Yeah, you know it’s coming. The “A” word. “Police say a student drove to his Franklin County school with an arsenal of weapons, but he is not facing any criminal charges,” wcax.com reports. “The 17-year-old had guns, knives and ammunition in his car, but police say they have no proof that he had any intentions to cause harm. The weapons were discovered when the Northwest Technical Center student brought his car in to be worked on by other students there. Police say a teacher checking the glove compartment found a loaded .45-caliber, semi-automatic pistol and alerted police. After getting a search warrant, police also found two shotguns, a rifle, two stun guns, a machete, two knives and an assortment of ammunition.” Sounds like a grand day out to me. But not to St. Albans Police Chief Gary Taylor [above] . . .
“I can tell you that in this day and age, with the shootings that have occurred across the country, I just don’t see any place for firearms, particularly that number of weapons, in one vehicle. That doesn’t seem to me to be somebody planning on going hunting,” St. Albans Police Chief Gary Taylor said.
Police say the weapons are from the juvenile’s home. It’s still unclear why they were in the student’s car.
Though no laws were violated, possessing weapons on school property is a violation of district policy. School officials are in the process of taking action against the student for the violation.
So no criminal record, just a permanent stain on the student’s academic record, which will make it more difficult for the lad to go to finishing school. Bummer.
“I just don’t see any place for firearms, particularly that number of weapons, in one vehicle.”
Does that include police vehicles Chief Taylor? This guy would have a heart attack if he searched my truck on a day I was going to the range.
Exactly what I was thinking. And on those days, there’s usually also a teenager in the passenger seat, mere inches away from all those guns. OMG noooooo….!
Funny, when I take my car to a mechanic he never looks in the glove compartment. Wonder why the teacher thought he ought to.
And the kid should just say he had all that stuff in case of a zombie apocalypse.
looking for the owner’s manual, probably.
Yeah, I think that’s the reason. And when I say, “reason”, I’m not referring to that po-po,
Never met a mechanic worth his salt that had to refer to an owner’s manual.
It was a high school auto shop class. Not exactly a haven of master mechanics.
This is America! We don’t read manuals!
Depending on the work being done, maybe getting to a wiring harness or ventilation system behind the box.
Sounds like the situation was handled reasonably well. Stupid kid for leaving everything laying around knowing other people were going to be crawling all over his car.
If the turn signals go out on my camry you have to spelunk thru the glove box to fix it. Ask me how I know. Does seem like an awfull lot of firepower and edged weapons for a teeny bopper to just be cruising around with in his car. I’d like to know more about the student before I passed judgement on his decision.
I am guessing he was storing them in there because of his living situation maybe he lives in the dorms or in a gun prohibited building.
I believe the cabin air filter is often located behind the glove box.
On the upside, at least it didn’t trigger pants sh*tting hysteria and send the whole school into lockdown.
Otherwise, what was in the car sounds like pretty typical standard issue rural household equipment. It’s a little odd that he’d leave it in a car, though.
Dumb question, how was this not a violation of GFSZA?
He wasn’t carrying any guns.
Lawful transport of firearms in vehicles does not violate the gun zones law. Different states have their own laws (in California you can drive with a rifle unloaded, but sitting on the front seat, normally but in a school zone it must be in a locked container).
So that in itself would excuse some of it. But the gun was loaded…ok now we have a problem. The gun free zone craps would ban that…except this was NOT a highschool, not a K-12 institution. It was a vocational school. So Federal law does not apply here.
In CA you have to have any/all guns stored unloaded in a locked container. Trunk counts, but SUV/Vans like I have you need to get locking gun cases or you will lose your guns and your rights.
Vermont.
Dumb kid for having all that stuff in the car.
Vermont is a free state. Hard to believe it borders NY.
And Taxxa-shoot-less.
But then don’t forget it also borders New Hampshire.
If this cop is freaking about this, he would have a coronary if he ever stopped me on the way to a 3-gun match…………….or heaven forbid if it would have been back in the day heading to the Second Chance or the SOF shoots!
