that she is both stupid and in denial about her son's obvious problems

:shrug:

At least she didn't buy him any ammo.

BTW - It's illegal for anyone to sell ammunition for that particular weapon (9 mm handgun ammo) to anyone under 21.

[gatorboy]

2. A kick-ass mom.

Whooo hooooooo! *devil sign* *devil sign*

[JVS]

38. RAWK

:headbang:

[TahitiNut]

43. Better than a "you'll put your eye out with that" over-protector, huh?

:rofl:

[Rhythm and Blue]

3. How strange.

I had a .22 when I was 14 years old, but 30 BB guns? How very strange.

Really, "assault rifle" is kind of a stupid term; the difference between a "normal" rifle and an assault rifle can be absolutely trivial.

[Arkansas Granny]

15. According to friends of mine who own some of the newer air

powered guns, they bear no resemblence to the BB guns that many of us are familiar with. I've been told that they much more power and could be deadly.

http://www.pyramydair.com/

[frylock]

18. they're likely the "airsoft" guns which use a plastic pellet..

at least judging by the photo. Some of the airsoft replicas are quite realistic looking, but incapable of killing anyone.

[benEzra]

29. They had high-powered pellet guns when I was a kid (I'm 36)...

but the "guns" I see in that photo are toys/replicas that shoot harmless plastic pellets, not even BB guns (never mind pellet guns).

He did apparently have one real gun, which may have been a real threat, but the media's freaking out about TOYS is a bit pathetic.

[SyntaxError]

41. I've seen those, and a lot look very real. Particularly from a distance.

As for killing, I'm not too sure. They hurt a little, but I don't see how an airsoft gun would kill anyone without it being used as a blunt object to hit them with... even then, most are cheap plastic things.

[Ghost in the Machine]

17. Are they even real BB guns? They could be AirSoft guns that shoot plastic BBs

I sell these once in a while through one of my websites:



Looks real, huh? I wonder if the kid might have duped his mother into buying the 9mm by ordering online and making her think if was a real fancy BB gun?

[benEzra]

30. The real gun would have to have been purchased from or through a Federal Firearms Licensee...

Looks real, huh? I wonder if the kid might have duped his mother into buying the 9mm by ordering online and making her think if was a real fancy BB gun?

You can't just order a gun online and have it shipped to you (well, you can order a flintlock that way, but not post-1896 breechloading firearms). All sales of new firearms must go through a licensed gun dealer, the buyer must fill out a BATFE Form 4473 for tracing purposes, you must pass a point-of-sale background check, etc.

If she bought him the real gun, she knew what she was buying.

[Ghost in the Machine]

32. That's partly true, but not all states require a background check for long guns.

"You can't just order a gun online and have it shipped to you (well, you can order a flintlock that way, but not post-1896 breechloading firearms). All sales of new firearms must go through a licensed gun dealer, the buyer must fill out a BATFE Form 4473 for tracing purposes, you must pass a point-of-sale background check, etc."

Many states only require background checks for hand guns. I used to be more up to date on the laws, but I haven't purchased a *new* gun in years. I may be a little off. You're correct about it being sent to a local gun shop though. I prefer cash deals through private individual sellers.. classified ads are good for that.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Contact a local dealer and arrange for them to conduct the transfer.

Be sure that they are aware that a firearm will be sent to them on your behalf, and that they agree to this. Also, be sure that any and all fees associated with the transfer are agreed upon prior to the order being placed.

Have the dealer fax their FFL.

Our fax number is 920-569-4252. They can also mail it to us at:

TGSCOM, Inc
ATTN: FFL
1449 S Broadway
Green Bay, WI 54304

If you have trouble finding a dealer, visit www.FFLfinder.com.

Place the order.

You can place the order online via our secure website 24 hours a day 7 days a week, or contact us during business hours at 1-866-456-2522 to place your order.

Sit back and relax while we do the rest.

We will call you when your firearm ships. Your firearm is shipped with a copy of our FFL (Federal Firearms License), as well as your contact information so that your local dealer has no problem contacting you upon arrival.

http://www.thegunsource.com/store/Content.aspx?cKey=Buy_Guns_Online

[benEzra]

47. No, it's Federal law; all new gun sales (handgun, rifle, shotgun) must go through NICS

and the customer must fill out a Form 4473; failure to follow that process is a Federal felony. The background check originally applied to handguns only, but was extended to cover all guns when the original Brady Law (mandatory waiting period, optional background check for handgun purchases) was replaced by the NICS point-of-sale check in the mid to late 1990s.

