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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, Informative) by khallow on Saturday March 03 2018, @04:19PM (9 children)
(Score: 2) by Eristone on Saturday March 03 2018, @11:54PM (8 children)
So -- being we keep up with this whole firearms are regulated bit...
Are you required to get a license (or permit) before you purchase any firearm?
Are you required to register each firearm purchased with the state at time of purchase and pay a fee based on the type of firearm it is?
Are you required to re-register your firearm each year with the state, and pay a fee each year?
Are you required to purchase insurance for each firearm and keep it current as long as you own the firearm?
Can your firearm license/permit be restricted or revoked because of actions you may have done that do not directly involve the firearm?
Are you required to have your firearm inspected every few years for operations and safety?
Are you required to renew your firearm permit/license every few years?
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Sunday March 04 2018, @12:33AM (4 children)
None of the above.
Owning a firearm is a right, guaranteed by the second amendment.
Owning a vehicle is a privilege, with no guarantees.
(Score: 2) by Eristone on Sunday March 04 2018, @01:24AM (3 children)
Noting even in the text of the Constitution, there is nothing preventing regulating the ownership of firearms. It is not an absolute right.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Sunday March 04 2018, @06:22AM (2 children)
The regulation was well understood, when the amendment was written. The "well regulated militia" consisted of all able bodied males, between the ages of 18 and 40 (I think that was the age cutoff, it has changed over the years). The militia was intended to drill together, and to understand troop movements, formations, and small unit tactics. That was the "regulation".
If we were to go back to universal conscription, company commanders would quickly learn to recognize reliable militia members, and unreliable. Those company commander's reports would become part of the member's records. Those unreliable members could be prevented from owning firearms, or participating in company maneuvers. And, best of all - those reliable members would also be aware of who the unreliables are. That is - if a crazy went over the edge, any reliable member of the militia would be in a much better position to DO SOMETHING.
Yes, please, let us return to the concept of a well regulated militia.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Sunday March 04 2018, @06:37AM (1 child)
Why would that be valuable to us? Those company commanders could have real jobs instead. And when you have people involved in the make-work of conscription, they're not contributing to society.
My view instead is that people who have a lot of experience with the sort of firearms an infantry squad would use (and that includes firearms that look cool, aka "assault weapons"), would be far better able to contribute to the "well-regulated militia" should the need for one arise. And that's as far as the Second Amendment goes. It doesn't, for example, actually mandate the existence of any well-regulated militia nor require someone to belong to one before they can own firearms.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Sunday March 04 2018, @08:35AM
The company commanders have real jobs. He might run the dollar store, or he might be a lawyer, or he might be your banker. "All able bodied men". And, "militia" isn't a full time job. It's kind of an extracurricular activity, mandated for all of those "able bodied men". One weekend a month is set aside - pretty much the same as our current setup for reservists. One weekend each month, and maybe a week each summer, possibly two to four weeks. And, they come home from maneuvers at camp, and go back to work again.
It would take a small change to existing law to mandate universal conscription. It would be a much smaller change than trying to write myriad laws about who is allowed to own which weapons.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Sunday March 04 2018, @12:55AM (1 child)
(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Sunday March 04 2018, @05:49AM
It means that the car analogy is flawed.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 2) by jmorris on Sunday March 04 2018, @07:14AM
Mind if I reject your premise? I don't agree with the legitimate need for the government to regulate cars to the extent they do either. Requiring a proficiency test of drivers is probably serving a legitimate purpose since you can cause a lot of harm to others. But the constant fees? And moving to no-fault insurance eliminates the need to mandate auto insurance... which is why the industry hates it, they love a government enforced monopoly. The registration fees is merely another tax, always love eliminating taxes. And guess what, even the NRA doesn't object to the concept of requiring a test of proficiency and the laws regarding firearm use before issuing a CCW.
Note that is for a CCW, not basic possession. But optimally it wouldn't be required as every school should return to teaching such things. Every child should learn how to safely use a pistol and a basic rifle, the basics of marksmanship and the law regarding self defense (with a gun, knife, even fists). Then we could forget licenses all together and adopt Constitutional Carry. With harsh penalties for those barred from possession being caught with one.
What we will not accept is registration of our weapons, every single time that happens a confiscation attempt comes within a few years. Every time, every country that has did one. So what part of NEVER AGAIN do the gun banners miss after we have told them a thousand times now?