Student arrested for making a Counter Strike map of his school

Whutaguy, while I do agree with your assessment of over-reaction (see my first post), I have to say I disagree with your sentiment of "let people carry knives and guns around, it makes no difference."

It makes a HUGE difference. While it's true that if some kid plans to murder another, he could always wait outside school to stab him, the mere fact that he doesn't have a knife available prevents its drawing it in the heat of an argument and an unnecessary, unplanned stabbing. You may say that it didn't happen to you while you were in school, but I know of enough such instances (not in school per se) to make it seem worthwhile to me.

In addition, I believe that the lower the accessibility of guns, the better. I don't know about the US, but here most gun-related deaths are accidents. This means Less guns = less deaths. Moreover, looking at the argument of "only outlaws have guns", it doesn't appear that bad to me. Citizens (especially untrained ones) with guns are dangerous to themselves and to others, and they might also make crooks scared and jumpy, and that can cause (and has caused) additional injuries and death. Again, Less guns = Less deaths.
Personally, I think it's enough for the authorities to carry arms (and even that is not always true, see british cops), but I know Americans' sensibilities are funny that way.

Yeah, I know what ya mean. I actually attend a high school (for the next 3 weeks. Then I'm done!) that probably has the biggest reputation for gang violence and whatnot in the state. When travelling to compete in athletic or other activities, people often are surprised when they find out I am a student of this school, and the first question people usually ask is "Don't you guys have gun shootouts like every day?" I always laugh. I've never feared for my life a single day of attending this school, and I honestly don't know where the reputation comes from.

The interesting thing about my high school is that it's student body contains people from all walks of life. We have kids from ghettos and kids from nob hill, most of them lumped somewhere around the middle. Something like 45% of our student body is of Mexican descent. Going off of stereotypes which I don't believe, doesn't that just scream "poster child for gang violence and drug abuse"?

And yet, we've never had any real problems like that. Yeah, we have the occasional once or twice a year in which the police bring the drug dogs in (what high school doesn't?), and two white-as-can-be kids set off some smoke bombs as a senior prank last year, but other than that, we've had no real on-campus issues. Two years ago we had a kid who was suspended because he had an airsoft gun IN THE PARKING LOT. This was a kid with no prior behavior problems, was a student body officer, and had left this gun in his truck over the weekend and laughingly pulled it out to show one of his friends in the parking lot. The cameras caught him on tape flashing this obviously toy gun for less than 2 minutes, and suspended him for something like two weeks. He served out his sentence, laughing all the way, and threw a "Back to School BBQ" tailgate party during lunch on his first day back.

In short, the kids that are involved with gangs are generally smart enough to take it outside. Yeah, I could get my hands on drugs if I wanted to, but I really would like to avoid messing up my life like that.

I guess what I'm trying to say here is that while gun and other weapons control is a noble effort, people are going to be people no matter what you do. How does the saying go? Guns don't kill people, people kill people? While I agree that weaponry certainly makes violence easier to accomplish, those that want to be violent will be, regardless of what tools they have to accomplish the job. Yes, schools should be kept safe from even the threat of such violence, but somehow I don't see anyone trying to kill a fellow student with nail clippers when it would be just as easy to hide a knife in your underwear.

Yeah, if I saw a map of my alma mater for a FPS, I would laugh, play with it, and never comtemplate actually storming my high school with an intent to kill. I'm sure that this kid just thought it would be funny to play a FPS match set in his high school.

Yeah, so why is it that a kid gets arrested for something like this, while games such as "Bully" and "Grand Theft Auto" sold freely, and not considered to be contributing to the rise of violence in this modern world?

Yeh, people are dumb.

Why not? He's gone to hell already, jail should be a breeze!

Some interesting thoughts, relliott, but I tend to disagree with you on a few points.

Firstly, the entire judicial branch of American government was based around a single idea, that it would be better for ten guilty men to go free than for one innocent man to be wrongfully punished. That's why a when a jury cannot reach a complete verdict in a criminal case, a mistrial is declared and the defendant walks free. That's why arguements such as "he was the only one who could have done it" are inadmissable in court.

Have you ever seen the film 12 Angry Men? I'm talking the old black and white flick starring Henry Fonda, not the crappy new miniseries remake. If you haven't, I highly highly recommend you do.The entire movie takes place within a single room in which a jury is meeting to determine a verdict for a murder case. In the beginning of the film, Henry Fonda's character casts his vote for the verdict as "not guilty" not becuase he is convinced the defendant is innocent, but rather because he simply doesn't know whether the defendant is guilty or not.

What I'm saying here is that the government didn't have "proof beyond a shadow of a doubt" that this boy was going to take a gun to school, and therefore no right to accuse this boy of such an act. He didn't even own a gun, for heaven's sake. And citing the ownership of "five swords and a hammer" as proof of his intent? Come on, how many people do you know that have weapons collections at home and never even think of pulling on on another person?

Let's use some common sense, guys. As a friend of mine often points out, it is astounding how common sense simply isn't common anymore.