Regarding the citation you posted, an FFL is a Federal Firearm Licensee. The sale has to go through an FFL because it is the FFL that enters the transfer in the bound book, supplies and checks the Form 4473, and runs the NICS check, just like the purchase of any other gun from a gun store/FFL. Again, failure to do so is a Federal felony, per Federal law, not state law.

[Junkdrawer]

4. Eddie Eagle's mom...

[underpants]

5. One that loves FREEDOM

[Mike Daniels]

6. Well, let's see the right wing blame this one on schools banning prayer

Since the kid was home-schooled I'm going to love watching them try to spin this one.

[aquart]

8. WHY was he home schooled?

That's the question I'd like answered.

[RamboLiberal]

12. According to story he went to school last year

Castor said the youth had attended Plymouth schools until 18 months ago, when his parents started home-schooling him because he was being bullied by other students.

The identify of the youth was not disclosed because he is a juvenile. Castor said he is considering charging the 14-year-old as an adult. The mother may also be charged, he said. The mother legally purchased the gun at a gun show, specifically for her son, said Castor. The gun has a laser sight.

http://www.philly.com/inquirer/breaking/news_breaking/20071011_High_school_open__teen_in_custody_as_threat_investigated.html

In 4 years this kid might've been prime material for military recruiters.

[Hangingon]

23. Home schooled doesn't always mean religious.

[AlCzervik]

7. a bullied home schooler?

[aquart]

9. Never in class long enough to develop social skills?

[AlCzervik]

10. who was bullying him? His Mom?

[monktonman]

13. Yeah maybe

Kids bullying there parents is not unheard of.
My son is taller than me and outweighs me by about twenty pounds.
If he wanted to, he could give me a pretty good fight.
as for his mother it would be no contest.

That being said, this mother is still responsible for her kid
having the means to act out his sicko fantasies.
When I was fourteen I couldn't hide a bag of weed in my house let alone
black powder and a bomb making manual and all of this shit was in plain sight.
what did she think he was going to do with it?

What I'd really like to see is how the righties are going to spin
the parental responsibility thing. Should be interesting.

edit to add: oooops! mis-read the post I was responding to. My bad.

[benEzra]

31. Most of "all of this shit" were toys, not weapons, and probably weren't hidden.

He apparently owned 1 gun, which his mother reportedly bought for him, a couple of worrisome books, and a couple grenades that may or may not be real.

Those are some expensive toys, though. 30 Airsofts is probably between $1000 and $3000 in toy guns, depending on brand and model.

I'm glad the police are taking the threats seriously and checking this out, though.

[Ghost in the Machine]

26. The linked article says he had "left public school voluntarily", which means

he was withdrawn by his parents, which the linked article also states. They withdrew him because he was being bullied and started homeschooling him.

[SyntaxError]

42. I would assume that perhaps he was home schooled because he was bullied...

Maybe not though. Either way, I never understood why people would want to pull their child out of school so that they could stay home instead. Good way to stifle development.

[Devlzown]

11. What's wrong with karate class?

n/t

[Art_from_Ark]

34. My mom enrolled me in judo class for just that purpose

I could never get past the part about slamming my hands down on the mat to break my fall

[RamboLiberal]

45. CNN reported cmments from his karate instructor

So he did take karate. Said he was overweight and of course "goth clothes" were mentioned. Now that is a media/society stereotype. I know most kids in to Goth are not violent and planning school massacres.

[cobalt1999]

14. Wow, and I had to beg for a .22 rifle

This kids social skills must have been severely lacking.

[michreject]

16. I saw this *cough cough* assault rifle on TV

It was a High Point.:rofl: It cost less than 200.00. It's not guaranteed to fire when the trigger is pulled. In fact, it may blow up in your hand. Can anyone say a .25 Raven in a rifle form.

[RamboLiberal]

19. I kinda figured it was a Hi Point

One of the weapons of the Columbine killers. Along with shotguns and Tec-9. While I wouldn't call the Hi-Point an assault weapon or even a good gun it is still a real firearm capable of killing. Eric Harris managed according to one report I just referenced to fire 96 rounds from it that day at Columbine.

Wikipedia on this rifle: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hi-Point_995_Carbine

[LostInAnomie]

20. My guess would be...

... an enabling piece of shit that needs her ass kicked and then to be put in jail.

[Sequoia]

21. I see that book on the table that teen in England was arrested for having:

"The Anarchist Handbook"

[Withywindle]

22. You've heard of "suicide by cop" right?

Maybe she was going for "suicide by kid."

[spanone]

24. there's some real bad parents out there....

