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- MT. MORRIS TOWNSHIP, Mich.
(Reuters) - A 6-year-old boy armed with a stolen gun on Tuesday shot and
killed his classmate, a girl his age, with a single bullet through the
neck, the latest in a series of shootings in American schools.
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- Police and witnesses said the boy showed off the .32
caliber handgun to other students while the first grade class and the teacher
were leaving the classroom. He pointed it at another boy, then whirled
around and shot Kayla Rolland once through the neck.
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- The boy then ran out of the classroom and into a nearby
bathroom, pursued by a teacher and others who recovered the gun from a
trash can. Law enforcement officials said the first graders had quarreled
the previous day, and parents said the boy had a history of fighting with
other students.
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- "I think it's sad. She wasn't old enough to die.
She didn't have a life yet," said Amy Lamoreaux, 15, who baby-sat
Rolland and described her as a happy child who liked to play with baby
dolls.
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- "If it can happen in elementary, it can happen to
the other schools here," Lamoreaux said. She said she would ask her
parents to take her out of the local school district.
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- The shooting at Buell Elementary School, located north
of Flint, Michigan, in a working class neighborhood, prompted President
Clinton to challenge presidential candidates to make gun control a bigger
issue in the upcoming election.
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- "The child was six years old, how did that child
get that gun? Why could the child fire the gun? If we have the technology
today to put in these child safety locks why don't we do it," Clinton
said at a fund-raising lunch in Manalapan, Fla.
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- The boy is believed to be the youngest gunmen in a spate
of school shootings in the United States in recent years.
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- In April 1999, two Columbine High School students in
Littleton, Colorado, went on a shooting rampage, killing 12 other students
and a teacher before committing suicide in the worst school shooting in
U.S. history.
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- A month later a student opened fire at Heritage High
School near Conyers, Georgia, injuring six schoolmates before being taken
into custody.
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- Police said the gun used in Tuesday's shooting was reported
stolen in December from the Mt. Morris area, hit hard by cutbacks in the
area by the automotive industry. Authorities were still investigating how
the youngster obtained the gun, adding that the owner of the firearm could
face felony manslaughter charges.
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- Flint television stations reported that the shooter's
father and grandfather were in prison on gun-related charges. Late Tuesday,
police confiscated guns and ammunition from a house near the school. Some
television stations identified as the firearms as belonging to the boy's
mother or his uncle.
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- Prosecutors said an altercation took place in the playground
between the boy and the girl the day before the shooting, which occurred
around 10 a.m. EST.
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- "There may have been some sort of scuffle, or quarrel
on the playground the day before the shooting between this little boy and
this little girl," Arthur Busch, Genesee County Michigan Prosecutor
told a news conference.
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- Busch said that because of the suspected shooter's age,
he is legally too young to form the intent to kill and be held criminally
responsible for his actions. The boy was in the custody of the Michigan
Family Independence Agency.
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- "Obviously he has done a very terrible thing today,
but legally, he can't be held responsible in the criminal justice system,"
Busch said.
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- The girl was pronounced dead about half an hour after
the shooting, shortly after she arrived at nearby Flint Hospital. Officials
would not release further details.
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- After the shooting, anxious parents rushed to the school,
located about 65 miles north of Detroit.
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- "I just cannot believe it," said parent Darnisha
Bristol, who has a 5-year-old and 6-year-old at the school.
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-
- Comment
-
-
- From NewsHawk Inc. <hawknews@saber.net 3-1-00
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-
- --"I just cannot believe it."--parent Darnisha
Bristol, who has a 5-year-old and 6-year-old in Buell Elementary School,
where the killing occurred.
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-
- First off, let me say that NewsHawk has received VERY
LITTLE response about this horrific tragedy from our readers; who obviously
are to some extent a sampling of the population as a whole.
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- Is this incident going to be the one which finally causes
America as a whole to just "tune out" and cease to react like
normal human beings to the unbelievable horror which occurred yesterday
at Buell Elementary School in Mt. Morris Township, Michigan?
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- Have we as a nation become so numb, callous and uncaring
that this MOST TRAGIC of all school shootings yet, due to the ages of the
perpetrator AND the victim, doesn't even PHASE US anymore?
