Student fires gun in Missouri Middle School

[barrychapman]

Student fires gun in Mo. middle school

14 minutes ago

JOPLIN, Mo. - A 13-year-old student fired an AK-47 inside his middle school Monday morning after confronting two others students and his principal, but no one was injured, authorities said.
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The student was wearing a mask and pointed the assault rifle at Principal Steve Gilbreth, Assistant Superintendent Steve Doerr and two students, saying, "not to make me do this," Superintendent Jim Simpson said.

Simpson said the teen then fired a shot into the ceiling, breaking a water pipe, and said again, "Please don't make me do this."

"It was a very close call," Simpson said.

Doerr and Gilbreth persuaded the student to leave the building, where he was confronted by two police officers with weapons drawn. The student dropped the rifle and was taken into custody, Simpson said. The student's identity was not released.

Joplin police Officer Curt Farmer said officers found a note in the student's backpack indicating that he had placed an explosive in the school, which has about 700 students. Students in the school were moved to nearby Joplin Memorial Hall, and the school was closed while officers searched the building.

The student was wearing a mask and apparently had been planning an attack for a "long time," Simpson said. He didn't elaborate and said authorities did not know whether others were involved.

Joplin, which has about 40,900 residents, is in southwest Missouri, on the Kansas border about 140 miles south of Kansas City.

Schools across the country have been on alert after three deadly school shootings in three states in the span of a week, and several schools have been locked down or closed entirely during the past two weeks because of threats.

In Pennsylvania Amish country Monday morning, church bells tolled across the region in remembrance of the five young girls who were shot to death at their one-room schoolhouse one week earlier.

[barrychapman]

this is why we need GUN CONTROL!

[Brandon28]

This is why we need parenting and not prozac and retalin!

It's not right to point fingers at guns or television or video games...it's only the easy target for a scape-goat. Public corporal punishment would solve this problem in a hurry. If parents would spend more time being active in their child's lives and show support in the child's activities, maybe they wouldn't feel any need to walk around with AK-47's to prove that they are special. It low self-esteem brought to a dramatic climax. I wish that these reporters would start shedding light on the the family life of the children. I guarantee a vast majority of the stroies would come back as "broken homes" "neglectful parents" "abusive father"...etc. These kids are trying to make up for something that is lacking in their lives and I'd be willing to bet my bankroll that it has nothing to do with a simple punishment that they received in school. Dentention doesn't cause murder. Unstable upbringing causes unstable tendancies.

[barrychapman]

So we need parents to teach kids how to be responsible with AK47's?

I think it might be wiser to not have an AK47's

[Brandon28]

That's a little too simplistic. Good parenting would keep a child's mind from accepting that an AK-47 is the means to an end.

[natas]

If this thread gets out of hand we will close it.

Please no trolling or freaking out because your Pro-gun or Anti-gun...just be nice

If not, we will invoke the Virtual Redtailboa.net GUN and do something crazy..hehe

[Bangswitch]

Very little gun control here in Texas and we dont have them problems. LOL Must be something in the water up north. LOL

[RioBravoReptiles]

These things are terrible!
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We've had a dozen of our kids terrorized, assaulted and killed in the last few weeks. Everybody is sick over it and everyone wants it to stop.. Despite the savage nature of this tragedy people are talking (even in disagreement) about it and trying to plan a way to end the violence and killing. That's a real plus about our society that sometimes we don't take seriously.
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Consider if even one of these attacks had been perpetrated by a man or woman of middle-eastern origin or a crazed North Korean or a Somali taxi driver; right now we would be mobilising our forces to invade somebody or bomb some other country (and their kids) 'back to the stone age'. That's the kind of hysteria that grips our nation.
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The discussion about our government and our foreign-policy (or lack thereof) is a big one that is too often attempted on blogs or forums and little is decided, so I don't want to start it here! ... But I will say that there is something wrong with America and Americans if we can't solve this problem of our children being targeted and killed right here at home all the while we spare no expense or effort to go exert out ideas and authority half way around the world..
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And I'll add this. I own guns and enjoy guns and have since I was old enough to do it safely. I would not want to give up the privilege to own weapons.. but I think if all you can say in response to people searching for answers to gun violence in our country is 'NO GUN CONTROL' you are part of the problem..
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Gus Rentfro.