Boy Charged with Felony for Rubberband Gun

[Kennedy 0]

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Student's toy gun prompts lockdown

A 15-year-old boy is charged with taking a weapon to his South Miami-Dade middle school after neighbors mistake his wooden toy gun for a rifle, prompting a morning of panic for hundreds of parents.

BY MATTHEW I. PINZUR
mpinzur@herald.com

No one was injured when a 15-year-old student took a wooden rubber-band gun to his South Miami-Dade middle school Thursday, but the lockdown it caused brought panic in a community still stunned by a slaying at a nearby middle school.

In the hours before the boy was charged with possession of a weapon on school grounds and disruption of school functions, hundreds of parents outside Centennial Middle School knew only the barest of facts: Neighbors had called police about 9:30 a.m. after seeing someone wave around a rifle, stash it in his coat and walk into the school.

''From a distance, it can be confused with a rifle or sawed-off shotgun,'' district spokesman Mayco Villafaña said.

The school was locked down within minutes of the 911 call.

As TV crews zoomed in overhead and on the ground, the news hit like a wave. Centennial is less than five miles from Southwood Middle, where 14-year-old Jaime Gough was stabbed to death in February.

As parents swarmed behind yellow crime-scene tape, roughly 1,100 students marched through the well-rehearsed lockdown drill. They moved from their classrooms to the secured cafeteria, auditorium and media center, according to principal Elvoyd Fischer.

The boy, whose name was not released because of his age, apparently realized the trouble he had caused, Villafaña said. Before leaving his classroom, he wrapped the toy gun in his coat and left it behind.

Police conducted room-by-room searches to no avail, returning a second time with sniffer dogs. But no one was looking for a wooden toy.

About 11 a.m., Villafaña announced that every student was accounted for and safe.

Around the same time, a nearby resident told police he had seen the boy with the gun earlier that morning and provided a description of the student.

Police found the boy after students returned to their classrooms. After ''much back and forth,'' the boy confessed to having the toy gun and hiding it in a classmate's book bag, Villafaña said.

Officials lifted the lockdown at 12:15 p.m., dropping the yellow tape and unleashing the parents to find their children and, if they desired, take them home.

''I was worried, but I'm eased,'' said Colleen Martinez, who said she planned to talk with her 13-year-old daughter but not take her home before the end of the school day. ``I'm sure they did a thorough search.''

Villafaña provided little information about the suspect, except to say he was in Centennial's gifted program and had had ``some disciplinary problems but not anything serious.''

The suspect told investigators that he took the gun to play with friends after school, but it was unclear why he arrived at Centennial late -- nearly an hour after classes began.

The weapons charge against him is a felony, said Miami-Dade state attorney's spokesman Ed Griffith. Even though the toy looked nothing like a firearm up close, Villafaña said, it qualified as a weapon because it ``has a trigger mechanism and can fire a projectile.''

The school at 8601 SW 212th St. sits on nearly 15 acres between the Saga Bay and Lakes by the Bay neighborhoods.

In a 2001-02 survey about school safety, students and staff at Centennial were slightly more likely than the middle-school average to agree with the statement: ``The students are safe and secure at this school.''

In that poll, 66 percent of Centennial students and 91 percent of staff agreed with the statement, compared with 62 percent and 87 percent districtwide.

witty subliminal message
Guard your honor, let your reputation fall where it will, and outlast the bastards.
1*

[AggieDave 6]

Felony huh?

Wonder what they'd do if he came to school with this mounted on top of his pickup?

http://www.backyardartillery.com/machinegun/

--"When I die, may I be surrounded by scattered chrome and burning gasoline."

[Kennedy 0]

Dave, I love you, man.

witty subliminal message
Guard your honor, let your reputation fall where it will, and outlast the bastards.
1*

[bch7773 0]

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The weapons charge against him is a felony, said Miami-Dade state attorney's spokesman Ed Griffith. Even though the toy looked nothing like a firearm up close, Villafaña said, it qualified as a weapon because it ``has a trigger mechanism and can fire a projectile.''

is that what this country has come to? a felony weapons charge on a 15 year old boy for a rubber band gun?

