You may have seen on the news how a highschool student had been planning an attack against the Plymouth-Whitemarsh High School in south-eastern PA.

There was the DA and Police Chief standing in front of a table loaded with all kinds of assault "looking" guns, they spoke about the many hand grenades filled with plastic pellets and the massive weapons cache this 14 year old had in his bedroom.

The problem is this: All of the guns are toy airsoft guns as are the grenades. If you are familiar with airsoft they shoot a 6mm plastic ball that usually weighs between 0.12 grams - 0.25 grams they shoot these at between 280 FPS and 325 FPS which is about half of the power of a Daisy or Crosman BB gun.

When I saw the supposed "cache of fully automatic weapons and assault rifles" as was reported on the news I pointed out to the others watching with me that the guns were airsoft toys.

I phoned NBC 10 News who was reporting the story and told them that the guns they were showing were toys, they said they were aware of that and that I could contact the DA or police and tell them, I explained that I was pretty sure the DA and police were aware of it.

I told NBC that it was basically innacurate and miseading that they were not explaining that the guns shown were non-lethal airsoft guns with less power than a daisy red ryder.

I was promptly told where I could go and then hung up on.

So much for accuracy in the media.

You should have been so afraid as was intentioned. that you promptly took all your firearms to the local constabulary.
Mark my words the gun ban is coming.

Thank god for the NRA

No Velvet, the gun ban is not coming, don't fear the sky falling just yet ;P

The DA explicitly said that they did not believe an attack was imminent because there was no ammunition found at the boy's house - that part of the press conference was on the air here in DC at least.

The DA explicitly said that they did not believe an attack was imminent because there was no ammunition found at the boy's house - that part of the press conference was on the air here in DC at least.

I did hear the DA say there was no ammunition for the guns but the problem is this: the guns use plastic pellets for ammunition and that was not explained. There was plastic pellets in the toy hand grenades which was airsoft ammunition.

What the DA was attempting to do was to give the impression that the table full of airsoft guns were fully automatic military weapons and that was done to make it look like they stopped some terrible incident while in reality the guns were toys.

You do realize that if the kid brought any of those guns to school and started firing that no one would have been hurt except, maybe, if they were hit in the eye.

Who cares? People watched! Ratings went UP! Truth be damned!
Kinda makes you wonder what else is faked in the news....

Who cares? People watched! Ratings went UP! Truth be damned!
Kinda makes you wonder what else is faked in the news....


Scary...isn't it!

Overblown, yes...completely false...doesn't appear so:


The teenager felt bullied and tried to recruit another boy for a possible attack at Plymouth Whitemarsh High School (http://www.nysun.com/related_results.php?term=Plymouth+Whitemarsh+High+ School), authorities said.

"This is not the best parenting I've ever seen and she needs to be held accountable," a Montgomery County (http://www.nysun.com/related_results.php?term=Montgomery+County) district attorney, Bruce Castor Jr. (http://www.nysun.com/related_results.php?term=Bruce+Castor), said.

Acting on a tip from a high school student and his father, police on Wednesday found the rifle, about 30 air-powered guns, swords, knives, a bomb-making book, videos of the 1999 Columbine attack in Colorado (http://www.nysun.com/related_results.php?term=Colorado) and violence-filled notebooks in the boy's bedroom, Mr. Castor said.

Ms. Cossey, 46, of Plymouth Meeting (http://www.nysun.com/related_results.php?term=Plymouth+Meeting), bought the rifle, which had a laser scope, at a gun show on September 23 and provided police with a receipt, investigators said in court papers. The teenager said the two .22-caliber weapons were stored at a friend's house.

The boy's father also tried to buy his son a rifle in 2005, but was not allowed to because he was a felon, police said.

Overblown, yes...completely false...doesn't appear so:

Obviously it was not "completely" false as the mother had purchased the kid a rifle (which was at a friends house and there was no ammunition for it) but lets look at it this way.

You have a joint of weed and also in your bedroom you have 500 tylenols, 500 aspirins, 500 assorted vitamins, 500 antihistamine pills, you also have a bong that you never used stored at a friends house etc.. and you say to your friend "hey, want to do some bong hits?"

That "friend" tells his father that you are pressuring him to smoke weed and his father calls the police.

The police raid your house and find all of the over the counter vitamins and remedies that your mom had bought you and the police confiscate them.

They call the local news affiliates and say there was a large drug cache found in the room of a 14 year old kid. The DA holds a news conference and has all of the pills from your bedroom spread out on a table in front of him while he talks about the massive cache of drugs that police siezed. The DA displays a bong and says that they also siezed the bong from your friends house where you had it stored.

