Boy Charged with Felony for Rubberband Gun

[RoadRash 0]

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Holy cow, can you imagine what they woulda done to the kid if the rubberband gun had a collapsible stock, a pistol grip, and a bayonet/Fischer-Price flashlight attachment??

Hehhe. Or what if you could load up 11 rubberbands at once GASP!!!

~R+R...If he had brought such a "weapon" to school, he probably would "go straight to jail, do not pass go, do not collect $200." And wouldn't have a get out of jail free card lying around...

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Fly the friendly skies...^_^...})ii({...^_~...

[kallend 1,651]

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(Except maybe for Kallend, who I imagine is laughing at the boy's misfortune.)

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I don't think he should be on a felony charge - I think he should be seeing a psychiatrist. Taking toy guns to school I could understand in a 7 year old, but this kid is 15 for heaven's sake.

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The only sure way to survive a canopy collision is not to have one.

[PhillyKev 0]

Maybe he took it for it's intended purpose. To shoot a rubber band at someone. Hell, I still shoot rubber bands at people. In fact...wait, here comes my intern, I'll be back.....

[kelpdiver 2]

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Maybe he took it for it's intended purpose. To shoot a rubber band at someone. Hell, I still shoot rubber bands at people. In fact...wait, here comes my intern, I'll be back.....

Did you ever cause the entire office to be evacuated?

So let's sum it up - do any of you besides Kallend think that his acts should result in punishment?

[Kennedy 0]

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There needs to be some common sense worked into the zero tollerance...

Not possible, the two are mutually exclusive.

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witty subliminal message
Guard your honor, let your reputation fall where it will, and outlast the bastards.
1*

[peacefuljeffrey 0]

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Maybe he took it for it's intended purpose. To shoot a rubber band at someone. Hell, I still shoot rubber bands at people. In fact...wait, here comes my intern, I'll be back.....

Did you ever cause the entire office to be evacuated?

So let's sum it up - do any of you besides Kallend think that his acts should result in punishment?

He broke a rule of the school, so yes, of course I do. And I think that the WORST punishment he should possibly stand to suffer is staying after school each day for a week -- what we used to call "after-school detention." It meant you had to sit in a room bored, doing nothing and not speaking, for an hour or so, and you had to take the late bus home or arrange for your parents to pick you up.

This kid's transgression does NOT rise to the level of involving police or any other non-school authorities. This is ridiculous. I can't believe we're even discussing what should happen to a kid who brought something that shoots fuckin' rubber bands to school. Clearly, if you have a fuckin' brain in your head (school administrators, I'm talkin' to YOU), you realize that a rubber band gun that does not bear any resemblance to any kind of real gun is brought to school (albeit in a judgment error) for the purpose of HIJINKS -- NOT to do actual harm or crime.

If we want to create a generation of truly fucked up kids who will later become troublesome adults, let's keep branding kids as some sort of pariahs because they do things that kids do -- including fuck up, make mistakes, use bad judgment -- particularly when we're not talking about actual criminal acts. What will we do when we have tremendous numbers of kids whose lives and records are ruined because they were EXPELLED from school for innocent and petty errors or transgressions? Is this the world that you damned liberals really want? These same shrieking liberals who scream and clamor for "zero tolerance for weapons" are the same stupid bastards who argue that it's too harsh to put 15-year-olds who shoot and kill people through adult legal channels and into the adult penal system when they reach 18. But bring a fucking RUBBER BAND GUN to school, and everyone freaks out and wants to expel the kid.

Someone mentioned that the parents freak out about any mention of a gun in school, and many of the freakers are those who know little about guns. I think it is a problem when everyone must jump and say "how high?" whenever the most hysterical and hypersensitive people in the population get freaked by tiny things. We should not have to tailor all our responses to events in order to placate the most timid, weak, frightened or irrational among us. Those who can stand forth and take control of a situation rationally and calmly are the ones who should decide what actions are to be taken. But just because some frightened hysterical people get really shrill whenever some shit goes down, it seems that the pressure gets put on the reasonable people to appease the unreasonable ones. That just isn't right.
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-Jeffrey
"With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

[Kennedy 0]

Do the words "Pearl, Mississippi" mean anything to anyone here?


