Text 400, 132 rader
Skriven 2007-04-27 18:14:09 av Roy Witt (1:397/22)
    Kommentar till text 138 av Ward Dossche (2:292/854)
Ärende: Shootings
=================
22 Apr 07 10:01, Ward Dossche wrote to Roy Witt:


 RW>> "Germany has some of the most strict firearms laws in the world. But
 RW>> a school shooting this week raises the question of whether the
 RW>> Internet presents a loophole for illegally acquiring weapons."

 RW>> http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,2245918,00.html

 RW>> November, 2006 wasn't that long ago.

 WD> A friend of mine was a teacher. He caught a student of his with a
 WD> live hand-grenade with the safety out but the (I don't know the
 WD> English word, but in Dutch it is called the "spoon") spoon still in
 WD> place [taped down].

You're probably describing a Russian made grenade (what was that WW1 & WW2
German grenade called? Potato Masher?)...there is a 'locking' pin on a US
grenade which locks the 'lever' that releases the firing pin.

The release lever flys off of the US grenade once it's, errrr, released. I
don't know how it's timed to go off, but the thrower has about ten seconds
to duck after he's thrown it.

 WD> The school was evacuated. Some 10 years ago.

I took my .22 rifle to school many times so I could go shooting after
school. I always left it in the 'cloak' hall. It was always there when
school was out. I did have a third grade teacher throw a fit because she
found a cap-pistol in my desk once. She probably figured I was planning on
disrupting the class with it. Nobody even thought about what firearms in
the hands of kids could do in those days.

 WD> Kid bought it from an other kid who had emigrated from Kosovo with
 WD> his parents and found it there.

How did he get it thru customs?

 WD> Seems he made an extra buck with selling weaponry which he had
 WD> brought along.

I was offered an M-16 that a GI brought home in pieces. It was clearly
marked US Government Property. I wouldn't have bought it anyway, but
anyone who did was looking for more trouble than they would have imagined.
The kid who offered it to me, got it from his friend who burgled the
owner's house to get it.

 WD> That friend of mine also has been threatened in class by a kid with a
 WD> gun. A real gun, and loaded. He has also been assaulted by a kid with
 WD> a knife.

Not uncommon, even when I was in school. The knife part, not the gun part.
We had 'hoodlums' back then who acted just like what you describe next.

 WD> I call that "street violence" though because all of them wanted to be
 WD> tough, never got it into their heads of "this morning I'll go to
 WD> school and kill a bunch of people because life sucks".

Been there, seen the movie.

 WD> In the process of such occasional "street violence" or "petty
 WD> criminality" people sometimes get hurt, it is not a daily factor of
 WD> life though. Kids don't have to go through a metal detector here and
 WD> agree to body-searches in order to go to school.

They shouldn't have to do that here either, but we're seeing the paranoia
and now the real thing like VT.

 RW>> Not really. A copycat shooter put a bullet into a co-worker and then
 RW>> himself at the NASA space center in Houston, just two days after the
 RW>> VT incident. It has been reported nation wide. Front page stuff too!

 WD> Because of VT ... without VT it would have been local news or at best
 WD> a minor item as NASA was involved.

It was reported as a copy-cat shooting here...that happens a lot.

 RW>> Not many...you just think there is. BTW, the last major school
 RW>> shooting on the same level as VT, was in 1999 at Columbine High
 RW>> School in Colorado.

 WD> So the 5 girls killed at the West Nickel Mines School in PA is not
 WD> "major"? Oct.2 2006?

Forgot about that one...however, look at where the victims are; Known to
be unarmed, Amish people...had there been a chance of someone carrying a
firearm in that community, it may never have happened in a school.

 RW>WD>> And the one constant is ... "USA".

 RW>> Sure it is, if you're looking to make a case against freedom to
 RW>> possess firearms in the USA...

 WD> Not at all. I'm troubled about the "why" but also "why in the US and
 WD> not here".

Different societies...kids here these days are left at home (aka Latch-key
kids) to their own devices until a parent comes home...then they're
ignored and allowed to do as they want. What was that old saying about
'idle hands'...

 WD> Youngsters (and people) are basically the same everywhere, at least
 WD> in the western hemisphere I would like to believe. So what is
 WD> different for it to happen in the US and not so much here? Is it
 WD> access to fire-arms after all? Mind you, I don't have the answer.

I don't believe it is, but it may be a combination of things that we
didn't have before, say 1963...even then, the only reason the gun-control
act of 1968 came to be was because of the rash of asassinations, JFK,
MLK, RFK.

 WD> As a parent, so are you, I always have a sick feeling in the stomach
 WD> when such things happen.

Fortunately, mine are all grown up and know the ins and outs of firearms
ownership...I must have done a good job, as none of them have ever gotten
into trouble because of them. My son was picked up by the police once
because he fit the description of a person who had raped a girl, but after
questioning, he was released. (the questioning and accusation really
pissed him off)

 WD> It could happen to your own child which, after all, is your most
 WD> prized "possession" ... they're all unique and irreplaceable.

I worry more about the grandkids than I do about my own kids. They've got
a hard row to hoe in their future.


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