MB 3528, RB 1182

[Unstable 9]

Poor little kid - Geeeze, by those standards 99% of america's kids would be behind bars....
I think the obsessive parents who called the cops are more at fault then the little bugger....

With this predecident, can't we sentence Bart Simpson to death?

=========Shaun ==========

[kallend 2,148]

My 4 sons had long outgrown toy guns by the time they were 15. Neither did they take toys to school at that age.

Is this kid "special"?

...

The only sure way to survive a canopy collision is not to have one.

[Kennedy 0]

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Is this kid "special"?

Yes.

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he was in Centennial's gifted program

He is not, however, special ed, as your quotes imply.

It wasn't a "toy gun." It was a piece of wood for shooting rubber bands. I don't see how anyone could think it was a rifle.

Maybe this will be the next big lie. Forget the plastic gun, now we have to worry about the wooden gun.

witty subliminal message
Guard your honor, let your reputation fall where it will, and outlast the bastards.
1*

[Nightingale 0]

sigh.

this is downright stupid. a rubber band shooter isn't a gun anymore than rubber bands are bullets.

[Kennedy 0]

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sigh.

this is downright stupid. a rubber band shooter isn't a gun anymore than rubber bands are bullets.

More intelligence coming out of Miami-Dade this election year.

Their "logic"

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The weapons charge against him is a felony, said Miami-Dade state attorney's spokesman Ed Griffith. Even though the toy looked nothing like a firearm up close, Villafaña said, it qualified as a weapon because it ``has a trigger mechanism and can fire a projectile.''

witty subliminal message
Guard your honor, let your reputation fall where it will, and outlast the bastards.
1*

[jumper03 0]

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Felony huh?

Wonder what they'd do if he came to school with this mounted on top of his pickup?

http://www.backyardartillery.com/machinegun/

Oh man, I forgot all about that site - I used to have - what the hell am I saying - still do have a fascination with potato guns and the like. Just something about chucking an object a long ways that makes me laugh hysterically. I got the designs somewhere for a gun I came up with that would *theoretically* chuck a lime about a 1/2 mile. (I wanted to hit a particulary nasty great aunt's house on the other side of the field).

I think we need to get together here and have some fun - time to start buying hair spray and ether again


Jump

Scars remind us that the past is real

[PhillyKev 0]

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My 4 sons had long outgrown toy guns by the time they were 15. Neither did they take toys to school at that age.

Is this kid "special"?

I have a suction cup dart gun on my desk, and I'm 32. Guess I'm special.

[diablopilot 2]

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He is not, however, special ed, as your quotes imply.

It wasn't a "toy gun." It was a piece of wood for shooting rubber bands. I don't see how anyone could think it was a rifle.

Maybe this will be the next big lie. Forget the plastic gun, now we have to worry about the wooden gun.

I know I'm *special*.

I can put a rubberband on my thumb and forefinger, and when I say "Bang." the rubber band shoots off in the direction of whoever I'm pointing at. Dang I could put an eye out......

----------------------------------------------
You're not as good as you think you are. Seriously.

[AggieDave 6]

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I think we need to get together here and have some fun - time to start buying hair spray and ether again

Hell yeah! I'm not going to confirm nor deny my involvement in the design, construction and testing of a starchy projectile launching device...but I know we'd probably have a lot of fun and shoot some good video!

--"When I die, may I be surrounded by scattered chrome and burning gasoline."

[RoadRash 0]

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Quote

I think we need to get together here and have some fun - time to start buying hair spray and ether again

Hell yeah! I'm not going to confirm nor deny my involvement in the design, construction and testing of a starchy projectile launching device...but I know we'd probably have a lot of fun and shoot some good video!

There most definitely must be video......


~R+R...

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Fly the friendly skies...^_^...})ii({...^_~...

[PhillyKev 0]

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I think we need to get together here and have some fun - time to start buying hair spray and ether again

Ether? What kind of fun are you talking about?

[Casurf1978 0]

It would suck to be a kid in this day and age.

