14 year old shoots himself in the head during school

[Idocreating]

Kind of a douchey way to try and kill yourself. "Yeah, let's traumatize everybody by blowing my brains all over the place." Still, at least he didn't go on a rampage before trying to do himself in.

If he was bullied by most of the other students then it justified payback in my eyes, and probably his. Well, what's left of them... yeah that was terrible of me.

 

[Zuljeet]

Dear world: if you want to commit suicide, DON'T VICTIMIZE EVERYONE ELSE. Go someplace quiet like Tijuana and piss off some obliging drug dealers.

I must disagree with that. It's other people who drive someone to suicide, and they will never change unless something drastic happens, like watching someone try and commit suicide.

Which people are you referring to? Classmates? random passers-by? Police officers? EMT's? Perhaps oncoming traffic while driving? Perhaps the individual's children? Every group I refer to above were victims of some asshole who wanted to commit suicide, but thought it would be a swell idea to fuck up as many people as they could before following through with it. Those random people didn't "drive" them to do shit, much less aggressively involve them in some asshole's "go out with a bang" fantasy. Sorry, your logic is flawed both philosophically and in an applied sense. Sure there some people who are trapped and abused and escape by way of suicide, but NONE of those apply to some asshat who is so cowardly, selfish, and idiotic as to go out of their way to hurt other people just so they can have some sense of satisfaction.

 

[TheRundownRabbit]

Thats certainly a sad story. But the gun hate is going to flow, you can be sure of that. People are going to start saying "oh, if he couldn't get a hold of the gun, he wouldn't have done it", then these people are going to challenge my right to own a firearm and everyone will forget about the really important question, "why he did it and what caused it." People are quick to accuse the gun, nevermind the idiot holding it. *ahem* Drifted off-topic there, but I can only assume the cause or drive was attention or bullying.

 

[ElPatron]

Why would a 14 year old be in a relationship to begin with?

Damn kids. Back in my day, we couldn't date until we were married. And marriage was forbidden until 24!

So by age 18 you are mentally able to give your live for your country, drive, etc, but you're not mentally able to be in a relationship.

I seriously hope that was sarcasm, because by your logic we can just ban everything until you are 65 and have acquired enough life experience.


If a kid isn't allowed to cope with pain and suffering how will he be able to deal with it when he's an adult?

 

[AngelOfBlueRoses]

To anyone who is saying 'natural selection at work' or something along those lines, just remember that this kid is still alive. With that in mind, I'd much more welcome him as a part of humanity than any of you.

 

[Caligulove]

That's just chilling. Kid likely scarred every single person there in the cafeteria.

gives a good excuse to post this again, though

 

[spartan231490]

Shot himself in the face, but was hospitalized? I bet it was a pellet gun. Don't really care why he did it myself, doesn't change my opinions on gun control or bullying.

If it was a pellet gun, I doubt he would have been hospitalized. Guns aren't like in games, there's no 100% fatal shot. The human body is a very complicated system, and a gun works by firing a very small chunk of metal through it at a very high speed. It will wreck your shit no matter what, but whether it will cause enough damage to kill you or not depends on a huge number of factors, and it's very rarely instant.

People don't live through point blank head shots from fire-arms.

Yes they do. For one thing, head =/= brain. Getting shot through the cheek is quite survivable. Also, Gabrielle Giffords was shot through the head recently, and lived. Even when people die it's rarely instantaneous, IIRC Lincoln lived until the next morning and was taken to the hospital. Remember, it said hospitalized not "with a good chance of recovery".

Here is a list of people who have survived similar injuries.

[link]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saburo_Sakai#Serious_wounds[/link]

[link]http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/5177344/Woman-makes-cup-of-tea-after-being-shot-in-head.html[/link]

[link]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludwig_Beck#20_July_plot[/link] (he was later finished off by a second headshot)

[link]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phineas_Gage[/link]

[link]http://weirdthings.com/2010/06/the-man-who-survived-10-shots-from-a-mexican-firing-squad-weirdest-survival-stories/[/link] (also survived nine preceding shots by firing squad)

This article goes more into detail about surviving brain injury, with mention to gunshot wounds.

[link]http://main.uab.edu/tbi/show.asp?durki=85704[/link]

According to ChaCha (not always the best source, admittedly) you have a 2% chance of surviving a headshot.

I'll give you the head =/= to brain thing, but it was reasonable to assume he wouldn't have been hospitalized for a shot that didn't penetrate the skull, he would have only needed stitches otherwise, unless it somehow grazed the eye.

Other than that, you are ignoring the proximity of the shot, none of your links involved a shot at that close range. The results of a bullet impact vary based on range.

Secondly, the exception proves the rule.

Furthermore, none of your links involved children, who have smaller skulls and more vulnerable brains.

I stand by what I said.

 

[ChaplainOrion]

So is there anymore news on the subject? I didn't see an update online on his condition.

 

[Kopikatsu]

So is there anymore news on the subject? I didn't see an update online on his condition.

