Liberals who advocate gun control over crime control often misuse gun statistics, lumping together suicides, attempted suicides, accidents, criminals and stupid people who aim guns at police.

So I ask you, does this thug’s attempt at suicide count for an at-home gun incident involving a child?

 

 

According to the Associated Press …

Lawyer: Jena Six teen shot himself out of despair

“One of the central figures in the 2007 Jena Six civil rights case never gave up pursuing his football career, even after his well-publicized run-ins with the law. Mychal Bell, an 18-year-old high school running back, clung to the hope that he could earn a college football scholarship. Then came another legal scrape this Christmas Eve.”

“After news broke of his arrest on a shoplifting charge, Bell shot himself in the chest Monday with a .22-caliber handgun. He remained hospitalized Tuesday but police said his chest wound was not life-threatening.”

" ‘When it was broadcast that he was charged with shoplifting he just felt that the whole year had been wasted and that he had worked all of that time for nothing,’ said Louis Scott, who represented Bell in the case where Bell and five other black teenagers were charged in the 2006 beating of a white classmate.”

“Bell's grandmother, Rosie Simmons, and mother, Melissa Bell, told police that ‘Mychal had made comments over the past two days that, because of the current media attention he had because of the shoplifting arrest, he didn't feel like he could live anymore,’ Monroe Police Lt. Jeff Harris said, reading from a police report.”

“Bell and the other members of the ‘Jena Six’ once faced attempted murder charges in the beating at Jena High School, in north central Louisiana's Lasalle Parish. The charges for all the defendants were eventually reduced. But the severity of the original charges brought widespread criticism and eventually led more than 20,000 people to converge in September 2007 on the tiny town of Jena for a major civil rights march.”

“After being sentenced to 18 months following his guilty plea to juvenile charges, Bell moved from Jena to Monroe, where he was in foster care. He was released from state supervision on Dec. 4, said Bill Furlow, a spokesman for Reed Walters, the district attorney for LaSalle Parish.”

On the face of it, this seems like a decent kid who has encountered one of life’s rough patches …

“A football star at Jena High until the Barker beating, Bell had hoped to play for Monroe's Carroll High School, where he is on track to graduate in the spring. But the Louisiana High School Athletic Association wouldn't grant him a fifth year of eligibility to play. Bell had spent 10 months in prison awaiting trial after his 2006 arrest in the beating case.”

" ‘He had kept his grades up and he had worked out the whole year even though he couldn't play. He had dealt with the fact that the state athletic association would not let him play high school ball,’ Bell's lawyer, Louis Scott said Tuesday.”

“It was unclear whether his dreams of a college football career were realistic. According to Scott, family members believed Bell was having encouraging discussions with the University of Louisiana-Monroe. School spokesman Adam Prendergast declined comment. A message was left Tuesday for the school's director of football operations, Peter Martin.”

“Police said Bell's Christmas Eve arrest came after he allegedly tried to steal several shirts and a pair of jeans from a department store and fled when a security guard and off-duty police officer tried to detain him. After they found him hiding under a car, Bell ‘swung his arms wildly’ and one of his elbows struck the security guard with a glancing blow, according to a police report. He was freed on $1,300 bond.”

Life happens …

It is unfortunate for this individual to consider suicide as his only option and does point to the failings of his parents, teachers, classmates and friends … or even a physiological or emotional problem.

But why I, a law-abiding citizen, should be punished and have my Second Amendment rights restricted based on the misuse of statistics created from incidents like this troubles me greatly.

What can YOU do?

Recognize there is a great difference between crime control and gun control. Also recognize that if all weapons were magically banned – only those who do not recognize the law (e.g. criminals and others) would be able to openly terrorize law-abiding citizens.

Learn what it is to properly use a weapon. Take a weapons class from an approved and sanctioned instructor. While you may never handle a weapon or shoot someone in self-defense, you will find that most people who own weapons are not raving loons, survivalists or military wannabes.

Be well and Be safe.

-- steve

Quote of the day:  “There is always a well-known solution to every human problem--neat, plausible, and wrong.”  - H. L. Mencken

A reminder from OneCitizenSpeaking.com: a large improvement can result from a small change…

The object in life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane. -- Marcus Aurelius

Reference Links:

Lawyer: Jena Six teen shot himself out of despair - Yahoo! News