Florida deputy’s son, 10, accused of selling dead father’s gun to classmate for $300
nbcnews.com
Two 10-year-old students were arrested in connection with a gun sold at their elementary school in Florida, county officials confirmed.
A deputy's son "agreed to exchange a handgun, (later found to belong to his deceased father), for a sum of $300" back in February, the Hendry County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement.
The Country Oaks Elementary School was placed under lockdown Wednesday morning after the sheriff's office received a call about "a suspicious incident" on campus. Authorities discovered ammunition in the backpack of the boy who purchased the gun.
The gun was later found in his backyard under a shed, hidden with a 74-gram bag of marijuana, according to investigators.
Fuck me. We didn't used to arrest tiny children.
And when shit like this comes up, I'm screaming, "How did a 10-yo have access to a GUN!?" Arrest whoever fucked that up please.
There is no excuse. My kids are that age, and they won't touch a gun. Period. (Partly because I've taught them, but mostly because they have brains.)
I have a shitload of guns, and they're all in safes except a couple of black powder arms (which they couldn't arm and fire if their lives depended on it).
Everyone wants "common sense" gun laws? Most ideas are silly, ineffective or run afoul of the 2A (which the courts uphold, like it or not). I see nothing stopping us from draconian storage laws.
Make the laws, it's on the owners to abide. Make an exception for one gun out for home defense, which some caveats. Hell, owners don't even have to pay attention! But if a child lays hands on your gun, concrete and steel box for you.
I'm fucking jealous. Don't get me wrong, my kids are bright, but my ten year old got expelled for taking a steak knife to school - something I'd never in a million years have suspected she'd do. But one of her friends thought it would be funny, and you know how you or I might joke about telling our boss to go fuck himself, but we'd never actually do it? My daughter knew better, but in that moment all she thought about was clowning around.
She is already the most independent, hardest working kid I've known. I raised her to be that way and I'm damn proud of her. Some day she's going to be a force to be reckoned with. It's just like most children she's a fucking idiot sometimes. It's not her fault. I was a fucking idiot when I was a kid too. And based on stories I've heard, so was my dad. And then you look at the science and it turns out nearly every kid is a fucking idiot because a child's brain isn't an adult brain. And for some reason us parents tend to be the last to know.
You and I feel similarly about what sane gun laws should be and I don't really look to argue about that, but damn as one parent to another every time I hear someone say their child would never do some stupid thing or another because they are smart or raised right, I just think to myself that person either hit the jackpot or they are naive about how kids' brains work. I've raised five kids. Every damn one of them has done at least one idiotic thing I never in a million years believed they would do.
So don't ever rely solely on your kids' intelligence or adherence to rules to keep them safe. You don't ever want their moment of idiocy to involve a firearm. Best of fortunes my friend - to you and your kids.
It is simply an extension of their narcissism. They see their child as an extension of themselves (at least for now, the child will inevitably leave them when they see how toxic they are), and in their mind it isn't possible for them to do wrong.
Are you talking about me? That's one hell of a pile of assumptions if so.
I mean I'll still shoot myself in the foot if I think it's hilarious.
The kid who bought it had almost 3oz of weed, 74g. Some weird shit is going on in that neighborhood wtf.
I grew up in a neighborhood like that. By 9 the older kids had us bringing “sunflowers” that my friend’s dad smoked for whatever reason, and we’d trade a pocket full of buds for snacks and pocket change. By 11 one of the older kids decided to make a coke can pipe and show us why the sunflowers were so great. We sold pills and weed for some older people not long after that, that is until we all inevitably ended up trying those pills and becoming addicted.
I remember one time, a walk that should have taken about 10 minutes ended up taking two hours or more because I couldn’t get my brother and our friend to move. They mixed Xanax and alcohol, I didn’t have the alcohol so I was able to drag them slowly up the road. Older folks were sitting on the porch shaking their heads at us. It was terribly obvious we were into something. I was about 12 when that happened.
Those two slept for more than a day. My dad said, “I’m telling you, they’re on drugs!” And my mom said, “how could they be on drugs? They’re just babies!”
I ended up getting arrested for pills in the 9th grade and put on probation. That turned me around for a while. It took a whole lot of bad shit before I finally got my life together, but I’m clean now. My brain developed on weed, alcohol, Xanax, and opiates.
