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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: 3, Interesting) by AthanasiusKircher on Saturday March 03 2018, @12:07PM (5 children)
You make a lot of reasonable points. But you do realize that there are possible other positions other than "allow all possible guns to be acquired without regulation, training, etc. by all possible people" vs. just "banning guns" completely?
While there are some people who want to ban all ownership of firearms, a large number of people calling for regulation want to create more reasonable limits on what types of guns can be acquired easily, where they can be reasonably carried, what sort of training we might reasonably ask people to have to own or carry a gun (drivers require licenses...), etc.
Obviously many people disagree about what is "reasonable" here. But while few are calling for BANNING cell phone or cars or whatever, there are plenty of folks who wonder if we should have reasonable limits on when they can be used, training (for driving), etc. I'm not taking sides in the debate here -- just noting that this is one of those issues where false dichotomies are common. (Oh, and yes, there are slippery slope arguments too...)
(Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday March 03 2018, @04:12PM
We already have one of those other positions. Didn't stop the shootings in the news.
(Score: 2) by deimtee on Sunday March 04 2018, @08:27AM (3 children)
Much like the two party system in the USA, the gun debate is now so polarized that no rational compromise is possible.
The anti-gunners have made the pro-gunners so wary of progressive changes that they will never allow the second amendment to be altered.
Without altering the second amendment, control of weapons is very limited.
If you cough while drinking cheap red wine it really cleans out your sinuses.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Sunday March 04 2018, @04:37PM (2 children)
"rational compromise" is a fallacy to begin with when you're speaking of removing someone's fundamental rights for your sense of comfort.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by deimtee on Sunday March 04 2018, @08:09PM (1 child)
QED.
A rational compromise might be to add a few exceptions to the 2ndA. No remote weapons, no crew served weapons, nutcases not included, maximum rate of fire/magazine size, etc. This list should be debateable, but it is not.
Anti-gunners want much more restriction, pro-gunners don't trust them to touch the 2ndA at all.
If you cough while drinking cheap red wine it really cleans out your sinuses.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by The Mighty Buzzard on Sunday March 04 2018, @11:23PM
Given the primary purpose of the 2A, any regulations applied to ordinary citizens that are not also applied to all branches of government are prima facie unreasonable.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.