Teen with arsenal of weapons

Okay, I saw that last night on the news and when they showed all the firearms my jaw seriously dropped....it wasn't like a small gun it were many rather LARGE guns! that's insane....bad parenting I guess...growing up when I was 14 I couldnt imagine having a gun...or several............crazy world this is.

I don't think thats the Cleveland kid. I thought that the one with the huge cache of guns and explosives was the one they found in Philadelphia.
Police find weapons cache at teen's home

Not that it really matters, its scary where ever you find anyone, not just a kid with that kind of firepower.

to further speculate, it's not really surprising when an instution turns its back on bullying within its confines.

maybe just treating the kid with respect and dignity was all he needed...again speculative.

it looked like more than $5k worth of guns, but Asa Coon had at least one other family member at home with legal issues. (a 19 year old brother). he was also on anti-depressants and sedatives, both of which make you suicidal and lose your sense of reality.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbine_High_School_massacre
"In May 2002, the Secret Service published a report that examined 37 U.S. school shootings. They had the following findings:
Incidents of targeted violence at school rarely were sudden, impulsive acts.
Prior to most incidents, other people knew about the attacker’s idea and/or plan to attack.
Most attackers did not threaten their targets directly prior to advancing the attack.
There is no accurate or useful "profile" of students who engaged in targeted school violence.
Most attackers engaged in some behavior prior to the incident that caused others concern or indicated a need for help.
Most attackers had difficulty coping with significant losses or personal failures. Moreover, many had considered or attempted suicide.
Many attackers felt bullied, persecuted or injured by others prior to the attack.
Most attackers had access to and had used weapons prior to the attack.
In many cases, other students were involved in some capacity.
Despite prompt law enforcement responses, most shooting incidents were stopped by means other than law enforcement intervention.²⁶"

http://www.antidepressantsfacts.com/2000-05-16-School-Shootings-Psychotropic-Drugs.htm

The title says t'all:
School Shootings Linked to Psychotropic Drugs Such as Prozac, Ritalin, Luvox, and Paxil

It does matter. The kid in Pennsylvania was acting alone also, but, from I saw last night, approached another young person to take part in the mayhem he was planning. That kid "snitched" to his dad, and they went to the police. Thank god for "tattletales".

"Dr. Phil" this morning said that there is nothing in records that will allow someone to prevent this kind of mayhem (but rather put other troubled kids in the limelight who might not do anything). He believes that we need a culture in which kids should be going to parents when they hear kids talking about mayhem. These kids supposedly tried to get the information to their principal but that person was always "too busy". Of course, maybe parents with two jobs are "too busy".

I wonder how intent Asa Coon (that kid deserved a name change if anybody did) was on killing. Maybe it was a matter of training. The sheriff's deputy in Wisconsin had a 30 round clip (I don't know if it was was an automatic weapon), and managed to kill six of the seven people in the house. That might be a matter of training. The kid Asa Coon shot four people (none fatally), and then killed himself. Luckily, the kid seems "disorganized", or it might have been a repeat of what happened in Virginia. Maybe this is a display of "immaturity", and that he wasn't therefore as "dangerous" (because of disorganized thinking) as an older perpetrator. If this had a happened a couple of years later (after he "matured") the results might have been much more tragic.

The book "On Killing" by Dave Grossman makes this case: "From Publishers Weekly
Drawing on interviews, published personal accounts and academic studies, Grossman investigates the psychology of killing in combat. Stressing that human beings have a powerful, innate resistance to the taking of life, he examines the techniques developed by the military to overcome that aversion. His provocative study focuses in particular on the Vietnam war, revealing how the American soldier was "enabled to kill to a far greater degree than any other soldier in history." Grossman argues that the breakdown of American society, combined with the pervasive violence in the media and interactive video games, is conditioning our children to kill in a manner siimilar to the army's conditioning of soldiers: "We are reaching that stage of desensitization at which the infliction of pain and suffering has become a source of entertainment: vicarious pleasure rather than revulsion. We are learning to kill, and we are learning to like it." Grossman, a professor of military science at Arkansas State University, has written a study of relevance to a society of escalating violence."

I wonder what kind of programs Asa Coon watched, and what kind of video games he played? I wonder if he hurt animals like cats and dogs (another indicator)? I am sure the "microsope" will be on the kid (and his family) until a newer tragedy comes along to replace this one.

Here's a link to a Cleveland article that looks at this young man, and gives the most complete story of seen of what immediately led to this tragic event: http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2007/10/who_was_asa_coon.html

growing up when I was 14 I couldnt imagine having a gun

I got my first rifle for Christmas when I was nine years old. I've been armed and dangerous ever since.

In the PA case:

lawyer, J. David Farrell, stressed that all but one of the weapons prosecutors put on display were pellet guns and air rifles.

All except for one were pellet guns or airsoft toys. And -

It is legal for children to possess air guns in Pennsylvania. Farrell also noted it is legal for a minor to fire weapons under adult supervision and said he didn't believe the students at Plymouth Whitemarsh were in any danger.

"They're showing 30 guns on a desk that appear to be handguns and saying this was a Columbine in the making," Farrell said. "That's simply not borne out by the facts."

Watching the story on Fox and listening to the talking head, I noticed that the MSM managed to slip the phrase "Weapons of Mass Destruction" into the dialog.

I wonder if anyone else here thinks the media and the persecution might be just a little biased in this case.

This from MSNBC, http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21253029/. Daddy, convicted of manslaugher in a drunk driving case, tried to buy him a long rifle earlier in the spring. Mommy bought him a scoped rifle. Of course, the news media is a little biased. Daddy couldn't buy him a gun because he was found out as a convicted felon. Those damn criminal record checks.

P.T. Barnum was an objective journalist.