What a world.
Congrats on being clean. Seriously.
Hey, I appreciate that.
My brother did even better than me. He faced the threat of losing his wife who he had somehow managed to hide his addiction from for 5 years. She wasn’t having it. She told him to get clean or get lost.
He went to my mom’s, got in bed, faced the withdrawal with no assistance, left her place clean. He was immediately hounded by everyone offering him drugs or asking for drugs. He relapsed, went back to my mom’s place, went through the horror again, and then left for police academy.
His logic was, “not only am I the right kind of person for that job, but I dare anyone to offer me drugs when they know what my job is.”
He hasn’t looked back and he and his wife have been happily married for 14 years.
I actually required rehabilitation. I went through withdrawal intentionally one time and that was enough for me. Once I relapsed I just couldn’t do it again. I am in a permanent medication assisted program. I don’t like it, but I like it better than being a junkie on the outskirts of society, one bad moment away from being locked in a cage.
I wish I had his strength. I really do. He was always stronger than me though, physically, mentally, spiritually. I don’t do religion, but I wish I had that whole larger purpose thing going on.
For me, my purpose is simple. I have to guide my kids through this world better than my parents did. Not that I’m saying anything bad about my parents. They were a mess but they did the best they could with what they had.
Being clean is being clean, no matter how you do it.
From one internet stranger to another I’m proud of you.
I appreciate the comment bud. :)
Do not underestimate children.
Oh my friend, black powder arms are a hella pain in the ass. They're not even considered "guns" in my state.
In any case, they're too physically weak to stuff the ball in there. I have to use a helper tool to start it and mallet to finish.
But first! You gotta figure out where to get black powder and where to pour it. Then you gotta figure out where the percussion cap/primer goes, and the safety and the other controls. LOL, forget the patch? Ball just fell out.
The hobby is a labor of love for sure. Cause it ain't easy. :)
Do they have youtube?
Sure! But as with all searches, you have to know the words to start with. And again, they physically can't stuff a .50 ball and patch.
Hang around here long enough, and someone is bound to respond and try to defend it. Has happened to me multiple times. Apparently thinking that children shouldn't have access to firearms, period, is a controversial take in the US now.
The article says the gun belonged to his dead dad. It doesn't offer any evidence of when his dad died or how he came to be in possession,
Presumably another responsible adult would make sure the kid wouldn't have access to it? Like, I don't see how this could've happened unless his dad dropped dead in front of him while carrying, and the kid decided to just leave him there and sell the gun at school?
Even my home defense gun is in a biometric safe in my nightstand... Two of the others have trigger locks, and the other two are flintlocks
Most gun owners, despite all the talk of "responsible gun owners" are nowhere near as responsible as you. I wish more were. Good for you for understanding gun safety.
Hope those are some damned good trigger locks cause you can get past some with a hammer and screwdriver. My uncle lost his keys at some point and that was his solution.
Oh, it's certainly not as secure as a safe, but they're long arms, kept unloaded, with the ammo elsewhere
Okay thats a tad bit more reasonable, still wouldnt trust em personally but if youre comfortable thats all that matters.
That biometric safe work well? I touch on fingerprint readers in IT, and while they've improved I've heard those little pistol safes are a PITA.
And yes, I get that they're easy to break into for the motivated.
Flintlocks?! I'm mad jealous. I've got a few percussion cap guns, the modern one is the only one I have working reliably.
It really does! Doesn't open for other people, but opens quickly for me. And you're right, they're not exactly difficult to break open, but that's not why I have it. I just have it to keep a loaded gun out of reach of the kids.
My father-in-law actually built the flintlocks decades ago! I haven't actually fired them yet, but I keep meaning to pick up some powder and try them out
What if a 10 year old breaks into my house and tries to steal my "one home protection gun" should i blast him? Let's say he is large for his age and it's a dark and foggy night?
Can you give an example of this ever having happened?
Are you aware of Andrew Zimmerman?
No, but Google tells me he's a chef in Chicago, so I'm not sure how that's relevant.
Follow up story: 10 year olds' gun charges dropped after being sentenced to 55 years on the mara-juannas.