The DA also states that some of the "drugs" siezed were over the counter drugs but NEVER points out that ALL of the drugs on the table (which are ALL of the siezed drugs) are over the counter remedies and the ONLY illegal item is the bong which was at your friends house. The DA also explains that there was no marijuana found, which basically makes the bong useless and never explains that the bong has NEVER been used.

Now, the news is reporting that you are the kid that had a large drug cache even though they are fully aware that the cache they are speaking of are over the counter remedies that your mom bought you and thee is nothing illegal about them.

That is quite dangerous and at the very least bordering on slander.

Now I do understand the kid with the airsoft guns needs help and is very obviously delusional because if he did shoot someone with one of his supposed fully automatic weapons he would probably end up getting bitch slapped by someone on the football or wrestling team once they figured out he had an airsoft gun.

What needs to be done is the kid needs counceling and the kids who were bullying him need to be sent to counceling and also get some type of punishment for their bullying of a student.

The bullies ultimately created this situation and should be first on the list of punishment by the school system.

The bullies ultimately created this situation and should be first on the list of punishment by the school system.

This is where I disagree.

You have a mother so obese she needs a walker to move around, who has passed on to her son the trait of being "physically-fit-challenged". Mother has more than likely taken some insults and/or abuse as a result of her less than atractive appearance, and just as likely has made her son aware of how people are mean to those like her, and the poor son. Because Mom is in no condition to lash out at her antagonists she passes the hot potato to Junior, and no doubt reinforced his deluded thinking when she purchased a firearm for him.

Of course, this is all speculation, much the same as everything else here about this case.

Yeah, but to go on a "Shooting rampage" with a bunch of guns that couldn't kill a squirrel seems kind of silly....
Rover, you are correct, the kid on the "Rampage" probably would have gotten hurt more than anyone shot with the "Weapons"....

Rover...

Problems with your anology is this...the "500 tylenols, 500 aspirins, 500 assorted vitamins, 500 antihistamine pills" don't necessarily lead to illegal drug use. These people were buying this kid guns and grenades and functional knives and swords....air or not they were pushing weapons on him. Nothing really illegal about that except when you add this:

a bomb-making book, videos of the 1999 Columbine attack in Colorado (http://www.nysun.com/related_results.php?term=Colorado) and violence-filled notebooks

This is where action needs to happen. This kid idolized the attacks at Columbine and was being raised in such a way that violence was condoned. You would have to be an idiot not to take some intervening action here.

I am not condoning the way the media reported this or letting the DA off for allowing them to report this way, they are both guilty for the mis-information around this. I did find a CNN article that quoted the DA:

"I do not think an attack was imminent and I am not certain that an attack was going to occur at all," Castor said at a news conference. "It could have simply been big talking by a kid who thought that he was bullied previously and he was going to exact his revenge."


The kid needs some amount of institutional evaluation to determine if he’s a danger to society. But I agree with you, the bullies need to be disciplined as well. I'm sorry bullying happens, I've been a victim myself in school...most people probably have as well...but, the fact is, the kid was recruiting another for an attack, and that needs to be taken very seriously.

The kid needs some amount of institutional evaluation to determine if he’s a danger to society. But I agree with you, the bullies need to be disciplined as well. I'm sorry bullying happens, I've been a victim myself in school...most people probably have as well...





Yes, bullies do need to be dealt with in all school situations, to make the schools safe for the other students and to be proactive in keeping violent events from occurring.

BUT, this kid needs to be taken out of that home for at least a short period and evaluated and put into some serious counselling and behavior modification programming, as a part of whatever supervised sentence he recieves.

Clock Work Orange... He needs some serious reprograming.

Yes, bullies do need to be dealt with in all school situations, to make the schools safe for the other students and to be proactive in keeping violent events from occurring.I don't disagree in the slightest, and in the last few years I've seen several districts coming out with specific anti-bully policies. The ones who specifically target 'Mean Girls' are my favorites. I think administrators and psychologists are finally becoming aware of the larger scope of the problem.

On the other hand, disciplining a student for bullying is next to impossible, especially if the parents want to fight it. Of course, the parents tend to be bullies too. Bullying is less concrete than actually hitting someone, and it's hard if an adult doesn't directly witness it to do anything. It's a very frustrating situation at times.

I heard on the radio that the DA decided to not try him as an adult...

14, wasn't he? I'm not surprised.