[jumper03 0]

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I think we need to get together here and have some fun - time to start buying hair spray and ether again

Ether? What kind of fun are you talking about?

When I ran out of hair spray one time and needed more fun - I found a can of starter fluid we used for the tractor, basically ether - holy shit.......

if think Holdz Firm Hairspray works good - ether doubled the flame component and you didn't need as much. That was the first time I saw a flaming potato go a flyin'

Scars remind us that the past is real

[kelpdiver 2]

You all know I'm usually on the other side, but I don't think the kid is getting that raw a deal. I'd like to see a picture of the wooden gun first, but this isn't like the kids that point their fingers and yell "bang."

1- he brought a rifle like item to school. At 14 and "gifted," he knows better.
2- a rifle length rubber band gun is quite capable of doing harm to the eye.
3- he concealed it while the entire school panicked thinking there was a gunman. While this is not surprising, he can still be held for the consequences of his actions and attempts to avoid blame.

I wouldn't treat him as an adult, and I think a felony charge is probably excessive given the lack of apparent intent.

I'm perhaps too amused by the failure of the police dogs to sniff out a non poweder based gun.

[peacefuljeffrey 0]

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My 4 sons had long outgrown toy guns by the time they were 15. Neither did they take toys to school at that age.

Is this kid "special"?

What's the big deal? Just because your kids outgrew toy guns by 15, it should be expected or demanded that everyone's kids should have, or it's fair to assume they're "special"?

That's what I infer from your post. And it sounds like more of the same elitist anti-gun leftist garbage.

A kid who still likes rubberband guns at 15, it is fair to assume, is retarded? Does that make it fair to assume that any black guy wearing Sean John clothes is carrying an illegal handgun and dealing drugs? How about Jews? Is it fair to say that if someone's Jewish, he'll leave a shitty tip at a restaurant? Or a 16 year old hispanic girl -- do you just assume she has two kids already?

Your post smacks of bigotry.

And by the way, I bought a rubber band gun (fires up to 12 bands per load) at a local gun show a few years ago. I was about 27 at the time. I guess I must be "special."
I also bought an "AirZooka" and brought it to the DZ at SoBe a month back. It was ragingly popular and everyone wanted to use it for a while. I guess we're all "special," since we're past 15 and still like toys -- specifically "projectile" toys.


Maybe you missed this part of the article:

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The weapons charge against him is a felony, said Miami-Dade state attorney's spokesman Ed Griffith. Even though the toy looked nothing like a firearm up close, Villafaña said, it qualified as a weapon because it ``has a trigger mechanism and can fire a projectile.''

This is my major objection: everyone in this case has overreacted -- from the idiots who couldn't tell right off the bat that this was a harmless rubber band gun, right down to the moron school police people who are charging this kid with a life-ruining FELONY for having a "gun" that couldn't have hurt anybody.

Just because it has a trigger mechanism and can fire a projectile, that makes it a weapon?

Better get the fucking staplers out of the schools, then. They meet that standard too.

Common sense is fucking dead in the world today, and this is the proof.

Kallend, why don't you comment on the pith of the issue, which is the reaction to this kid's monumental "crime"? Why must you so often dismiss the real issue and instead obfuscate with minutiae like whether it's normal to be 15 and like toy guns. Those rubber band guns are a hell of a lot of fun.
-
-

-Jeffrey
"With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

[peacefuljeffrey 0]

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You all know I'm usually on the other side, but I don't think the kid is getting that raw a deal. I'd like to see a picture of the wooden gun first, but this isn't like the kids that point their fingers and yell "bang."

1- he brought a rifle like item to school. At 14 and "gifted," he knows better.
2- a rifle length rubber band gun is quite capable of doing harm to the eye.
3- he concealed it while the entire school panicked thinking there was a gunman. While this is not surprising, he can still be held for the consequences of his actions and attempts to avoid blame.

I wouldn't treat him as an adult, and I think a felony charge is probably excessive given the lack of apparent intent.

I'm perhaps too amused by the failure of the police dogs to sniff out a non poweder based gun.