[TheFriendlyAnarchist]

25. The arisoft guns are fun, but 30 is a excessive. And The Anarchist Cookbook

doesn't really count as a bomb making book. Most of it is inaccurate and is more of a fun read and an easy way to kill yourself if you try some of the procedures.

Kid definitely had some issues though.

[seemslikeadream]

27. Oh those crazy home schoolers

[benEzra]

28. 30 toy guns, a toy plastic sword, and the carbine wasn't an "assault rifle"...

I don't even see any real BB guns in that picture, just Airsofts (toy/replica guns that fire harmless plastic pellets, not BB's). There's also what appears to be a toy plastic sword, though it could be a metal replica (the photo quality isn't good enough to tell).

The carbine was real, but wasn't an "assault rifle." It was a low-capacity pistol-caliber carbine, a High Point. Still, I'm glad they took this seriously if the kid was making threats (unlike the Cleveland incident), and it's a obviously a big problem if he was making grenades (unless they were toys too).

But the media hysteria about toy guns and plastic toy swords is a bit over the top, as is calling a 10-shot 9mm an "assault rifle." The media needs to get a grip in this case--toy guns and plastic ninja swords aren't as relevant as the one real gun and the alleged grenades.

[RamboLiberal]

36. That Hi-Point is a deadly weapon

Look how many the Virginia Tech killer killed with a 9mm Glock 19 pistol. As I pointed out before the Hi-Point and a shotgun was weapon of Eric Harris at Columbine. Kip Kinkel with a Ruger .22 rifle, Ruger .22 pistol and a Glock 19 killed one and wounded 25. Michael Carneal in West Paducah killed 3 and wounded 5 with a Ruger .22 pistol. Only the Jonesboro school shooting did at least one of the kids use a high-power rifle which incidentally was a hunting rifle.

From a couple of images the swords looked real. Knives were also mentioned.

I'm not disturbed by the air guns except that the excess suggests this kid may be obsessed with weapons and violence especially since he seems to be obsessed with Columbine.

Police did find one homemade grenade made with black powder and BB's they said was operational and that the bomb squad blew up.

I'm a gun owner and an active shooter so I know what a 9mm can do and I'm really disturbed by how some of you are pooh poohing that this rifle can be as deadly as any other gun.

[benEzra]

48. I didn't say it wasn't.

I said that the 30 scary-looking guns shown were toys, and that the carbine was a 10-shot 9mm, not an "assault rifle."

I don't think I commented on the carbine's power or lethality compared to rifle-caliber weapons or shotguns, but firing an entire magazine from the gun would be comparable to a single round of 000 buckshot from a 12-gauge. Yes, a 9mm can be quite lethal, particularly at very close range (e.g., VT), but the freakout about it being an "assault rifle" is a bit over the top. It's a cheaply made pistol-caliber carbine with a small magazine capacity.

I agree with you 100% that his alleged threats, coupled with the possession of an actual gun (and grenades, if those allegations are true), should be taken quite seriously indeed. I just think the media are idiots for freaking out over 30 toy guns, and for calling a 10-shot pistol-caliber Hi Point an "assault rifle," and the police laying out the toys as if they were real for the media's benefit was a bit odd. The real story didn't need the P.T. Barnum style embellishments, IMHO.

[Redneck Socialist]

33. I'm glad the authorities took the threats seriously, but...

as benEzra pointed out this kid had exactly one real gun (and not by any stretch an "assault rifle") and a whole bunch of expensive toys. I doubt very much the grenades are real.

Sensationalistic reporting at its worst. Would it kill reporters to learn just a little bit about guns?

[RamboLiberal]

37. See my above post

All most of the previous school shooters who did a very efficient job of killing needed was a weapon much like the Hi-Point. Very few school killings have happened with higher power weapons.

Guess next time a kid needs a AR-15 or a 50 cal for some here to take it seriously.

Not saying this kid would have carried out the act or this was just a sick fantasy, but better investigated and stopped before any one died or wounded.

[benEzra]

52. No, that's not my point at all.

A kid with a .22 and a 9mm who is making threats is still a kid with guns making threats. That's not my point.

It bugs me that the police and/or the media were sensationalizing this above and beyond the very real threat the kid presented, by misleading people into thinking he had a huge arsenal, and by using the very loaded term "assault rifle" to refer to the cheap, low-capacity 9mm the kid had. Not that a kid with a 10-shot 9mm carbine isn't as dangerous as a kid with something else (the VT shootings involved a relative low capacity 9mm pistol, and they were the worst in recent U.S. history), just that the media were/are hyping the imaginary "arsenal" for sales and ratings, and that is despicable.

