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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, Insightful) by dry on Saturday March 03 2018, @05:45PM (8 children)
How the fuck is a police officer accidentally firing their weapon anywhere?
I'd expect police to have firearms training as part of their job and a trained person not to be playing with their weapon, especially on school grounds.
(Score: 1) by tftp on Saturday March 03 2018, @08:37PM (5 children)
(Score: 2) by dry on Saturday March 03 2018, @08:48PM (4 children)
Well, I'd think most people would agree that regulations requiring a safety is a bare minimum and even seems to be fine with the 2nd and having cops (or anyone) armed with such an unsafe weapon seems wrong to me.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 03 2018, @09:14PM (3 children)
Rights - such as the right to keep and carry weapons - are not subject to government approval nor to majority opinion.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 03 2018, @10:37PM (2 children)
To most of the "progressives," rights are not inalienable nor granted by birthright, they are privileges bestowed by the government and only when it deems them as such. That's why we see so many lefties like the New York losers promoting sanctions for misgendering trannies, which clearly violates the 1st. It is very unfortunate that they are so goddamn stupid as to not see the obvious problems inherent when they themselves are eventually staring down the barrel of laws they won't like that are modeled after shit like this. The idiots never realize until it's too late that authoritarianism is a bad road to follow. Sooner or later, it takes a turn that you won't like.
(Score: 2) by dry on Sunday March 04 2018, @03:37AM (1 child)
Rights are not absolute. The famous example is how the right to swing your fist ends at my face. For speech, generally you are not allowed to scream all night in a residential area or put up signs in a dangerous way.
Having basic safety measures in a weapons design protects other peoples right to not be accidentally shot. Perhaps you don't consider that a right since it is not written down somewhere.
Rights are always a balance due to conflict between different rights.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 04 2018, @03:51PM
Rights are absolute. The only limit is the boundary of another human's rights, and there must be an actual trespass before a crime can be said to have occurred. Prior restraint is a crime.
Don't pay too much attention to the idiots in black robes - they're much more concerned about their pensions and long lives than they are the fundamental principles of human interactions with regards to rights.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Sunday March 04 2018, @12:43AM (1 child)
First, training doesn't preclude stupid acts. Training only tends to decrease the likelihood f stupid acts.
Second, unlike most gunowners, a cop ALWAYS has a weapon at hand, vastly increasing the chances of a stupid act.
Third, we've all read the story of the guy who wanted to be a cop, and he was rejected because he was to smart.
Add that all up, and you have a metric butt load of less intelligent people who have a weapon at hand 24/7, just waiting for an excuse to have an accident.
(Score: 2) by dry on Sunday March 04 2018, @03:23AM
Still seems crazy to me, especially the part about cops using weapons with no safety. At that I'm somewhat surprised that weapons without a safety are allowed to be sold, little well allowed to be used by people who are always armed and hired for their stupidity.
Most dangerous tools are at least partially regulated for safety reasons. Buy a chainsaw and it will come with a chainbrake as well as a couple of defences against a broken chain (which can wrap around really quick and cause the lose of a hand).