Just that he probably shot himself because of relationship issues with a girl, he was in critical condition on Friday, and this:

Walpole Elementary School, which includes grades 5-8, is one of five schools that recently began participating in an experiment aimed at reducing bullying and meanness in New Hampshire schools.

The Courage to Care curriculum, developed at the University of New Hampshire, includes videos, activities and games emphasizing empathy, caring for others, understanding power, courage and being respectful in cyberspace. Half of the seventh graders in each participating school are enrolled in the program initially, while the other half serve as control groups to compare the curriculum's effects.

May not be related, but hey.

 

[chadachada123]

That's just chilling. Kid likely scarred every single person there in the cafeteria.

gives a good excuse to post this again, though

Great words, but I feel like these would be lost on a 14-year old, who additionally likely lacks the means to skip town like this.

 

[Elementary - Dear Watson]

When the saints come in is not a nursery rhyme. Im sorry I mispelled something i understand how abhorrent it is to get a mention. Sarcasm is the lowest form of wit but i do not have a problem with it. I infact just used it. I understand humour dont try and tell me that i dont on the basis that we dont agree on a single joke. What i was trying to say was that the joke was not suitable as no one has accused this of being the fault of videogames and that, while the finger is pointed regularily at games by the media, it has not yet been done here. Therefore the joke wasnt suitable because the story was about what had happened not the media fallout. Making a joke early is not clever. Its just that you think this event was trivial enough to joke about and that its fine to totally change the subject. Many people have trivialised this and those people are scum, the maker of the joke included. The joke is just lazy as sarcasm generally is. Very rarely has actual skill been put behind sarcasm and this is not one of those cases. He took a serious situation and trivialised it. If someone you knew had done this and someone decided to make this joke then you would hardly be in hysterics would you? no you, i hope at least to demonstrate you are at least human on some level, would be insulted because they were trivialising it. you dont joke about a real human being attempting suicide infront of 70 people.

Sorry for confusing your gospel song with a nursery rhyme... I sang both in preschool, easy to get confused... and hey... I remember putting rude words into it then too! The mature 4 year old I was...

If you had read other parts of this thread you would have seen that I was on a train when a friend of mine threw himself in front of it... I know about tragedy... fuck, I read about it all day everyday in my job.

Beleive it or not, sad as it is there are multiple ways of dealing with grief. Personally I am proffessional at my job, and as much as it is sad, I am heavily desensitised to it... A lot of people who live and work around tragedy are... Yes, I think this event is quite trivial. At the moment it has fired up a lot of questions... as it happens the kid isn't dead. He hurt himself with a dangerous weapon. I want to know why.
If I was reading about 2 year olds in Syria who were hit with mortars and artillery, whilst in their own houses... who are now in a feild hospital, abandoned because the doctors cannot return, then it would be different... whos fault is that? The child did nothing.

But we arn't talking about a tragedy like that, we are talking about a kid who should know better shooting himself in school, from a privaleged country, who should have done more to have prevented it. Yes its sad that the kid did that, but we still don't know why... there is no background to it yet. Hell, he could have been playng russian roulette for all we know. He could have been attention seeking, because mummy and daddy don't pay enough attention to him, (in that case I would be more angered at the parents than anything.)

Welcome to the real world... people act differently, its what makes us human. Yes, there are people in this thread being heartless, and saying they don't care (in which I would pull the BS card in most of those cases), and I am not defending them, what I am defending is the fact that people can say what they want in a scenario like this. Its how people cope with this kind of news... most people who crack jokes around sober subjects cannot help it... it's a coping mechanism. Once you experience the real world, not your 'cry at every death' bubble you live in then I will take your points, but guess what, I don't care right now. If I were to stop and mourn every death I hear about i'd never do any work...


AND WAIT! What's that I spot on the first page of this thread... your first comment to this whole affair:

'Well he's clearly messed up...'

Wow... Mr Compassion, showing us how it's done...

 

[Wolfhowl the shadow lurker]

this is what school does to people makes them want to end it all some more then others

RIP kid yet more lives ruined by school

 

[GameMaNiAC]

It's video-games' fault! VIDEO-GAMES, I TELL YOU!

That child was obviously training on games such as Call Of Duty and Doom. Ban them!

 

[SD-Fiend]

To all those who want to say that he is doing a good thing taking himslef out of the gene pool or think this is a time for jokes: you are the ones who deserve to live on this world the least. If you wont behave like a human being then you shouldnt live. If you expect people to cry at your funeral then show some damn respect for the lives of others.

this is human nature as well kid.

Are these your emotions? No things humans do dont have to be humane. There is a certain amount of decency your supposed to have around extremely tragic events such as this and the way these people are behaving is completely wrong. I was raised to respect the lives of others. If you dont then why the hell should anyone respect yours? (not directed at the person i quoted if these aren't your views)

why should i respect his? I don't expect anyone but those who are close to me to respect my death. If he was still alive i wouldn't expect him to respect me either.

 

[NightHawk21]

This could have been an accident or it could've been the prelude to something worse had he not been shot. We don't know why the gun was there and in his hands.