-
- Because IF THAT'S TRUE, then our society is BEYOND the
terminal stages of utter moral decay; and is IN FACT effectively MORIBUND:
morally, emotionally, intellectually and spiritually.
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- Here are some of the most disturbing aspects of this
latest and by far most distressing school shooting in America.
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- Some of our very YOUNGEST children have indeed become
death-dealing, conscience-less monsters, without the SLIGHTEST concept
of respect for the sanctity of human or other life.
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- Some of our youngest children are ARMED with loaded,
deadly weapons taken from their homes: homes where those and other weapons--in
this case STOLEN ones--were readily ACCESSIBLE to small children.
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- Some of our youngest, most IMPRESSIONABLE children's
entire world-view is STEEPED in the continual, endless, mindless and literally
psychopathic violence infesting our ENTIRE culture: our sports, our entertainment,
our news (ESPECIALLY TV!) reporting, our entire LIVES, morning till night.
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- How DETERIORATED our society has become, when parents
are increasingly drugging their kids from age 4 and 5 onward; when in countless
tens of millions of families both parents work out of the home every day;
where vast numbers of children come from dysfunctional, broken homes; where
the children are increasingly being raised by child care organizations,
schools and the government; where vast numbers of children receive little
or NO instruction in ethical, moral and spiritual values.
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- Make no mistake: these are the signs of a society in
a rapidly-worsening, terminal spiral; a society beyond dysfunctional. A
society which is in fact INSANE.
-
- The 6-year-old boy who murdered his female classmate
with a gunshot to the neck yesterday is a PRODUCT of our present-day American
society in every way... and in the WORST way.
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- Both the boy's father and grandfather are currently in
jail on gun-related charges.
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- The boy lived in a home with his mother and some "uncle";
both of whom CRIMINALLY allowed the youngster access to firearms.
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- Because of some argument the boy had with his victim
the day before; because of the appalling, and DEGENERATE lack of fundamental
moral and ethical values having been taught to the child; and because of
the overwhelming influence of our violence-saturated culture, in which
on a daily basis we constantly witness--via mass-media "mind-control"
outlets--assault, death, destruction and dismemberment being meted out
at the slightest provocation or at NO provocation, generally without any
appropriate penalty or punishment being incurred; THIS 6-year-old child
felt it was ALRIGHT to take a loaded gun to school and KILL his 6-year-old
classmate.
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- America, WHAT do we have to say about this??
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- Because if we have NOTHING to say and even more importantly
NOTHING TO DO about this, if there's no critical urgency to take steps
NOW to halt this drastic downward spiral of our society and our nation
as evidenced by this absolutely terrifying incident in Michigan yesterday,
then our society is as good as finished; and the future of America, the
future of our children, will indeed be a hell on earth.
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- We better ALL be asking ourselves this morning--HOW COULD
THIS POSSIBLY HAPPEN; and be taking steps IMMEDIATELY in OUR families and
in OUR communities to begin setting things right; to begin reclaiming our
children from the nightmarish whirlpool which is threatening to engulf
all of them, and all of us.
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- NewsHawk® Inc.
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-
- Here's one of the ONLY responses we've YET received (which
is very sad in itself) from our readers on this terribly tragic event,
from Val Valerian at Leading Edge International (http://www,trufax.org).
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- Val raises some crucially important points regarding
yesterday's shooting. - - - - - - - -
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- Ultimately, the child had to acquire the logic that guns
are a suitable solution to problems. That blame falls on the television
media: cartoons, etc.
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- The media, especially television, is the programming
factor here. Recall when television executives "tesified" before
Congress in the same manner as the tobacco executives "testified".
Both testimonies constituted the felony of lying before Congress, yet nothing
was done to them either.
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- Thus, part of the blame lies with Congress for not acting
to stem the tide of violence on television - had they done this 15 years
ago, or even ten years ago .... I can't help but wonder if this crime and
all the other 35 people who have died at schools would have happened at
all.
