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Honor Student and Eagle Scout Arrested for Shotgun Left in Pickup

Robert Farago - comments No comments

foxnews.com reports that Carolina cops arrested Eagle Scout and Honors student Cole Withrow after he [allegedly] accidentally brought a shotgun to school. According to reports, a school administrator overheard Withrow arranging to have his mother come pick up the gun. His friends are up in arms, so to speak. The young man—just weeks away from graduation—won’t be seeing them on campus this year. In fact, he can’t resume his final push for his diploma until 365 days hence. All of which reminds us that discretion is the better part of valor, all round.

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Robert Farago

Robert Farago is the former publisher of The Truth About Guns (TTAG). He started the site to explore the ethics, morality, business, politics, culture, technology, practice, strategy, dangers and fun of guns.

0 thoughts on “Honor Student and Eagle Scout Arrested for Shotgun Left in Pickup”

  1. There was a report on Drudge earlier today that the Superintendent offered to let the boy go to an alternative school so he can graduate on time. Has this changed?

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  2. Truly disgusting. And people wonder why I am so against new “common sense” gun laws? Because they will be used to utterly destroy the lives of good people. Common sense will not be used in the prosecution of people for minor infractions. What should have happened is the mom came and got the gun, and then the kid went to class. Problem solved!

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  3. What a relief that the school is a Gun-Free Zone! Hundreds of children saved and another victory for justice!

    /end sarcasm

    Common sense is dead…

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  4. but wait, didn’t di fi say that all veterans are a danger to society or something? prove di fi and double barrel wrong in the same dgu. nice!

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  5. I went to high school in the late 60s and 75% of the student and teacher’s pickups had loaded guns in the back windows!

    It isn’t the guns that are the problem: it’s the idiot liberals that won’t allow parents and teachers to bust the butts of little punks!

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    • We all had shotguns and rifles in our vehicles while parked on school property. In fact, I brought my shotgun into the Industrial Arts department where I broke it down and cleaned the parts in the Gunk tank.

      However, our weapons were never left loaded in our vehicles.

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  6. The local prosecutor stated that if an administrator had brought a weapon on campus it would have been a misdemeanor but he would charge a student with a felony.

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  7. Same school.

    In March 2011, Princeton School Assistant Principal Catherine Bennett was suspended but never criminally charged after bringing a gun onto campus that was found in the glove box of her vehicle, while being worked on by the school’s auto mechanics class.

    Bennett had reportedly asked the resource officer to check the car because she had misplaced the weapon and had been searching for it. The officer, Andy Worley, reportedly found the gun but did not take possession of it, instead, he placed it back in the glove box and locked the car doors.

    When Bennett and Worley went to retrieve the weapon from the car hours later, the vehicle had been moved inside the auto mechanics class, and the gun was missing.

    After questioning several students, the gun was reportedly found hidden underneath the fender of the vehicle. Two students who found the gun allegedly showed the firearm to two other classmates. None of the four students were charged in the 2011 incident.

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  8. The moral of the story is, don’t fess up to anything. Ever.

    It’s not a good moral, but this is the society we live in, where anyone can accidentally commit a felony and have their lives ruined on a technicality. One of Stalin’s right hand men, the one who ran the gulags used to say, “Show me the man and I will show you the crime.” Welcome the USSR of A.

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  9. When I graduated from a NC high school in 1995 many rifles and shotguns were on racks in trucks. Oh how the times have changed.

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    • I originally wrote a post to your random comment (this story is in North Carolina guy), but you know what. Why waste the time correcting misconceptions? This video sums it up

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0MRmxfLuNto

      I will go back to owning firearms without having to own a permit to do so, buying liquor at any regular grocery store, without having to go to some special room, buying cigarettes at a lower tax rate than most other states, and in general abiding by all these human rights violations California does.

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  10. Everyone seems to expect old guys (and gals too I guess) to pack double guns and revolvers. Nice to see this guy rockin a more modern firearm.

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  11. I have been diligently teaching my kids the wonders of 1. Not answering unasked questions and 2. Offering nothing that anyone doesn’t need to know (i.e. wait for a question and then answer it, keeping in mind rule #1)

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  12. Honor student-check
    Eagle scout-check
    Call you mom over
    making mistake-check
    No one got hurt-check
    Principal knowing who he was
    dealing with & still calling cops-schmuck
    Getting locked up-Political correctness gone amuck
    Liberty University offering scholarship-Priceless

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  13. Why don’t they look at the situation and use their powers of deduction to determine how to respond, rather than just pretending they stopped a school massacre?

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  14. More evidence of the declination of American society. The leftists have not only feminized the male role but have seized control of the educational process – exerting absolute control over the minds of our children. A new educational curriculum, known as “Common Core” is being rolled out in public schools across our nation. Educate yourselves about this assault on our children.

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    • “The leftists have not only feminized the male role but have seized control of the educational process – exerting absolute control over the minds of our children.”

      Feminism has had a large role.