Is it just me or are most cops pvssies these days? They certainly seem to to have a problem holding their water when it involves firearms.
I was just thinking that. I took a bud to the range the other day and had 2 ARs, an M1A, an AK, 2 .45s a 9MM and a ruger 10/22 Top that all off with probably 2000 rounds of ammo combined and us both being bearded, ball cap wearing, Come and Take it Sticker having, 4×4 truck drivers and this guy would have a heart attack right there on the side of the road!!
I hate it when people say ‘semiautomatic pistol’ in every article.
What term would you use?
A lot of people think pistol automatically means a semi-auto, though technically it doesn’t
I would never refer to a revolver as a pistol, but derringers and black powder flintlocks and caplocks, sure.
IMO, the best correct term would be self-loading pistol.
Per the dictionary, a pistol – a small gun made to be aimed and fired with one hand.
Well, he missed up bad. But at lest they are using a little common sense about the whole thing and not acting like he was going to start a school shooting event. I bet that young man will not finish school there this year. I bet he will also check his car before turning the keys over to anyone again. I still wonder why did he have the guns in the first place?
Who takes their car to be “worked on” when it is full of weapons, particularly firearms? Sounds like a good way to find them missing, school or not.
Most likely explanation is the kid was playing tough guy gangsta with his friends using dad’s guns.
You could be right. My first impression was, it’s hunting season. A few guns and knives in rural VT shouldn’t be a big surprise. Sounds like my car in the early 70’s when I was 17, before NY became a police state. But the stun guns and machete don’t fit the hunting theme. At least the entire state isn’t soiling itself over it. Yet. Imagine the reaction if it occurred in nearby NY, Ct, RI, or Mass? They’d call for a lockdown up and down the east coast. Moms would be marching and Bloomberg’s bus would be deployed.
Machetes fit just fine. Why would you think they don’t? The stun guns, yeah not so much…. but then those are the non/less lethal defensive weapons, so needn’t be part if the discussion. They only attract notice due to the presence of the firearms.
Mostly because that area is a lot of farmland and I don’t picture deer or bird hunters carrying a machete. But, fair enough. A machete’s real purpose is a tool–not a weapon.
BillF, I see your point as well. Different lands, different kit.
Indeed. Emerson (my 8 month old) and I are at the carwash. There aren’t any guns or uniforms in my car. I did leave a pair of handcuffs, but since I have a key on my chain, I think I’ll be ok. As to the article, those are some seriously unsecured firearms. Not good.
You would be surprised. Working as an auto mechanic for almost 30 years and having to get behind the glove box to diagnosis electrical problems or replace heat exchangers, etc., I have ran across countless hand guns, dope, birth control, sex toys, etc. I would always put it back where I found it, not tell any one and enjoy the benefits or repeats business..
This man is doing his job right.
Has weird and forgetful customers but does his job.
I got stopped at 3AM in Kennesaw Georgia with a mix of 33 pistols and rifles along with about 3,000 rounds of ammo. The officer asked if I had any weapons, guns, knives, nuclear weapons… I said “yeah, a bunch!” He took two steps back with his hand on his sidearms and said “well, you know… that is perfectly leagal…” I explained that my friend and I had spent the entire day at the range and we went out for dinner after. Another officer came up while the first was running my license and asked me what all the gun stuff was about. I talked with him a bit and eventually diagnosed a problem he had been having with one of his weapons, told him where to go to get it fixed, who to ask for and a best guess as to the price of the fix.
I still got the ticket though.
Some people just have no gratitude.
They might have had gratitude, but they also probably had a ticket quota. Guess which one takes priority.
So, four guns is an arsenal?
In some parts of the East and Left Coasts they would be an armory…
he would gone to jail here in Georgia. not even 2 inch pocket knives or BB guns are allowed on school property.
If no laws were violated; what exactly was the probable cause for the search warrant to search the rest of the vehicle?
Firearms on school property, perhaps.
IMO, this circumstance is probably because said student lives in a household run by anti-gun parents,and thus can only store his weapons in the car.When I lived with an anti gun stepdad,he said “No Guns Under His Roof”.