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witty subliminal message
Guard your honor, let your reputation fall where it will, and outlast the bastards.
1*

[kallend 1,651]

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Maybe he took it for it's intended purpose. To shoot a rubber band at someone. Hell, I still shoot rubber bands at people. In fact...wait, here comes my intern, I'll be back.....

Did you ever cause the entire office to be evacuated?

So let's sum it up - do any of you besides Kallend think that his acts should result in punishment?

I didn't say he should be punished. I said he should see a psychiatrist, as should any 15 year old who still takes toys to school. You are all uptight because of the "gun" symbolism, but I see it as no different than taking a GI Joe Doll or a Barbie to school at age 15 - there's something wrong with this kid.

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The only sure way to survive a canopy collision is not to have one.

[PhillyKev 0]

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I didn't say he should be punished. I said he should see a psychiatrist, as should any 15 year old who still takes toys to school. You are all uptight because of the "gun" symbolism, but I see it as no different than taking a GI Joe Doll or a Barbie to school at age 15 - there's something wrong with this kid.

I stopped playing with toy space ships when I was 12. Have you discussed your model rockets with your psychiatrist?

[AggieDave 6]

I had rubberband guns still laying around when I was 15, although my toys had moved up a bit, I was hard-core into paintball at that point, but I kept my rubber band guns and my pellet guns around. Target practice *is* target practice.

I bet he'd frown on my paintballing at that age as well. The guille suit I made, the sniper tactics I studied in depth, the hours I spent in the woods working on my stalking techniques. I guess to him I would have also needed "serious psychiatric help", when in fact I was just practicing to be the absolute best at my game.

You know what? All of that "playing" when according to Kallend I should have been joining gangs, doing drugs or something, has actually helped me out as an adult. I'm now very accurate and very fast in tactical situations with a handgun. It all blossomed perfectly into my "real" training.

You know, thinking about it, my "toys" haven't really moved up much, they just cost a whole damn lot more and do more damage.

--"When I die, may I be surrounded by scattered chrome and burning gasoline."

[kallend 1,651]

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I didn't say he should be punished. I said he should see a psychiatrist, as should any 15 year old who still takes toys to school. You are all uptight because of the "gun" symbolism, but I see it as no different than taking a GI Joe Doll or a Barbie to school at age 15 - there's something wrong with this kid.

I stopped playing with toy space ships when I was 12. Have you discussed your model rockets with your psychiatrist?

I don't take them to school!

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The only sure way to survive a canopy collision is not to have one.

[kallend 1,651]

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I had rubberband guns still laying around when I was 15, although my toys had moved up a bit, I was hard-core into paintball at that point, but I kept my rubber band guns and my pellet guns around. Target practice *is* target practice.

I bet he'd frown on my paintballing at that age as well. The guille suit I made, the sniper tactics I studied in depth, the hours I spent in the woods working on my stalking techniques. I guess to him I would have also needed "serious psychiatric help", when in fact I was just practicing to be the absolute best at my game.

You know what? All of that "playing" when according to Kallend I should have been joining gangs, doing drugs or something, has actually helped me out as an adult. I'm now very accurate and very fast in tactical situations with a handgun. It all blossomed perfectly into my "real" training.

You know, thinking about it, my "toys" haven't really moved up much, they just cost a whole damn lot more and do more damage.

Did you take your toys to school?

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The only sure way to survive a canopy collision is not to have one.

[wmw999 2,150]

At 15, my son took his very cool (and cool-looking) dragon-shaped mini-blowtorch to school. That would probably count as a "toy" in this sense. Kids that age often like finding rules they can break.

It was, of course, discovered (duh), they took it away from him in front of all the kids who were admiring it, and called me so that I knew what had happened. I thought that was a very sensible disposition of the whole matter.

I'm sure if he had been doing something besides collecting "oohs" and "aahs" with it there would have been some detention or something to go along with it.

