Posted on 12/16/2005 6:16:38 AM PST by listenhillary
Student with rifle suspended The Reserve trainee’s case will be heard by school officials. By SHANNAN TUCKER and MARIN DEVINE
The Rock Bridge senior arrested Tuesday for having a gun in his truck in the school’s parking lot has been suspended for 10 days.
Jonathan Dudley, 18, told police and school officials he planned to use the semi-automatic AR-15 rifle for target practice after school. The rifle, the civilian version of the fully-automatic M-16 used by the U.S. military, was not loaded and was confiscated by police.
“I would like to stress that he did not bring the gun to school with the intent to harm anyone,” said Sgt. Eric White of the Columbia Police Department.
Dudley is an enlisted trainee with the Army Reserves and as part of his training is required to go through a marksmanship course, said Charlene Gemar, a spokeswoman for the 89th Regional Readiness Command in Wichita, Kan.
She did not know whether Dudley had been through the training yet.
“We want to make sure that he understands that we would never condone anyone taking a weapon to school,” she said.
Dudley’s case will be heard by school administrators after the holiday break, said Lynn Barnett, assistant superintendent of student support services for Columbia Public School District.
Andy Kohl, Rock Bridge principal, said he could not comment on student disciplinary matters and declined to discuss Dudley’s character. He said he has not received any negative comments from parents of Rock Bridge students and was pleased with how the matter was handled by police and school officials.
The school’s standard disciplinary policy requires a 10-day suspension for a weapons violation.
The administration will make a disciplinary recommendation to superintendent Phyllis Chase after hearing Dudley’s explanation sometime during his suspension. Under the 1996 Missouri State Schools Act, Dudley can be suspended for up to 180 days. Only Chase can suspend a student for longer than 10 days.
The AR-15 is semiautomatic, meaning one shot is fired per pull of the trigger, said Nathan Hepner, a clerk at Target Masters, an indoor shooting range in Columbia. He said AR-15s can be used for hunting and are acceptable for hunting various game animals in Missouri. The rifle is used in Western states for varmint hunting and is legal in several states, including Missouri
Gemar speculated the gun must be Dudley’s personal possession because weapons, such as the M-16s reservists use in training, cannot be taken from Army Reserve centers
Earlier story
http://columbiamissourian.com/news/story.php?ID=17542
Gun confiscated at Rock Bridge; student arrested
By EMEM OFFONG and ASHLEY TRENT
A Rock Bridge High School senior was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of having a weapon on school property, school officials said.
Lynn Barnett, assistant superintendant of student support services for Columbia Public School District, said the gun was found in an 18-year-old student’s vehicle that was parked in the school’s lot.
Columbia police said Jonathan Dudley was arrested at 2:30 p.m. Tuesday at the school on suspicion of unlawful use of a weapon. Barnett would not confirm that Dudley was the student involved.
Barnett said there was no threat to students and no one saw the gun.
Kathy Ritter, assistant principal at Rock Bridge High School, said the incident happened during school hours and the weapon was not loaded.
Rock Bridge officials were questioning the student about a rumored fight when the student told them that he had a gun in a locked case in his car, said Barnett.
Barnett said the 1996 Missouri State Schools Act forbids weapons on school grounds and that the offense was punishable with up to 180 days of suspension from school.
Rock Bridge Principal Andy Kohl sent a letter with Wednesday’s date to Rock Bridge High School parents, faculty and students about the incident.
“We consider this to be a very serious situation and are taking the appropriate actions, both from the legal and school perspective,” wrote Kohl in the letter. “We will be working with our superintendent’s office to make sure the appropriate school consequence is administered to maintain a safe school environment for our students and faculty.”
Barnett said students were not notified about the incident during the school day.
A man like Mr. Dudley would have been in a position to stop an attack like that at Columbine.
This is such crap. I hope this does not affect his military entrance.
What was the unlawful use? If it's not in your hands, how can you "use" it?
I understand why this causes so much of an uproar. Especially because the gun could be stolen by ne're-do-wells, or the mere presence can incite further violations or cause fear, but I hope they go light on the kid.
All the data in this article leads me to believe the kid's ok, and just made an oversight involving a hot button word, 'GUN,' but it doesn't appear he had planned any intentional misuse of it. When I was a kid we'd go to the range after school, and this kid had even more of a valid reason to want to become more proficient with the weapon - his butt could depend on that in the near future.
He made a mistake, go easy on him.
Ditto that.
Back in the early-mid 80's every guys in my school had a deer rifle in their car or truck this time of year. Sometimes the headmaster and the coaches would check them out in admiration. Of course it was a small private school, heck I even drove to school at 14.
And please let me correct myself before some posts Sgt. Hartmann correcting me. That is his rifle, not his gun. I'm not interested in what he does for fun!
Why on earth would you volunteer this information.
The only thing unlawful was that it was brought onto school property, the parking lot. I have a CCW permit but still I cannot walk across a school parking lot while armed, or they would railroad me too. You'd hear the same buzzwords, 'this is a very serious situation', blah blah, and they would make sure that I suffered somehow for endangering society in this way. It's just the way it is, in schools run by lawyers and Democrats and panderers. If the principal stood up and said 'hey, he's in the reserves and obviously meant no harm, so let's give the kid a break' then the principal would get railroaded.
N.E. MN High School,there was a gun range in the basement,we kept our 22's in our lockers on all levels of the school...for outdoor field training you could bring whatever gun you wanted.No one was ever injured. Of course,the training is now done at the outdoor shooting range.