Oh thank God! I'm glad this dangerous substance was removed off the streets. Dozens of kids could have gotten high from that. /s
"The gun was later found in his backyard under a shed, hidden with a 74-gram bag of marijuana, according to investigators."
This whole story would a great opening to a film about a mob kingpin.
It’s honestly kind of sad. What 10 year old is buying guns and 74 fucking grams of weed?
A future mob kingpin.
I doubt he’ll get that far if he’s getting high at 10. Probably got a fucked up life
You don't buy a QP to get high. You buy it to sell.
No doubt about the fucked up life. But he could have been selling vs consuming the product.
Quick math 74 grams is 2.61 ounces which is like what I can get for a little over a 100 buck legally for meh shit. Primo it could be ~300-500 bucks worth in a legal market for perspective. Still a 10 year old should not have either in their possession
You think this gun toting 10 year old don't have the primo shit??
How would he even know? Not like he has years of experience smoking the sticky icky as snoop say. Probably brick grass because the dealer knows he will get away will selling skunk weed to a 10 year old because he is a piece of shit for selling a 10 year old grass
Probably been slanging since pre k tbh
That's probably how he got the $300 for the gun. And why he needs a gun.
I definitely need better friends… I’m paying a little over 900 bucks for that much primo shit here in CA… and that’s with my good customer discount 😂
Bro what??? I took like 3 seconds and found an OZ for 85 bucks in Cali. You go north and south you can find it just as cheap of LA
Super Fresh Farms Delivery - http://www.leafly.com/dispensary-info/redwood-roots
Did you ask the 10 year olds at the local park
I was thinking about it, but now that I know they’re packing heat I might just stick to the over priced dispensaries.
Bugsy Malone II: Bugs Harder
I wish I had $300 when I was 10. I would have spent $150 on Star Wars figures and another $150 on G.I. Joes.
I probably would have bought Bionicles, still sad they got discontinued
That was after my time, but I'm reading about it now. It sounds cool. I probably would have been into it.
Oh yeah, and the lore rabbit hole gets deep, read most of the comics and books, it was really cool as a whole universe with supporting toys.
Fuck yeah it was.
I went back a little while ago and reread through some of the lore on the wiki and all these memories came rushing back.
They discontinued them? Those ********ing ****** ***** *****s.
Legos and SNES games for me. Probably more the Legos. I used to look through the catalogs longly, wishing I could afford the bigger city, jungle, and pirate sets.
Nowadays I still look longingly, but at more sets and a little less at the city sets.
I was never hugely into Lego. I enjoyed it and had some, but it wasn't the thing I was totally into.
I like that they have adult stuff now though. I can't say I had a lot of fun putting together the Lego Yellow Submarine, but it was still worth the experience.
I got my wife some of the Lego plants they have now for her birthday last year. Succulents and an orchid, I think. She loved them.
There's no reason creative toys like Lego need to be just for kids.
Also, there's an antique mall near me that has a booth with like every G.I. Joe figure and vehicle made in the 80s. My parents would have had to drag me away from that booth.
Yeah, I love the adult ones too, and aside from my personal experience I've heard a lot of people discuss the calming feeling it gives. For people with ADHD alot of us find it calming, relaxing, and something we can focus on unlike other ventures. Gives lots of hits of dopamine for each section you do etc.
Ya but with a gun you can steal all the gi joes you want
Good point. I'm getting a gun and a time machine.
There are some seriously fucked up parents on both sides of this transaction.
Floridaman's origin story.
Seriously! I was just thinking this was the most Florida headline I had heard this year.
Capitalism.
That deputy is another totally responsible gun owner. /s
Guns are the issue. Fuck anyone that says otherwise.
That removes ALL other factors, and simplifies too much, it doesn't ask why a 10 year old kid had 74g of marijuana in the first place.
Guns are part of the issue, drugs are part of the issue, family and social life are part of the issue, finances are part of the issue
Just going "gun bad" solves nothing.
I do wish the US would institute proper gun control systems, like a national registry, with random checkups on how guns are stored. It won't happen, the gun lobby is too strong.
I am glad I live in northern Europe where we don't have the obsession with guns that the US has.
Wasn't aware Finland was no longer part of the Northern Europe.