Tag Archives: safe handling

Hmm kind of things

I ran across this story tonight, ‘I didn’t mean to’: Police reveal 12-year-old girl ACCIDENTALLY shot at classmates and injured five in LA middle school after dropping her backpack which was carrying a loaded gun Some of the bullet points in the article were

  • Police say the shooting at Salvador Castro Middle School in Los Angeles on Thursday morning was accidental

  • A 12-year-old girl was arrested and charged with negligent discharge of a firearm on school grounds

  • One of the girl’s classmates said she told him the gun was in her backpack and that it accidentally went off when she dropped the bag

  • Another classmate said the girl had said she thought it was a toy gun

  • Shooting left one teenager critically wounded and three other children injured

  • A 15-year-old male was shot in the temple and remains in intensive care, while a girl, 15, was shot in the wrist

  • Two other students, as well as a 30-year-old woman, were treated for non-gunshot wounds

A 12-year-old girl was arrested after gunfire erupted at Salvador Castro Middle School on Thursday morning.

Los Angeles police spokesman Josh Rubenstein says the girl has since been charged with negligent discharge of a firearm on school grounds.

The charge comes after one of the girl’s classmates, also 12, revealed he spoke to her moments after the gun went off and said she was sobbing and repeatedly saying: ‘I didn’t mean it.’

She told him the gun was in her backpack and that it accidentally went off when she dropped the bag.

Another classmate also said the girl didn’t mean to hurt anyone, saying she thought it was a toy gun.

The list of injured: A 15-year-old male who was shot in the temple,a girl, 15, suffered a gunshot wound to her wrist, an 11-year-old boy and a 12-year-old girl were grazed and were treated and released from the hospital, and a 30 year old woman was also injured and treated in hospital.

This baffles me. Modern firearms are pretty reliable, and I understand it most modern firearms are unlikely to “go off” if dropped. I said most. I know I’ve certainly had a very stern talk with mine. Since people control advocates seem to feel guns have a mind of their own, I thought I’d cover all the bases and make sure mine realize that is unacceptable behavior. But back to my pondering.

The girl had the gun in her backpack. The story doesn’t say how she obtained it. Nor does it say why she had it in her backpack, or who she got it from. I’m actually not dogging the reporter on this, I just don’t think it was known. I am astonished she is being charged with negligent discharge and not the mountain of other crimes with which a normal concealed carrier would have been charged. We are talking about California #FutureVenezuela here. Or as my compatriot Bear calls it, “Occupied territory”.

But if she A) dropped the backpack B) the gun just went off. How many times did it go off that so many were wounded off of one cartridge? It’s making me think of the JFK assassination “magic bullet”. I’m not saying it couldn’t have happened that way, crowded hall and all, but, still.

The whole thing is just sad. And without knowing any other background the one thing that is front in my mind is that if firearms education were allowed in schools perhaps this would never happen as the girl, who’s life is bound to be a mess now if it wasn’t before, would have known the difference between a toy gun and a real one. She would have known safe gun handling practices if she had stumbled upon one, and she sure as heck would have known you don’t play with them.

But no, California would never allow firearms education in schools, after all, it’s for the children.

But had this been a real school shooting, with gun fire “erupting” as the column stated I’m quite sure the toll would have been far higher. After all, schools are Gun-free zones, to keep everyone “safe”. That’s “for the children” too.

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