Stupid things that kids who should generally be treated in such a way that other kids begin to realize that they're more stupid than anything. They're often herd creatures, use this, rather than fighting it.

Wendy W.

There is nothing more dangerous than breaking a basic safety rule and getting away with it. It removes fear of the consequences and builds false confidence. (tbrown)

[leroydb 0]

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qualified as a weapon because it ``has a trigger mechanism and can fire a projectile.''

BS, give him dention and suspend him for a couple days and spank him, make him stand in the corner... just dont give him a rap sheet already....

Leroy


..I knew I was an unwanted baby when I saw my bath toys were a toaster and a radio...

[AggieDave 6]

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Did you take your toys to school?

I took paintball gun parts to school all the time, to show them off to my paintballing friends. Especially the new bolt and barrel I had purchased that really setup my paintball marker for sniper action.

Rubberband gun? Yup, took that to school all the damn time, but that was more of a way of life in the organizations I was in...causing trouble on our own time before marching band practice, etc.

Basically, you're wrong when saying this kid is "special" and must have some sort of problem. Knew you taught physics, but didn't know you had taken to being professional psrink and able to diagnose problems without ever seeing someone.

--"When I die, may I be surrounded by scattered chrome and burning gasoline."

[kallend 1,651]

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Did you take your toys to school?

I took paintball gun parts to school all the time, to show them off to my paintballing friends. Especially the new bolt and barrel I had purchased that really setup my paintball marker for sniper action.

Rubberband gun? Yup, took that to school all the damn time, but that was more of a way of life in the organizations I was in...causing trouble on our own time before marching band practice, etc.

Basically, you're wrong when saying this kid is "special" and must have some sort of problem. Knew you taught physics, but didn't know you had taken to being professional psrink and able to diagnose problems without ever seeing someone.

Well, I asked a local 15 year old what he would think of a kid that took a toy gun to school. He thought I was wierd even for asking the question. Apparently around here the kids would laugh at someone that took toys to high school.

Maybe it's different in the south.

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The only sure way to survive a canopy collision is not to have one.

[AggieDave 6]

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Well, I asked a local 15 year old what he would think of a kid that took a toy gun to school. He thought I was wierd even for asking the question. Apparently around here the kids would laugh at someone that took toys to high school.

Maybe it's different in the south

Well, since you polled one kid, I'm sure its true across the board. In my limited experience, kids tend to be kids, I'm sure if you ran a true poll with kids from different backgrounds from different schools,etc , you'd find a decent percentage.

--"When I die, may I be surrounded by scattered chrome and burning gasoline."

[PhillyKev 0]

And I'll bet when you said "toy gun" he was thinking a cap pistol. Did you tell him it was a rubber band shooting rifle?

I didn't know they existed and when I read this and found out about them I thought.....whoa, that's cool.

On the other hand, I probably do need a psychiatrist, so I'm not the best advocate here.

[kelpdiver 2]

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These same shrieking liberals who scream and clamor for "zero tolerance for weapons" are the same stupid bastards who argue that it's too harsh to put 15-year-olds who shoot and kill people through adult legal channels and into the adult penal system when they reach 18. But bring a fucking RUBBER BAND GUN to school, and everyone freaks out and wants to expel the kid.

So to review, you're upset at the liberals because they want to coddle teenage killers, but throw the book at kids who bring innocent items to school.

You instead want to throw the book at killers (good), but give a slap on the wrist to kids who cause an evacuation of their school? They may or may not have overreacted to the sight of the 'gun,' though it's not clear that anyone here has seen a picture of the item, nor has provided one. None of you can dispute that he concealed the item, exaccerbating the situation. Still, in your mind that's on par with getting caught smoking in the bathroom.

I guess I can't see a consistency there.

Kallend, based on the limited info we have, I don't see any cause for a shrink. The kid did something stupid and then made it worse trying not to get caught.
Apparently he has had some disciplinary issues in the past, so it seems best that he start being taught that mistakes have prices. Not - "cool, I fucked up the whole school for a day and all I had to do was go to detention for a week."

