Breitbart Warning in effect.
Westside killer denied handgun permit
An application for a concealed handgun permit filed by one of the shooters in 1998's Westside Middle School Massacre in Jonesboro has been denied by the Arkansas State Police, citing the objections of the Sharp County sheriff and at least one answer on the application that appears to be false.
For those not in the know, here's a rundown of the Westside Middle School Massacre
The following morning, the boys drove in the van to Westside Middle School. As they arrived, Golden pulled the fire alarm while Johnson took the weapons to the woods outside of the school. Golden then ran back to the woods where Johnson had taken the weapons. When children and teachers filed out of the school, the two boys opened fire. The boys killed four students and one teacher and wounded ten others. Golden and Johnson attempted to run back to the van and escape, but police captured them. The boys evidently planned to run away as they had food, sleeping bags, and survival gear in their van.
The boys were 11 (Golden) and 13 (Johnson). Because of their ages, they could not be tried as an adult where they would have faced the death penalty. Also because of this, once they hit 18, their records would be expunged.
Golden, upon his release, changed his name to Drew Douglas Grant and since 2007 has not ran afoul of the law. He has now applied for a weapons permit and has been denied because one of the questions he answered appears to be false (being a lie or not still needs to be determined) as well as another, unstated reason.
However, I believe Golden should be given the permit.
That's right, I believe Drew Douglas Grant, a person responsible for the intentional deaths of 4 children and a teacher, should be granted a permit for a handgun.
This is where the Breitbart warning is in effect. An intelligent reader will continue on. The not-so-intelligent will hit the comments right now, blasting me for proving the NRA desires to put guns in the hands of dangerous people and that gun owners are psychopaths or something.
Golden is a perfect example of why the gun laws in this country are screwed up. Here is a… monster, for lack of a better word, who murdered children in cold blood at an age where most kids were having a hard enough time deciding between which Pokémon card to trade, much less deciding to kill as many of their classmates as possible. At 11 years old, if you somehow manage to convince yourself that mowing down innocent schoolchildren is the right thing to do, there is something so messed up that there is very little room for redemption.
And yet, because of the laws of the land, this person has been released into the public and according to the same laws, because he did this as a minor, he has no felony conviction to prevent him from owning firearms. Or purchasing gasoline and a lighter. Or knives. Or picking up a 2 liter of Coke and packets of powdered pool chlorine. Or from owning a Louisville Slugger. Or a bow & arrow. The list goes on.
And yet, he walks among us. He can drive by the very school where your children go, he can eat at the same restaurants you take your family to, watch the same movies you do in the very same theater, and can stand behind you in line at the local grocery store. And yet the gun bigots among us would have us believe that a simple background check at the point of sale to deny the purchase of a simple tool is what we all need to keep us safe from the monster - Golden's accomplice puts that fantasy to rest
After two days of testimony from the prosecution and the defense witnesses, Johnson was found guilty on a charge of possessing a weapon while being a drug user.
How in the world did Johnson get a weapon? I mean, hassling me at the gun store should have stopped him, no? And the guy he got the weapon from should have run a background check, right? Because the last thing a criminal wants to do is break the law!
Johnson's history illustrates our problem much better than the weak brained attempt at blaming lax gun laws could ever do. He has been in and out of jail on various charges all his life, and yet he continues to be released back into public where he can jeopardize the safety of others.
If you truly believe in laws that benefit the safety of the populace, you'd stop trying to hassle people in the legitimate exercise of a right and demand that judges and politicians do the hard work of keeping the violent portions of our society incarcerated and away from the people that they harm. You'd abandon the constant blaming of the tool and start holding the wielder responsible for his or her actions.
But no, you allow monsters like Golden and Johnson to walk free among us and pray that a cash register is all that's needed to stop them.
I believe that Golden and Johnson both belong in jail for life where the notion of them purchasing a gun is moot. There is something so evil about what they did that it benefits society to keep them incarcerated forever. The belief that somehow denying them a piece of paper will keep them from harming others is a deadly fairy tale that won't have a happy ending. Gun laws only affect the law abiding and promote a false sense of security.
So, which thought is crazier? Allowing Golden a weapons permit or letting him walk free?
If someone is deemed too dangerous to own a gun, then they're damn sure too dangerous to walk the streets. Period.
Just like any other person walking the streets, Golden can walk into a gas station and a grocery store, and walk out with more than enough materials to make a not-insignificant bomb.