“The 16-year-old student accused of making explosives in his Monkton home told police he took a stolen handgun to the George Washington Carver Center for the Arts and Technology last week, but was too intoxicated to carry out plans to use the weapon at school, according to charging documents,” baltimoresun.com reports. You did clock the word “explosives” in that lead, yes? Kinda like the bombs that failed to explode in the Columbine killing spree. Turns out aspiring Maryland murderer Sash Alexander Nemphos hit the whiskey a bit too hard; he forgot to bring the explosives. Check this out . . .
Police said Nemphos eventually admitted he had stolen the gun and hidden it in a plastic container in his bedroom, the documents state. When asked what he planned to do with the weapon, the teen said he was going to kill his parents and then drive to the school and shoot the school police officer. He said he planned to take the school officer’s gun and kill as many students and teachers as he could, according to the documents.
Nemphos stole the gun from his father’s workplace. (So much for background checks, eh?) He possessed the gun (also a crime). Brought the firearm onto campus (another crime) intending murder (yup, criminal). So . . . how about another law?
The scenario revealed by the Sun should give pause to anyone who thinks that an armed school resource officer (SRO) is the be-all end-all of school safety. Who’s to say Nemphos couldn’t have taken out the guard, grabbed his gun and gone on a rampage? I’d bet dollars to donuts there wasn’t another armed person on campus ready to do what a dead SRO couldn’t do.
Arm teachers. Or, at the very least, let parents, teachers, administrators and staff who want to arm themselves exercise their natural, civil and Constitutionally protected right to keep and bear arms on campus. That’s it. That’s the first line of defense against criminals, crazies and terrorists. A lesson that we’ve already paid for in blood. [h/t DCW]