Wednesday, September 4, 2024

And another one




Step one to ending school gun violence: stop electing Republicans.


UPDATE 05:25 pm:
Two students and two teachers were killed in a Wednesday shooting at a Georgia high school, a Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) official said in an afternoon press briefing.

The suspect, a 14-year-old student at Apalachee High School in Winder, will be charged as an adult with murder, said Chris Hosey, director for the GBI.

Hosey said the suspect, Colt Gray, is in custody.

Nine other people were “taken to local hospitals with various injuries.”

  The Hill
What a way to start the school year.

UPDATE 09/05/2024:


Armed with an assault-style rifle, the teen turned the gun on students in a hallway at the school when classmates refused to open the door for him to return to his algebra classroom.

[...]

More than a year ago, tips about online posts threatening a school shooting led Georgia police to interview [13-year=old Gray], but investigators didn't have enough evidence for an arrest.

[...]

The teen had been interviewed after the FBI received anonymous tips in May 2023 about online threats to commit an unspecified school shooting, the agency said in a statement.

[...]

According to Barrow County Sheriff Jud Smith, law enforcement was notified of the threat thanks to a new security system that had been installed about a week earlier.

[...]

The sheriff's office interviewed the then-13-year-old and his father, who said there were hunting guns in the house but the teen did not have unsupervised access to them. The teen also denied making any online threats.

The sheriff's office alerted local schools for continued monitoring of the teen, but there was no probable cause for arrest or additional action, the FBI said.

[T]he state Division of Family and Children's Services also had previous contact with the teen and will investigate whether that has any connection with the shooting.

  CBS
That will go to the courts. But will it translate into stricter gun laws? Probably not. The FBI and Georgia officials may pay some price, but not gun owners.
Before Wednesday, there had been 29 mass killings in the U.S. so far this year, according to a database maintained by The Associated Press and USA Today in partnership with Northeastern University. At least 127 people have died in those killings, which are defined as incidents in which four or more people die within a 24-hour period, not including the killer — the same definition used by the FBI.
BTW, Colt Gray is Caucasian. When I looked up Colt Gray, two articles had a headline naming him as the shooter, but a picture of a black child to go with it. Why do you suppose that is?  One victim was a black boy.  Why would he be the face under the headline?

UPDATE 09/06/2024:





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