There are other types of charges available to level at him besides a FELONY *WEAPON* charge. This was not a weapon. And by your standards, throwing a blackboard eraser could do harm to the eye, and so could POKING someone's eye. That should not be the measure of whether this rises to a FELONY or not. Do you know what's entailed by a felony? Felonies carry OVER a YEAR in JAIL. That's part of the definition that sets them apart from misdemeanors (which carry UP TO a year in jail).

Given your second-to-last statement, I don't understand why you said the kid did NOT get a raw deal. It doesn't sound like you support the notion of what they charged him with any more than the rest of us do. (Except maybe for Kallend, who I imagine is laughing at the boy's misfortune.)

-

-Jeffrey
"With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

[steve1 5]

There needs to be some common sense worked into the zero tollerance that schools have toward weapons. A rubber band gun is not a gun in my mind. But then again even a toy gun if it's used the wrong way can cause mass hysteria in a school today. These are crazy times we live in, and parents are often over-protective of their kids. People who know little or nothing about guns often freak out over even the thought of a gun in the school.

Yesterday, we had a couple little 3rd graders who brough a broken BB gun to school. It didn't even work. I'm not sure what their intentions were, but since we have zero tollerance for guns they will probably be expelled. Another factor to consider is that both these kids are Native American with parents who have little clout in our community. So the kids will probably be kicked out and repeat the grade they are in next year.

But this is not always the case. At another school near us, (that also has zero tollerance for weapons) had a kid bring a large knife to school. Since his Dad was on the school board he got off with a slap on the wrist. Sounds like BS to me.

At any rate, I work in a very violent town with violent kids and crazy parents. It's a large school and I've been told it's probably only a matter of time before someone comes in and shoots up the school. One of our school doors has a couple of dents in it already, fired from a drive by shooter. I feel a little safer knowing we have two armed cops in our school. I kind of wish I could pack a heater too.

At any rate I'm not sure I know what the answer is, but busting kids who have a toy in school probably isn't going to help much.....Steve1

[kelpdiver 2]

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Given your second-to-last statement, I don't understand why you said the kid did NOT get a raw deal. It doesn't sound like you support the notion of what they charged him with any more than the rest of us do.

Like I said, without seeing the item, it's only conjecture. But not, I don't agree with your statement. The words written by you all imply that this was just a harmless error by the poor lad. I didn't see very many calls for the punishment that he deserves. The only question is what punishment. In California at least, he would be treated as a juvenile and at 18 would have a clean slate. I don't know how it would be handled there, and I suspect most of you don't either.

And mind you, a felony was charged, not convicted. I see no reason to believe that would be the final outcome, esp since no one was hurt in the panic he created.

And no, a long barreled rubber band gun is far more dangerous than an eraser or a hand. You don't accidently put out an eye with the latter two, and you can't defend against a shot. It's certainly more dangerous than the nail clippers or butter knives that other students are getting expelled for.

[Trent 0]

Holy cow, can you imagine what they woulda done to the kid if the rubberband gun had a collapsible stock, a pistol grip, and a bayonet/Fischer-Price flashlight attachment??

Oh, hello again!

[RoadRash 0]

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Holy cow, can you imagine what they woulda done to the kid if the rubberband gun had a collapsible stock, a pistol grip, and a bayonet/Fischer-Price flashlight attachment??

ROFLAO!!!! That is the best comment that I have read so far...And they probably would have sentenced the poor kid to life in prison...for god's sake...it's a freakin' 15 year old kid who was probably taking the damn thing to school to be funny and play around...Heaven forbid that teenagers should have fun...without drinking, having sex, and doing drugs...


~R+R...I'm just glad that I am not a teenager in Miami-Dade...and yes, I lived in Florida when I was a kid (only two years, but still)...

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Fly the friendly skies...^_^...})ii({...^_~...

[PhillyKev 0]

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Holy cow, can you imagine what they woulda done to the kid if the rubberband gun had a collapsible stock, a pistol grip, and a bayonet/Fischer-Price flashlight attachment??

Hehhe. Or what if you could load up 11 rubberbands at once GASP!!!