Mkay ……Into the trunk my Gas Blowback Airsoft guns went…..till he found them, but thats another story.
Just guessing, but a student on campus with a gun in the car was probably all the grounds they needed. It says he was a teen. 16, 17, 18? Is a permit needed in his state to carry a gun in the glove box and what age restrictions are there on such activity?
Vermont has no carry permitting, and the age for handgun possession is 16.
It’s not a “school” guys, it’s some kind of technical center. From the website it looks to me like a mini technical college for students that probably aren’t going to college.
How big is the glove box in this car?
Big enough to hold a .45. What difference does it make?
Sorry, poor attempt at humor by pointing out the inherent flaw in the level of journalism from the link…. the article implied all of the stuff found was in the glove box.
That would be a largish glove box.
That’d be a glove box worthy of a Ron Burgundy news story.
If the feds get a hold of it, this is a GFSZ violation.
It’s not a school. http://www.nwtconline.org/info/about-us
“Pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 921(a)(26) the term “school” means a school which provides elementary or secondary education, as determined under State law.”
There is very little about that law that has been tested. Should they want to push this issue, the kid might win, and might not, but I’ll bet he’d have a big legal bill either way. I wouldn’t want to be a guinea pig.
This really don’t suprise me tons of people leave guns in their car all the time and have it worked on. Don’t believe me? Ask anybody that works out in the oil change bay at Walmart loaded weapons found nearly everyday under seats between seats on seats in door pockets. If I had been a less honest employee I couldve put together a collection to make the NRA blush.
Add in a couple axes and hatchets, nix the stun guns and maybe four more knives and…yeah that’s pretty much the state my truck can be found in any day. Has been since I started driving.
Sounds like the kid was driving Mark Kelly’s car.
Exactly. Because momma won’t let him have guns in the house.
I usually have a machete in the truck for brushing/re brushing duck blinds– along with a Benelli 12 ga and a Glock 26. The machete is in sheath and the shotgun is in a case. The Glock is in a IWB.
My wife and I introduced my boss to shooting a few weeks ago. I had one AR, 2 scoped (sniper) rifles, a Mauser Gew98, a 16ga shotty, a Ruger mkIII .22, a Kimber 1911, a 24/7pro .40cal, .357 snubby, and a Judge for grins. I had hundreds of rounds for each to educate him on all the different sizes and loads and a variety of sinister looking silhouette targets. All of this in a 4WD truck with a fake claymore mine on the trailer hitch to keep the tailgaters back.
Boss man loved his educational range day. Meanwhile, I had to drive up US highway right-of-way that cuts through Fort Knox controlled Federal land. That is always the part that makes me nervous.
It odd that no one questions carpenters or plumbers for having entire trucks full of tools. They have cross-tip screwdrivers AND flat-tip screwdrivers, in various sizes each. They have drills and drill bits in multiple diameters. They have entire sets of wrenches and different size hammers and mallets. Why would one man NEED all those tools?
Really? I went to high school and also attended college classes at the same time. I would go shooting over my lunch break and then go to my college classes all on the school’s time and dime. This guy woulda had a fit with my AR, AK, 10/22, Mosin, XD45, Rem870, about 1k rounds, Tomahawk and BOB I’d take on a daily basis!
I count two federal violations. Gun free school zone and possession of a handgun under 21.
It has not been established that this kind of technical school is covered by the GFSZ laws. I’ve seen gunsmithing classes in technical schools.
Federal law only denies handgun SALES to those under 21 by a FFL dealer. State laws govern possession of handguns, Vermont has been cited at 16. Here in SC it is 18.
“a teacher checking the glove compartment ”
Which begs the question… what the fuck was s/he doing going through his glove compartment?
Typical retort from a police chief.
My Martindale machete is my favorite ,weed whacking ,sapling dropping,shooting lane clearing hand held tool for use around my stands.
For what it is worth, it is refreshing to see a chief of police WITHOUT all the gold stars, gold braid, etc. Looks like he might have come up thru the ranks.