If the five teens in southeast Kansas hoped to evoke memories of Columbine with their own massacre at Riverton High School, they succeeded without firing a shot. Their pre-emptive arrest Thursday, after a warning about the alleged plot turned up on the Web site MySpace.com, again had people wondering how other students could know what was going on but parents and authorities apparently didn’t, and whether these kids, described as “different,” were seeking revenge for being bullied. Much remains to be sorted out about this shocking story. But you have to wonder whether the Columbine anniversary, April 20, will ever stop being a day to worry about.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
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33 Comments
I would like to point out the frivolousness of schools being a “gun free” zone.
It is a joke.
Obviously all those signs around schools saying they are a gun free zone don’t mean much to all the students around the country who still bring guns to school.
About the only good coming from our schools being gun free and having a 0 tolerance policy on guns is that kids who play paintball and have their paintball gun in the back seat of their car for their next tournament get suspended or expelled. Kids who draw pictures of soldiers with guns get suspended.
If employees of schools were allowed to carry concealed if they wanted to I bet those kids bringing guns to school might not be able to kill as many of their fellow students.
The bad guys are already bringing guns to school. It is time to let the good guys do it.
Nathan,
The article didn’t mention any guns found in the school, only “documents about firearms and references to Armageddon.” (By the way, isn’t that from the Bible? Revelation 16:16: “And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon” (KJV).) I’m certainly not saying this was religiously oriented though. Kids tend to take simple things and run with them. The sad thing is, no one could’ve done anything if those things had been found and nothing else had surfaced. There’s no law against “documents about firearms and references to Armageddon,” even in school.
They did find “guns, ammunition, knives and coded messages in the bedroom of one of the suspects.” If it weren’t for the MySpace missives and those coded messages (whatever the heck that means), it could be any other boy, (you included at that age, I’m guessing), especially those living in a small rural town. Could be they’d all attended firearms training, too.
So what separates these 5 boys from someone like you–a responsible person? I admit to not having answers, but I’m curious to know if you have an idea, you being a gun proponent and all. How are any of us supposed to know who’s safe and who isn’t?
By the way, the Gun Free Zone doesn’t mean it’s necessarily “gun free.” It means guns aren’t allowed, and steps are taken to keep it that way. Still, there are those who believe it’s okay to take to go to any extremes to make their point, like these 5 who were seeking revenge because they were seen as “different.”
April 20 was Hilter’s Birthday i belive that was part of the movite of the columbine kids its also a 4-20 is code for getting stoned you would think that the WE editors would know some historical and popculture refs
Nathan,I’m beginning to wonder about you. Arm the teachers? Armed guards? Gun fight at the O K Coral? When I came back from Viet Nam, I didn’t pick up a weapon until over 30 years later. Seeing humans that don’t look human anymore did a little something to my machismo. Gunfights in schools, I’m afraid, bring back some of those memories. The “NO GUN” rule is a good one. Keep it.
Funny that no one talks about Waco or Ruby Ridge anymore. Could that be because the government made MASSIVE blunders in those incidences?
But with Columbine, you can always blame the kids and parents and schools and our evil society.
I hear John Prine singing “now jesus dont like killin’ no matter what the reason’s for…”
Move along folks, nothing to see at Waco or Ruby Ridge.
KSFG, OKC bombing took the righteous indignation out of Ruby ridge and Waco some. I remember them as well as the OKC bombings every April 19. But two wrongs do not make a right is brought home with OKC, All three were the worst of times, showing the error of the “ Kill them all and let God sort them out” line of thinking. Any time there is the lost of innocent life should bring the loss of some of our innocent.
JM Walker: To you if I have never said it before, “Welcome home, job well done!”. Sorry for the message being so late.
KFG, I have a book suggestion you might find worth reading.
Cold Zero: Inside the FBI Hostage Rescue Team by Christopher Whitcomb
I found it to be a very interesting read for a different look into Waco, Ruby Ridge, and others. It’s only fair to hear both sides. ;)
I agree writerdog and RD. Two wrongs dont make a right, and there were mistakes made on all sides at Ruby Ridge and Waco.
But covering up the government mistakes just lets them operate in secret.
Like the NSA spying on domestic calls and private citizens. If someone doesnt speak about it, it will go on with impunity.
But then, my god is the u.s. government. heheh.
Wow KFG…
Now it is the NSA spying on domestic calls and private citizens?
The DNC spin machine is on full cycle!
April 20th is:
1)Hitler’s birthday2)International Marijuana day3)Columbine massacre4)OK city bombing5)Rallying day for white-supremacist groups
4 items for hate and violence, one for peace and love.
LOL!
Yeap, Im sure i’d feel the “love” if I attended those neo-nazi rallies!
hahahaha!
Surprisingly, the b’day of Pope Benedict XVI is one day before…a German pope who belonged to the Hitler youth as a kid and whose b’day is one day before Hitler’s !!
I think JR’s quote of Voltaire is on the money…God is a comedian with an audience that’s afraid to laugh.
ksfarmgrrl
Hey, I can’t get them to talk about the horrors Israel commits everyday. And they’re not that hard to find. The Israelis print them in their newspapers daily, though American newspapers notably omit anything about these atrocities.