I'm from Missouri. When I was in high school, we all had gun racks and had shotguns or rifles in them all the time. During deer season, we'd go hunting in the morning before school. I would say there could be 50-100 rifles in the school parking lot at one time. Some of our teachers would come out and take a look at a new rifle, scope, whatever.
Funny...nobody ever got shot. And nobody attacked our school, either.
His mistake was believing that he lived in a free country.
I moved to rural Missouri to escape this nonsense. Our kids, specifically our sons, need to be "well regulated". My nephew graduated from HS here in MO. His friends routinely went shooting after school. One lady had them hunt the gophers and such out of her yard. Out here, guns are just tools. Even if it is all black polymer with a detachable magazine and a pistol grip, it is just a tool. I went to the range yesterday in the cold blowing snow and there was a dad helping his son sight in a rifle, i.e., teaching his son to be a man. Maybe kids can afford to be raised wusses in CA or NY, but not here. Good thing that election went well in Iraq because 10 more years of this and they will have to come over here to liberate us from Mexico!
Ping
Schools are infested with leftist ideologues. The left hates the military and legitimate use of guns.
The conclusion is inevitable.
We use to have target practice at school when I was a kid ~ what the hell is going on??!!??
The M-16 is full auto? I don't think that is correct anymore.
That was then. I think many of the public middle schools in Columbia have an on site Columbia police officer assigned.
Things have changed.
Back when I was in H.S. we routinely took guns to school for hunting after class. It was no big deal and nobody thought anything about it.
Times sure have changed and for the most part, not for the better.
Sad isn't it?
yeah - and I'll bet no one ever shot at a teacher either. As they say, an armed society is a polite society.
I give away grant money on behalf of the NRA Foundation. Last year, we funded a rifle training program at a high school in central Arizona.
Most of the Arizona JROTC units use air rifles, this one uses .22s. So, PC is dead and well in some schools yet!
Far too logical for the typical liberal bureaucratic mind.
I believe (not an expert by any stretch) that it is still possible to select full auto "spray and pray" or three burst fire with a military spec M-16. I think the civilian version is the AR-15 and it is semi-automatic only.
It's un-American!!
Despite my conservatism, I tend to side with the adults involved. He should not have brought a rifle to school. My solution would be that he should have been home schooled from day one.
The M-16 went to burst fire in 'nam because they were spending 1000 rounds per kill. This is per the NRA video series on the history of firearms.
My high school stopped the shooting team a year before I got there. I could have lettered had they kept it open.
Quite literally, you are correct.
Funny way to conclude the article. The police took his rifle. They must have asked him if it was his.
Alaska has the right idea..
Anyone can have a gun in their car anywhere...
Alaska anti-gun-control law goes into effect Wednesday
Address:http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1503545/posts
"Despite my conservatism, I tend to side with the adults involved"
Dudley was 18. That is an adult in Missouri.
Right, only 3-round burst, no full auto. '86-90 USMC
I have mixed feelings about this. Technically he took the weapon to his property, his car. What he does with it after he leaves school is his business as long as his actions are lawful.
That being said, he never should have played with fire by taking it there in the first place, and should have gone home to get the weapon on his way to the firing range. If he would have done that, he would have avoided having to listen to idiots who most likely know far less about firearms than he does.
It sounds like the young man is learning a lesson about people who need to follow "zero tolerance" rules due to a lack of ability to reason and think for themselves.
Well, then, it is something I will stay out of judging.
I think teachers should have the right to carry fire arms. Unfortunately, high school can be difficult, even for 18-year old seniors.
As I stated earlier, the best prevention would have been to home school him.
Most M-16's are not fully automatic anymore.
Now there's a brilliant observation! Just what is this country coming too?
The M-16 is full auto? I don't think that is correct anymore.
Some still are. My old reserve unit has the A-2s that are fully auto.
Used be a common sight. Still legal in many areas, but not at schools because of the accursed, federal, Gun Free School Zones act. The thing was declared unconstitutional once, but the Congress just sprinkled a little more "interstate commerce" pixie dust on it and passed it again, in spite of the fact that the Court declared that education was not commerce, let alone interstate commerce. AFAIK, but I could be wrong, this zombie version has not yet had a Supreme Court test.
It's still an option, one which some countries still exercise when they buy M-16s. The US does not however, instead opting for the 3 round burst capability. They are available with semi-auto, 3 rd burst and full auto capabilities, and IIRC you can get all three, not just two of them.
Not quite correct. "AR-15" is actually Colt's nomenclature for the product, be it the semi-auto, or the full boogie rock and roll version. The military designation is "M-16", and includes only the full auto and burst capable versions. The US military only procures and issues the burst capable version, not the "spray and pray" version, although some other nations do, although they may not call them M-16s. Other nations still have the older version which does have the full auto capability.
Not at a school, that a *federal* law. There are exceptions for school sponsored programs.
Alaska has the right idea..
Anyone can have a gun in their car anywhere...
Alaska anti-gun-control law goes into effect Wednesday
Address:http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1503545/posts
______________________________________
Not at a school, that a *federal* law. There are exceptions for school sponsored programs.
______________________________________
Another example of an unconstitutional *federal law*.
It'll be interesting when the people of Alaska ignore Congress's 'School Zone' decree.
One that the Supreme Court declared to be unconsitutional in fact. Congress just passed it again, with a bit more "Interstate Commerce" pixie dust. AFAIK, the zombie version has not met a Supreme Court test as yet.
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