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The Los Angeles Times reports
After their teacher fires a gun at school, Georgia students use opportunity to challenge Trump's proposal
Jesse Randall Davidson wasn't a stranger, some mysterious threat from the outside. He was a bearded, bespectacled, 53-year-old social studies teacher and the play-by-play announcer for the football games at Dalton High School in northwest Georgia.
But when the teacher brought a gun to school, barricaded himself in his classroom [February 28], and fired a single shot, students quickly recognized that this wasn't just a sad local incident.
Amid national outrage over school shootings--and suggestions by President Trump that schools would be safer if some teachers packed guns--it was a political event.
"my favorite teacher at Dalton high school just blockaded his door and proceeded to shoot", a 16-year-old student named Chondi Chastain tweeted at the National Rifle Assn., earning more than 17,000 retweets. "We had to run out The back of the school in the rain. Students were being trampled and screaming. I dare you to tell me arming teachers will make us safe."
[...] When students came to his door at room 413 during third period--a time his classroom is normally empty--it was locked, and Davidson wouldn't let them in, police said later.
"My brother, who was one door down from the teacher, said he was yelling at his students to 'get the [expletive] out of here'", junior Henry Hansen, 17, wrote in a private message on Twitter.
The principal, Steve Bartoo, tried to unlock the door with a key, but Davidson "slammed the door before I could open it and said, 'Don't come in here, I have a gun'", Bartoo said at a televised news conference.
Bartoo put the school into lockdown mode, and soon after, Davidson "apparently fired a shot from a handgun through an exterior window of the classroom", Dalton police spokesman Bruce Frazier said at a separate news conference. "It did not appear that it was aimed at anybody."
[...] Dalton police, the Whitfield County Sheriff's Office, the Georgia State Patrol, and federal law enforcement agencies all responded to the emergency. "More or less everybody with a badge in the area came running", Frazier said.
After about half an hour, Davidson surrendered and was taken into custody
[...] The Dalton students immediately turned to social media to take issue with Trump's calls to arm teachers.
Heavy.com adds
Records show Davidson has been charged with aggravated assault with a gun, terroristic threats and acts, carrying a weapon in a school safety zone without a license, reckless conduct, disrupting public school, and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony. He is being held without bail at the Whitfield County Jail.
[...] Davidson has a history of bizarre medical episodes both at school and outside of school, The Chattanoogan reports.
(Score: 2, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 03 2018, @11:14AM (8 children)
I don't own a single gun and never have, but I believe all forms of gun control are, at present, unconstitutional. The only way to change that would be to amend the Constitution.
Also, speculating that it's all because 'they like guns' isn't an argument anyway.
(Score: 2) by jmorris on Saturday March 03 2018, @07:32PM
The "they like guns" is like defending "hate speech" laws with "They just like rustling everyone's jimmies with those memes anyway." And wouldn't ya know it, almost every gun grabber also wants to eliminate the 1st Amendment too.
Give them nothing. The only response required to either is scorn and abuse.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 03 2018, @07:39PM (1 child)
You mis-read the argument. They don't just 'like' guns, they LOVE guns! They 'know' guns, in the Biblical sense. They are, in fact, ammosexuals. They keep guns right next to their body all day, EDC, they call it. They take their guns to bed, in case there is "some action". They use their guns to sever relations with significant others, family members, congregations, or classmates, so obvoiusly they love their guns more. This is why they oppose restrictions on their love life, even if it costs others their very right to life.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Saturday March 03 2018, @10:07PM
[citation] [abc.net.au]
[citation] [theguardian.com]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 04 2018, @01:50AM (4 children)
The Constitution does not say "You have the right to an AR-15", "You have the right to Military Ammunition", nor "You have the right to high capacity gun magazines". "Arms" to the Founding Fathers were single shot flintlock rifles and cannons. They would be horrified at the level of slaughter we can achieve today. These nutbags in the NRA want everyone to carry belt fed M60s to make everything "safe". That is just insane.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 04 2018, @03:48AM (2 children)
You are flat wrong. The stated purpose of the 2nd amendment was to give the people the ability to resist tyranny. That implies equality of arms.
They were not stupid men, and they knew that weapons were improving even during their own lifetimes. They may not have expected Abrahms tanks and nuclear aircraft carriers but if they had intended to limit the people's arms to what was current they would have done so.
Any reasonable reading of the US constitution says that any limitation on keeping and bearing weapons is prohibited. The people have the right to keep and bear hydrogen bombs if they want.
If you don't like that, then you need to work to amend the constitution, not undermine it.
(Score: 2) by jmorris on Sunday March 04 2018, @06:53AM (1 child)
No, no nukes. We signed a treaty regulating weapons of mass destruction. Even most of the military can't use them. If an army general can't bear an arm I can live with barring some dude from having an ICBM in a silo in their back yard.
And I'm even in favor of some "common sense regulations" on weapons. I'd go for a rule that says crew served weapons in private hands have to be kept in the custody of a regulated militia company, stored in a secure (but no more secure than the regs specify for a National Guard armory holding similar classes of weapons) armory except when being used for training purposes, etc. But all personal arms should be legal for any citizen allowed to vote. Especially any personal arm issued by ANY branch of the U.S. Government to military or law enforcement personnel. If you are declaring someone unfit to bear arms for whatever reason it better be important enough to yank their voter registration card too. That will tend to limit the overuse of mental defect judgements, vets with PTSD, minor crimes and accusations (but not convictions) of domestic violence from being leveraged by evil Democrats into lifetime bans.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 04 2018, @08:17AM
You could make a fair argument that that treaty limits the US government, but that the right of the people is not abridged.
Not saying I am in favor of it, but that's what the constitution says. Instead of increasingly ridiculous assertions about what words mean, they need to amend the 2nd amendment.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 04 2018, @05:31AM
The Constitution does not say "You have the right to a blog", "You have the right to lighted signs", nor "You have the right to high capacity printing presses". "Speech" to the Founding Fathers were single impression printing presses and quill pens. They would be horrified at the level of communication we can achieve today. These nutbags in the EFF want everyone to carry smart phones to make everything "selfies". That is just insane.