Another School Shooting

[SSJPhenom]

NY Daily News

A girl at Alpine High School in Texas shot and wounded another girl before fatally turning the gun on herself Thursday morning, police said.

The shooting happened in a bathroom before 8 a.m., law enforcement officials told ABC7 New York.

Brewster County Sheriff Ronny Dodson said the shooter died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. The other girl was wounded, he said.

A police officer was also accidentally shot and wounded by a marshal at the school, Dodson said.

The shooting happened less than three weeks after classes began Aug. 22. The district — comprising only one elementary, middle and high school, with about 1,000 students — went into lockdown after the gunfire.

A Twitter user, identified only as key, wrote at 8:25 a.m.: "as a student of alpine high, I want to thank the law enforcement for their amazing effort to keep us safe." The user did not return messages from The News.

Alpine is a town of 5,900 residents in western Texas, about 200 miles southeast of El Paso.

Sul Ross State University in Alpine said there was "an active shooter threat" on the campus, and went into lockdown. Authorities have not confirmed an attack at the college.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

How can things like this continue to happen and people still insist that gun laws shouldn't be amended?

 

[enviousdominous]

A common argument I hear from my more pro-gun friends -- while not being a very valid argument -- is that stricter laws in regard to obtaining a fire-arm won't prevent shootings because there's no possible way to keep a gun away from someone who intends to use one with ill intentions.

They don't really say all that though, they just show a look of frustration and shake their heads. If they say anything, it's a sheepish "I really don't think that tougher gun laws will help anything".

My take is that amending gun laws is a necessary step to reduce incidents like these. Nobody is claiming that tougher gun laws will outright end gun crimes, though I think that we shouldn't discourage taking steps to reduce gun crimes even slightly.

 

[Jeff Deliverer of Mail]

I want to know how a police officer got accidentally shot by a marshal. All schools should have metal detectors and if you're caught bringing a weapon into the building it's an automatic ban for the year. (Depending on the weapon, a pen knife and AK-47 would obviously have different punishments) Have plenty of signs up warning to not bring weapons on the property or they will be faced with harsh punishment. It's a sad thing when sending your kid to school is about as dangerous as sending them to Hogwarts. Another problem is how this kid had access or was able to obtain the handgun.

 

[Slash-LN]

The first known school shooting was in 1764.

There were double digit school shootings on record since around the early 1900's.

The 70s and 80s saw large numbers of school shootings.

But since media wasn't then what it is now people weren't aware of how much of an issue this has been through the history of the country. It's nothing new.

 

[Uncle Sam]

Well, that's a relief.

 

[nightmare]

Man, the 1700's? You really must be determined to shoot someone if you are going to go at them with a flintlock pistol or musket.

 

[Slash-LN]

Some Indians ambushed a school and shot a teacher and some students.