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  15. Shows the utter danger of being a decent, liberty-minded, productive person in today’s screwed up society. Welcome to Police State America.

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  16. LONG LIVE ZERO TOLERANCE POLICIES*

    *Except when applying them to administrators for the same offense in the same school. WAIT! Did I say “same?” I meant drastically worse, because hers was loaded and accessible to students.

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  17. Isn’t this just reinventing the original Gwinn Firearms “Bushmaster” pistol (based on the Colt IMP project?)

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  18. GEEZERS with guns! Wish I had come up with that one. Since I am turning 64 this June, have a CCW, and carry 380. .38 super, .38/357, .40, .45 ACP, .45 LC, then this is a perfect venue for me, and those like me. I am also disabled, thanks to a raghead cab driver. So I am relegated to hand cannons.
    However I am more than competent with any given caliber, I have listed. In fact I have a cool $1,000.00 waiting for any body that is willing to shoot against me. Just put up your grand and whatever revolver/pistol you are willing to lose, in a shooting contest. The same rules apply to me. So far NONE of the big mouthed arm chair warriors have had the gonads to challenge me.

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  19. This kid is an idiot who should’ve immediately gone home and saved himself a whole lot of trouble. The courts have ruled a bunch of times that kids basically don’t have constitutional protections on school grounds, and they are notorious dens of “zero tolerance.” The WORST thing that could happen if he bailed was asking his mom to write a note because he suddenly felt sick right after he got to school and so he went home. There’s a reason why “boy scout” is often synonymous with “naive.”

    To the person who said the administrator should be “investigated for treason, really?? I’m getting really tired of this site being nothing but fox news about guns. There is no leftist/liberal/communist/muslim/satanist/black-helicopter/lizard person conspiracy out to get the brave, patriotic white male. Before sandy hook I would’ve pegged this site as more or less politically agnostic libertarian. Now it’s nothing but partisan shilling.

    I am so bored of this us vs them crap, I can turn on a million television channels and fill my brain with this kind of drivel. You guys planning on returning to a gun blog any time soon?

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    • “Before Sandy Hook”:

      -We didn’t have antis vomiting up psychotic death threats towards gun owners and NRA members that went unpunished by a sympathetic federal government.
      -Anti-gun politicians such as Joe “Both Barrels” Biden weren’t telling people the proposed legislation wouldn’t prevent a single tragedy behind closed doors and that “this is just the beginning”
      -New York, Connecticut, and Colorado were better off.

      Go read all the gun, ammo, and gear reviews elsewhere and bury your head in the sand. I’ll stay here, take my daily dose of political reality, and laugh as I recall every moron I knew in 2008 who told me this administration wouldn’t touch gun rights with a ten-thousand foot pole.

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  20. He kicked him? Did he call the perps parents before laying said boot to model citizen? Remember, when boots/shoes are outlawed only outlaws will have same. I take solace in the fact that at least the thug can collect SSD now, Randy

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  21. Proves my point that a good pistol caliber carbine is probably the BEST home self-defense gun. Over-penetration not an issue, high accuracy across the house, light-to-no recoil, high capacity magazines available…perfect!

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  22. It almost begs a response in the liberal gun-grabbers own negative terms.
    Assault weapon, in the hands of a law abiding citizen, thwarts robbery.
    I hate to use the term assault weapon, but in this case, a point can be made. It all depends on who you assault, and why.

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  23. Hell with the shooting, we need a good gum website, brushing tips, flossing, keepin the choppers ready for action like a pitbull on a quarter pounder. Oh well, a senior gun site is ok too, Randy

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  24. If we hide from the problem, maybe it’ll go away. Signed, ignorant liberals. (yes yes, there are some good eggs in that group, but not as a whole)

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  25. I’ll play devil’s advocate on this one.

    Deprived a bright young man of his future? Well, not so bright apparently, to “forget” a firearm in a vehicle; to bring a firearm to a school knowing that they are forbidden there. Not bright enough, frankly, for not simply keeping his big mouth in check and waiting the day out, or finding an excuse to be excused for the day.

    Seems to me everything that happened was his own doing.

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  26. Just got an email from CTD SALE for 100 rounds of Tula 9mm ammo for $99.59. Are you kidding me! A dollar a round for 9mm. I’ll never buy from them again. Gouging is an understatement. I appreciate places like MidwayUSA, Academy and even Wal-mart for not taking advantage of the lack of supply and keeping prices as they were. Reap what you sow CTD

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  27. First I came to the conclusion that the bills being pushed were a stepping stone to confiscation and an infringement on the 2A. Second just because some of us support the idea of background checks doesn’t mean we support the gun grabbers garbage.

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  28. Youth models rock. I’m 6-1. My wife is 5 zip. She can shoot a 12 ga. pump, mine, but she has trouble reaching the controls comfortably with the standard stock. Solved the problem with a youth model.

    She can shoot a .45 1911. but her hand size is more comfortable with a j frame style revolver. I’m happy to oblige her needs. I have a wife that’s supportive of my firearms addiction.

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