It's fairly difficult to accidentally shoot yourself with a gun, especially in the head...

If that were only true...

Sorry, it's just that people have accidentally shot others and themselves before. I'm not making an argument for the case being true HERE, but it is true in life. It's a possibility.

Well, technically just about anything you can imagine IS possible. However, there are very few self-inflicted accidental headshots (there are far, far more cases of people shooting themselves in the foot, hand, arm, and the like) that were not the result of pure stupidity in its finest, like pulling the trigger 'because I thought it wasn't loaded.'

Now, if he were a really little kid who somehow got ahold of a gun, I would see more of a possibility of this, but a 14 year old? That's just not probable at all, because the only reasoning I can see behind bringing a gun to school when they're clearly and absolutely banned from school would be shooting people, and if you're not intending on shooting yourself, yet manage to point the barrel at your head...well damn.

The only way I could see that being the case would be if it was in his backpack, he reached back, fumbled with the trigger while pulling it out...still would be next to impossible to do that way, because of the amount of force needed to depress most triggers-it's not something that's easy to do accidentally at all, coupled with the fact he'd need to be pulling the gun out with the barrel towards his head, which would make pulling the trigger much harder, and would make just pulling the gun out harder in the first place....

I just don't see that happening.

Could be he brought it to show off to his friends or something (maybe he found it in his house), and had it in his bag or under his shirt or something and then next thing you know they're looking at it and boom it goes off. Stranger things have happened.

 

[TheTurtleMan]

Maybe he had an idea for movie and he really wanted to emphasize the importance of it with a self afflicted head shot. Too soon?

Hopefully he'll pull through and be able to get the proper psychiatric help that he needs. My heart goes out to the family.

 

[Owen Robertson]

Suicide is selfish, cowardly, and lazy.
A) More often than not, someone does care about you and you just fucked their life up
B) You have plethora of options for getting rid of the problem and/or coping with its effects. You took the easy way out instead, you lazy bastard.

If you feel that's insensitive, you're correct. I've no time for sensitivity. There's sense to be driven into the skulls of the masses, whether they like it or not.

Captain Pretentious AWAY!!!

EDIT - Much truth is said in jest.

 

[Imper1um]

Maybe he just watched "The Happening" and its happening in real life. XD

No, but seriously, the kid probably was bullied and he wanted to end his life in front of everyone to make a point for attention.

 

[GeneralFungi]

This could have been an accident or it could've been the prelude to something worse had he not been shot. We don't know why the gun was there and in his hands.

It's fairly difficult to accidentally shoot yourself with a gun, especially in the head...

If that were only true...

Sorry, it's just that people have accidentally shot others and themselves before. I'm not making an argument for the case being true HERE, but it is true in life. It's a possibility.

Well, technically just about anything you can imagine IS possible. However, there are very few self-inflicted accidental headshots (there are far, far more cases of people shooting themselves in the foot, hand, arm, and the like) that were not the result of pure stupidity in its finest, like pulling the trigger 'because I thought it wasn't loaded.'

Now, if he were a really little kid who somehow got ahold of a gun, I would see more of a possibility of this, but a 14 year old? That's just not probable at all, because the only reasoning I can see behind bringing a gun to school when they're clearly and absolutely banned from school would be shooting people, and if you're not intending on shooting yourself, yet manage to point the barrel at your head...well damn.

The only way I could see that being the case would be if it was in his backpack, he reached back, fumbled with the trigger while pulling it out...still would be next to impossible to do that way, because of the amount of force needed to depress most triggers-it's not something that's easy to do accidentally at all, coupled with the fact he'd need to be pulling the gun out with the barrel towards his head, which would make pulling the trigger much harder, and would make just pulling the gun out harder in the first place....

I just don't see that happening.

That doesn't rule out the possibility of him threatening another student before realizing the grave consequences of such a thing. But it's still tragic that this happened, no matter the circumstances.

 

[Gordon_4_v1legacy]

inb4 arguments on gun regulation.

Original posters can't "inb4".

And there is no need to talk about regulation because he obtained the gun illegally anyway. It's not like a 14 year old can enter a gun shop and buy one.

In this case I think we'd have a case of 'dishonest' aquisition. His parent's may have legally owned the firearm but he took it from them without their knoweldge.

Which could happen in any country independently of gun laws.

People don't understand that here in Europe guns are *almost* a privilege and I feel like guns will be even more restricted. This makes us defenseless to criminals who acquire any guns they want. I don't want the same to happen to the US, illegal guns would flood the black market.

In Sweden a woman was convicted to 6 months in jail for carrying pepper spray, a drug dealer got 2 months for possessing a full auto sub-machine gun because "drug dealing was a dangerous activity". The government obviously hushed the situation.


Restricting guns only results in protecting criminals.

Don't misunderstand me, I agree with pretty much what you've said: this should not be a legislative issue in terms of firearm ownership, its a responsible ownership issue. Unless the parents trusted the lad to have access to the locked cabinet/safe the pistol was stored in (which is another debate in itself), its owner was lax in securing the weapon. Would you agree?