IE: The other day the Israel Knesset stole an entire section of East Jerusalem from Palestinians who have lives there for hundreds of years.
Not one mention or word in any US publication made mention of that important historical and unlawful fact.
WWJCC?
What Would Jesus Conceal Carry?
April 20 is a great day fo sho! rotflmosrfao
Viva La Raza Blanco!!
Writerdog,Thanks, amigo. Your welcome home is way better that the spit I received in San Fransico (would have loved to take the trash out that day, but being in my uniform, I had to accept it with pride). And I accept your welcome with great pride for myself and all the others that made it and the ones that never made it home.
I will add another welcome home JM. I knew many vets when I was teaching at UCLA 30+ years back. Far too many had been really f’d up by the war and then their treatment, both by some in my political camp and by the system. I disagreed vehemently with the war but my ire was reserved for McNamara etc, not the troops. Just like today with Rummy and his folly.
My discontent was with the media during the Vietnam war.
Yes welcome home JM!
I doubt when I get back from Iraq I will have to be faced with nearly anything you were.
Thank you for your service.
Screw the Zionists.
Let’s make peace with the Arabs.
Meanwhile, let’s turn those 155mm artillery pieces around to face Israel and let Hamas start firing rounds into Tel Aviv.
{ With the strict understanding that they’re not to come within 100 meters of any-body’s house }.
We’ll come by once a month and measure.
I knew the clown burned a candle on the 20th. Smelling himself. Its all sulphur and brimstone out his hole. Open space where a brain should be.
Wasn’t May 8th about four or five years ago the date of the tornado that passed through Haysville? I didn’t live in Haysville but my mother was in the Haysville nursing home at the time. Early the next morning I had to drive my sister to the Wichita airport and the storm was still going on with horizontally driven rain. That must have been a 12 to 14 hour “perfect” storm.
So I suggest May 8th as a date to watch out for here in Wichita.
Ben, you mentioned being upset with McNamara (Sec of Defense) back in the Viet Nam War. Isn’t it strange that McNamara in the past few years has admitted a complete turnaround on his own position and activities during those years — and has written a book about that.
Was McNamara secretary of defense under Kennedy or Lyndon Johnson or Nixon or all three? As I recall McNamara was one of the “whiz kids” who came from General Motors.
That is correct JWink. However, I still hope MaNamara rots in hell for eternity. There is absolutely no forgiveness in my heart for him.
I think McNamara was one of JFK’s and then LBJ. Laird was Nixon if memort serves me.
Ford, not GM (and not GE, as I thought, er second-guessed).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_McNamara
GRacias big time, people. I appreciate your thanks. Remember, XXX was also over there. Kinda like I opened it up and XXX closed it out. Did we come out of it sane? We’ll let you be the judge of that:-O
“Did we come out of it sane? We’ll let you be the judge of that:-O”
NO!! ;-)
I was in elementary school (if not kindergarten) when you got back, Walker, so my “welcome home” can only be somewhat symbolic. Oh well: Welcome back!
I remain eternally grateful that I’ve been too young for that debacle, and too old for this one!
Ditto, Rage, I feel the same way. I wish no one had to go over there. The saying, “what if they had a war and no one came.” fits this mess to a tee.
One of the more interesting pieces on McManara:http://www.chomsky.info/books/warfare01.htm
I would also like to thank XXX and JM for their service. I, unlike you gents, was treated very well when I got back from the first Gulf War for israel and haliburton. I fondly recall volunteering at VA hospitals and speaking with vets from Viet Nam, Korea, WWII and even a couple of WWI vets. It is difficult enough to fight and kill for the best of causes but to kill and fight for an unworthy cause is very disconcerting and has caused my many a sleepless night!
V.L.R.B!!
Appreciation for Ian, C M, XXX, and Nathan their service.
May we never put those who serve voluntarilly or otherwise in harms way for any but the most just cause. But if we do, and then question that cause, let us save our derision and spite for ourselves and learn to do better next time.
I don’t have an answer for April 20th.
I think arming schoolteachers is insane.
Perhaps we could make the week leading up to April 20th some sort of Peace week or outreach week. Trying to find and get help for the troubled folks who gravitate to this date might help.
“Appreciation for Ian, C M, XXX, and Nathan their service.”
Ditto that, JR. I sincerely hope you stay stationed in Korea, Nathan, rather than being sent. . elsewhere. Nothing sarcastic there: I mean it!
Any reason why a qualified, trained teacher should not carry? I can’t think of any (and I’m a former teacher). Certainly, a faculty member or two carrying might have saved lives in Columbine. It did in the Jonesboro incident (I think, if I remember correctly); only the principle had to go out to his vehicle to retrieve his firearm.
That said, a couple of caveats. 1) carry means “on your person,” not in your desk or hanging in your jacket in the closet, or in a purse under the desk. Frankly, that’s true of any carry.2) get trained, practice regularly, and understand the applicable law. That’s true of any carry, and a teacher in particular.
Might there be a shootout? Maybe. But is watching scenarios like Columbine, where the assailants walk from victim to victim killing with impunity, somehow better? Frankly, I’ll take my chances with a qualified teacher defending his school, rather than cowering under a desk waiting for my killer to get to me.