[Selatius]

35. The kid's mother? She's a FUCKING DUMBASS.

She should be in prison for this.

[JVS]

39. One who wants her kid to learn responsibility

;-)

[RamboLiberal]

40. A bit more on his kid - I think the cops did the right thing

There were three homemade grenades packed with black powder and BBs.

The other items included 30 knives and other edged weapons.

On his MySpace site, the student listed his favorite weapons, deeming the AK-47 his top choice. The site is replete with references to Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, and says one of his interests is their 1999 massacre in Columbine High School.

He sought to meet "chicks" or "followers willing to be my soldiers." His motto: "Mess with the best, Die like the rest."

"I am pretymuch," he wrote in a badly spelled post, "the posterboy for the person that rests upon the line between Geineus and Madman/Pycopath." The teenager last logged on in early September.

http://www.philly.com/inquirer/home_top_left_story/20071011_High_school_open__teen_in_custody_as_threat_investigated.html

[SyntaxError]

44. Oh yeah. He clearly has some problems...

Still not sure why they would layout all the toys like that though...

[RamboLiberal]

46. Makes a big WOW moment for the news - n/t

[Thothmes]

49. Kind of Mom

I suspect this woman is a few articles short of a full seabag. She needs to be looked at by Child Protective Services and a good shrink. JMO

[PRETZEL]

51. My office is next to theirs,

I doubt they'll tell me anything though. It would be nice though.

[PRETZEL]

50. I don't know if charging him as an adult will serve him any good

this is most certainly a kid that needs a tremendous amount of help. And this is a very real, close to home situation for me. First off, my daughter is a senior at the school that he was planning to attact. We can watch the news all we want and say what a shame, but until it hits home it always seems someone else's problem. Yesterday I wanted this kid locked up and charged as an adult and hope he never sees the light of day. But as the day went on and the information kept coming in that the Plymouth police as well as the county had handled this situation very effectively and took the threat very, very seriously my fears lessened. Today I'm not as angry.

The people who need to be held responsible are the kids parents for buying him the weapons. From looking at what this kid had I would be extremely hard pressed to believe that his parents didn't buy most of the weapons found whether it be the air rifles or the assault rifles, kids just don't have that kind of money. I know the area where this kid apparently lived. It isn't that far from my daughter's house. It's a middle class neighborhood. This isn't a situation where the kid had money to burn because his parents had money to burn. I can't even put a monetary amount on what he had but he had way more than what any teenager could accumulate.

From all reports this kid was having alot of social problems in the school district before he was taken out. I've heard reports of both voluntary and involuntary removal. My guess is that at some point the bullying got to a point where he got into a fight with another student and since the zero tolerance policies of many school districts he was told he was no longer welcome in the district. If I had to guess that would be my first choice. Colonial School District is a very good district. They are one of the better districts in the state. They should have been able to address this kid's problems while he was still attending. Most school districts have problems with bullies. Always have and always will. What has become a problem is in how the problem is now being handled. Zero tolerance policies unfortunately cause kids like him to be cast aside. Instead of dealing with the bullying issues they took the high road of "zero tolerance is zero tolerance" and cast a young man out. My guess is that his parents didn't have the skills necessary to home school him but there are a couple of alternative schools very close by where he could have gotten a better education and more social skills than what he got at home.

I guess that I'm now more of the opinion that what this young man needs more than anything else is a chance to relearn what it is to be a normal young adult. I hope Bruce Castor doesn't charge him as an adult. I hope he stays within the juevenile system and is placed in a juevenile facility. I know there are a couple in the state. My oldest son spent some time at a facility in Jim Thorpe. They have an excellent facility and program for boys. He could learn alot about being a responsible young man. He'll get the counseling he needs as well as getting an education that would allow him to earn his GED. He'll also learn how to deal with other people. My guess is that he doesn't.

I'm glad nothing more came of this. I'm very thankful for my daughter's safety. No child should have to fear for their lives when they go to school.

[RamboLiberal]

53. Update - Apparently she also bought him 2 .22 weapons

Authorities allege that the boy's mother, Michele Cossey, bought her son a .22-caliber handgun, a .22-caliber rifle and a 9 mm semiautomatic rifle. She has been charged with unlawful transfer of a firearm, possession of a firearm by a minor, corruption of a minor, endangering the welfare of a child and two counts of reckless endangerment.

According to court papers, Cossey bought the rifle and laser scope at a gun show on Sept. 23. She provided police with a receipt. Those same papers asserted the teenager told authorities he stored the two .22-caliber weapons at a friend's house.

http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/2007/10/mom-charged-in-.html


Our mom of the year candidate.