[peacefuljeffrey 0]

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Maybe he took it for it's intended purpose. To shoot a rubber band at someone. Hell, I still shoot rubber bands at people. In fact...wait, here comes my intern, I'll be back.....

Did you ever cause the entire office to be evacuated?

So let's sum it up - do any of you besides Kallend think that his acts should result in punishment?

I didn't say he should be punished. I said he should see a psychiatrist, as should any 15 year old who still takes toys to school. You are all uptight because of the "gun" symbolism, but I see it as no different than taking a GI Joe Doll or a Barbie to school at age 15 - there's something wrong with this kid.

No, what I'm "uptight" about is your elitist attitude that says if you don't understand something or have those feelings yourself, anyone who does ought to be dragged to a shrink to find out what's "wrong" with them.

This is the fallacy of the elitist.

Just because YOU think that a 15-year-old who likes toys (and this was hardly a little G.I. Joe figure, anyway) needs to have a psychological evaluation doesn't mean he does, or that there's something mentally wrong or otherwise retarded about him.

When did YOU become the judge of "the norm" and the arbiter of what needs to be done with those who fall outside of it?

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-Jeffrey
"With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

[peacefuljeffrey 0]

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Well, I asked a local 15 year old what he would think of a kid that took a toy gun to school. He thought I was wierd even for asking the question. Apparently around here the kids would laugh at someone that took toys to high school.

Maybe it's different in the south.

Yes, Kallend, everyone must be homogenized, and perish the thought of anyone being an individual and doing things despite the fact that others laugh. In fact, we must stamp out the notion of anyone doing anything that any other person might find odd or hard to understand. We'll be that much closer to your Utopia.
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-Jeffrey
"With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

[peacefuljeffrey 0]

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So to review, you're upset at the liberals because they want to coddle teenage killers, but throw the book at kids who bring innocent items to school.

You instead want to throw the book at killers (good), but give a slap on the wrist to kids who cause an evacuation of their school? They may or may not have overreacted to the sight of the 'gun,' though it's not clear that anyone here has seen a picture of the item, nor has provided one. None of you can dispute that he concealed the item, exaccerbating the situation. Still, in your mind that's on par with getting caught smoking in the bathroom.

Yes. I already said that innocent-ish actions that did not have the potential to cause actual harm should not be punished based upon the degree or severity of the IRRATIONAL reaction that some may have to them. We need to separate the truth of the action from the hysterical REaction that some of these hand-wringing, paranoid, fearful parents have.

If I were really weird and every time someone said the word "mattress" in my presence I put a bag over my head and refused to take it off, you would not tell a person who said the word mattress that he had done something wrong. The fault lies in MY unreasonable reaction, not in the reasonable action that brought it out of me.

It has been established that the cop involved clearly stated that there could be no confusion between this rubber band gun and a real gun. That's the basis I use to judge that the adults went overboard in their school lockdown, etc. I think that blame for the school evacuation/lockdown/whatever should be pinned on the first person who went to an authority figure claiming to have seen a real gun in a student's possession. THAT'S who started a panic.
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-Jeffrey
"With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

[JohnRich 4]

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"No, what I'm "uptight" about is your elitist attitude that says if you don't understand something or have those feelings yourself, anyone who does ought to be dragged to a shrink to find out what's "wrong" with them."

and...

"I already said that innocent-ish actions that did not have the potential to cause actual harm should not be punished based upon the degree or severity of the IRRATIONAL reaction that some may have to them. We need to separate the truth of the action from the hysterical REaction that some of these hand-wringing, paranoid, fearful parents have."

Bravo! Well said!

[kelpdiver 2]

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It has been established that the cop involved clearly stated that there could be no confusion between this rubber band gun and a real gun. That's the basis I use to judge that the adults went overboard in their school lockdown, etc.

Established where? Certainly not here, based on the text of the Herald article. I asked several times for more detail - a picture would have been useful - feel free to provide it.

[sdgregory 0]

Dude that is one kick as gun. I am ordering one now.