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- Val
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- Comment
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- From NewsHawk Inc. <hawknews@saber.net 2-29-00
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- Without doubt, America's excessively violence-oriented
culture, along with things like what's been called a rapidly-growing "toddler
drugging frenzy"--which even the AMA concedes is out of control--regarding
prescribing dangerous and destructive mood-altering psychotropic drugs
to pre-school children, today have borne very bitter fruit in the most
sickening, disturbing and just pain TERRIBLE and sad incident of school
violence to date.
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- A 6-year old first-grade boy pulled a loaded gun from
his pants and shot a female classmate point-blank in the neck today in
Mount Morris Township, Michigan. The 6-year-old victim died shortly thereafter.
The boy was held and questioned by police, then released to the state child
welfare department.
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- We wouldn't be the LEAST bit surprised to find out this
first-grade boy who killed the girl was taking prescription mood-altering
psychotropic drugs.
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- The 6-year-old perpetrator's father is in jail and the
boy has been living with his mother and an "uncle." Police found
stolen firearms at the residence, and the handgun used in today's slaying
had also previously been reported stolen.
-
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- The chickens are surely coming home to roost in a nation
of people which, in addition to drugging their children into brain-damaged
oblivion at increasingly younger ages, are drugging and anesthetizing both
kids AND themselves with wildly escalating levels of completely disgusting,
stomach-turning and truly deranged/deranging violence in virtually all
forms of so-called "entertainment" inundating our senses from
all sides, 24/7.
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- In addition, the slimebucket "state-run" mass-media
outlets, especially the television news networks, pander to the same level
of grotesque, morbid subhuman interest in presenting "news" which
focuses obsessively, almost EXCLUSIVELY, on negativity, violence moral
decay and social uproar/chaos/disintegration.
-
- On top of this, we have tweedle-dum and tweedle-dee Republicrats
and Democans all working for the same Trilateralist New World Order money
meisters and turning America's most cherished and admirable principles
upside down, manipulating our brains and minds with all kinds of hi-tech
gadgetry and of course through "news" and "entertainment;"
all the while using the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution
as toilet paper and having the IRS take away half our Federal Reserve "play
money" in taxes.
-
-
- Our society is in a tailspin. The unending orgasm of
dollar-lust on Wall Street notwithstanding, the very fabric of our society
is disintegrating before our very eyes.
-
- The children of America today are literally in MORTAL
DANGER: which means our ENTIRE NATION, and OUR FUTURE, is in mortal danger.
-
- LOOK deeply and honestly at what has happened in one
of America's schools today and tell me personally that this assessment
is wrong.
-
- Because THAT is how fundamental, how extensive and how
SEVERE the cancerous disintegration of the American culture is today.
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- How MANY American families will send their child off
to public school in the morning: a school where something exactly like
what happened today in Michigan, or what happened at Columbine High last
April 20; or what happened at Heritage High School in Conyers, Ga. one
month afterward; or what happened in Pearl, Mississippi, Paducah, Kentucky
and Jonesboro, Arkansas could very well happen again, at THEIR kid's school?
Tens of MILLIONS of American families, that's how many.
-
- As a AMERICAN CITIZEN, I must say this news from Mount
Morris Township, Michigan today is about the most depressing, disheartening
news to rock this country in a very long time.
-
- This is indeed a low point for the united States of America;
for the FAMILIES and for the children of America. Parents all across this
country must ask themselves if they are willing to let our very future
and our children's' most fundamental well-being to be ravaged and decimated
as it now is in our country today.
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- WHAT KIND OF LIFE ARE WE GIVING OUR CHILDREN?.
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- Parents of America, we MUST stop this insanity now. We
must take back our children AND OUR FUTURE!
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- Comment
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-
- From Matt Ridgway <matt@abacuspub.com 3-2-00
-
-
- The Newshawk's comments were understandable, and mostly
warranted. I myself have crafted more than a few diatribe's regarding the
pathetic state of our great nation. Events are occuring that are so shockingly
abberrent that I feel people truly are choosing to shut it out. It no longer
pays to stay informed when the news is all bad, and speaking for myself,
I'm finding it hard to maintain a positive mental attitude in the face
of it all.
