Sunday, May 23, 2010

Travesty of Justice in Georgia

The Macon News reports on the seriousness with which the local school system took the incident of a 9-year-old carrying a gun to school to protect himself from a bully.

A 9-year-old boy who took a handgun to Morgan Elementary School earlier this year pleaded guilty in Bibb County Juvenile Court on Friday to a felony count of possessing a weapon on school grounds.

The third-grader also pleaded guilty to misdemeanor counts of possession of a pistol by an underage person and disrupting a public school.

The boy took a Ruger handgun with six bullets in the clip, but none in the chamber, out of his mother’s purse Feb. 26 and carried it in his backpack to the Bibb County elementary school.

A fifth-grader was threatening to beat him up, attorneys said, and he took the gun to show students so they would think he was cool.

The mother should be in jail. She should forfeit her rights to own firearms for having demonstrated such a complete inability to secure this handgun properly. The rest of the family should be investigated to see what other breaches of the law they're guilty of. (I realize, in Georgia these laws may not exist).

After that, the fifth-grade bully should be investigated and if warranted, suspended from school.

Only then should we get around to the boy in question.

But in Georgia, they have their own priorities. Gun rights are to be protected first, we couldn't possibly cast aspersions on the mom for exercising her right to own a gun. And, being a macho little bully in school is good too, it teaches the other kids to toughen up.

The judge perfectly upheld these sick priorities. It's no wonder Georgia is one of the most backward states in the country.

Juvenile Court Judge Quintress Gilbert asked the 9-year-old why he didn’t tell a teacher or his parents about the bullying.“I’m also asking the parents to lock up their guns and put them in a place of safety,” the judge said.
What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.

4 comments:

  1. mikeb: "The judge perfectly upheld these sick priorities. It's no wonder Georgia is one of the most backward states in the country."

    I don't know if I want to defend GA or can defend GA but I am curious:

    Is GA "one of the most backward states in the country" just becuse of gun laws or in other ways as well?

    NH and VT also have gun laws similar to GA. Are they also some of the most backward states in the country in other ways?

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  2. FishyJay, You're trying to pin me down now.

    My very subjective opinion, being a New Jersey raised baby boomer, is that yes Georgia is a backward state in many ways. I've met people from many different states in my life and travelled a good bit. Plus, I admit part of my opinions are based upon the stereotypes portrayed in films, but in all fairness they're protrayed like that for good reason. I mean, those stereotypes are not total fabrications.

    So, yeah, compared to NH and VT, Georgia is backwards.

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  3. mikeb: "FishyJay, You're trying to pin me down now.":

    Is that bad?

    mikeb: "So, yeah, compared to NH and VT, Georgia is backwards."

    Yet the gun laws in NH, VT, and GA are not radically different. So GA must be backwards in ways other than in gun laws, and perhaps in ways unrelated to gun laws.

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  4. Yeah, that's fair enough:

    "So GA must be backwards in ways other than in gun laws, and perhaps in ways unrelated to gun laws."

    ReplyDelete