She did WHAT?!?!?!?!?

A story from the local news channel today reports that police in a Philadelphia suburb found a "weapons cache" in the home of a 14-year-old boy, including guns, knives and explosive materials. The boy was apparently the victim of bullying, to the point that he left school after middle school and was home schooled. While there seemed to be no immediate plans for a school shooting, apparently the kid had tried to recruit others to help him attack a local high school.

OK, terribly sad story. I have no patience with bullies, mental or physical, and I hope neither of my children are ever victimized by them.

But the line that stopped me dead (so to speak) in the article was this one: "The weapons found during the search...included a 9mm assault rifle that the teenager's mother had recently bought for him..."

Um, excuse me? A 9mm assault rifle? For someone who can't drink, drive, vote, and probably doesn't even shave that much yet? And who's possibly emotionally fragile because of bullying? An ASSAULT rifle????

What in God's name was that mother thinking? That it would give him confidence? Assurance? Help him stand up to the bullies? Well, yeah, it might do that last, but with potentially disastrous consequences.

Now I have no particularly strong feelings one way or another regarding guns. I neither hunt, collect, nor feel a need for a gun as protection, but I have friends who do. I don't think that guns will, or should, be eradicated from our society, but I also thing that no one has a "right" to buy and own as many of any type of gun that they want. With ownership comes responsibility, and the primary responsibility of gun owners, imo, is to realize that a gun has one purpose: to kill things. Yeah, they're cool. Yeah, they can be collectible. But when you boil it down to it's essence, it's a very efficient tool for killing things. If you're going to own one, you need to accept that. They are not tools for increasing self-confidence, self-image, or to prove one's man (or woman) hood. If you're going to buy a gun, and particularlky if a child is going to have access to that, you've GOT to have a good grasp of that.

When are they going to put ME in charge of the world? :)