-
- Our country is rotting from within. Like Rome before
it, America has grown and progressed to such a point that stagnation and
ruin is its inevitable path. As disturbing and outright offensive as the
media is, it is merely a reflection of our own distorted psyche. Twenty
years ago, children weren't bombarded with the content that today's kids
are. There wasn't a TV in every room, mini radios strapped to every impressionable
skull, violent games in convenient palm-sized game systems, et al. It has
become more important than ever for parents to supervise exactly what their
kids are exposed to, unfortunately there are few two-parent households
to be found. I cannot number the times that I've seen impatient parents
bum-rushing their kids out a video game store, completely unaware of what
their kids are buying, or even caring but to move them out the door quicker.
I have worked with people that sit and watch R-rated horror/slasher movies
with their 3 and 4 year-olds sitting on the couch next to them. I physically
grimmace when speaking with one of my brother-in-laws as he recounts how
good his grade-school aged son is at games like DOOM, and Duke Nukem!
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- These people can barely rustle up enough brain cells
to care for themselves, much less children. Kids are being raised by mental
pygmies with little intellect and not even the most basic of social skills.
Things such as common courtesy and polite behaviour are laughable notions
of a bygone era. As adults are all out hustling to grab as much cash as
possible,(because we all know success is measured in dollars and cents)or
worse working themselves to the bone merely to survive, our children are
left to be raised by dubious strangers in day care or are latchkey kids
with no supervision at all.
-
- Should it come as any surprise that these kids have no
understanding, or any real notion , of right or wrong? It's easy to blame
the games and the TV and the music, but these products are inert, and on
their own, with no one to absorb them, their content would lie inert and
useless. Games like DOOM are not designed for kids, nor are R-rated movies
suitable for impressionable minds. Does it take some Presidential counsil
to 'officially declare' that exposing children to violent content is assinine?
Society is becoming clogged with the under-educated detritus of mankind,
people who's damnable stupidity is being magnified in the unsupervised
personas of their offspring. Kids whose notion of handling a conflict is
to 'pop a cap' in someone's ass because that behaviour is glorified by
their 'role models'. Parents aren't spending the kind of time with their
kids that is the most valuable. When I get home from work some days, the
very LAST thing I feel like doing is playing one-more round of hide and
seek or any of the other things that I've done so many times I'm virtually
numb. But you know what? It's not about me, it's about the kids, it doesn't
matter what I'm doing, but the fact that I'm there with them,and that's
all that matters to them, and me.
-
- Parents today want an easy fix for everything. People
somehow feel it's their RIGHT to feel good all the time, to never feel
down, or bored or sad, but that life should always be 'fun' and 'up'. If
a marriage is in trouble, they jettison it. If they want to 'connect' with
their kids, they take them shopping. Buying things always gets their attention.
No meaningful information is being exchanged. Unfortunately, living in
a civilised society requires more than merely adherring to the letter of
the law. Either we choose to elevate ourselves beyond our base desires,
or we wallow in a sludge-pit of carnal servitude where carelessly murdering
others over trivialities is viable because basic human respect means nothing.
-
- We are reaping the fruits of our labors. My kids are
sweet, wonderful little people who trust, laugh and smile easily because
they know they have two rock-solid parents who are looking out for them.
Of course, we have feet of clay, but these kids don't know that, and at
least in this stage of their lives that's something they shouldn't have
to be concerned about. When a kid get's up in the morning and Mom's been
up late drinking with 'Uncle whoever' and she doesn't bother to make them
breakfast before shoving them out the door for school, what does that kid
know? What do they believe in? How will a parent ever instill concepts
like mercy, compassion, discipline, love and respect when the parents are
useless flesh-bags, or worse are in jail? I have a suggestion for the authorities
in this case. The little boy who committed this act should be removed from
the custody of his 'parents' and be placed in the home of that little girl's
family. He should stay in her room, with all her things left intact, and
he should grow up in that house, with those people, with what he did hanging
over his head every single day of his life. Let him look in their eyes
over breakfast every day, sit in silence in that girls room, live with
the spectre of that child enveloping him at every turn.
-
- I'm sure that girl's parents will. I extend my deepest
sympathies to them. Though I can scarcely imagine their loss, I can well-understand
their tragedy, as well as our own.
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- Matthew Ridgway
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