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Young man with a pistol
09/06/2009 7:51 AM by John M
A reader writes in with a dilemma:
The kid across the street has a gun. I saw him and a friend shoot off 2 rounds behind the vacant next door and then take off. I think that he’s 14 or 15 and that the adults that he lives with, well, they’re not exactly parents of the year and are kind of scary themselves… I don’t want this coming back on me but I feel like I should do something.
The only thing you can do is call the police with as much detail as possible whenever something like this happens.
Definitely call the cops, they won’t reveal who called it in and there’s a a high likelihood that someone innocent will be harmed if you don’t.
Your feelings are right – you should do something. Ramzi is correct. Call the police – you do NOT have to give your name or where you live.
804-646-3602
Always, always, always call the police! At the very least a record is made and at best someone’s life is saved. I heard screaming and gun shots outside my house a few weeks back, jumped out of bed and called the police. Hopefully no one was hurt but I wasn’t about to wander around outside to find out.
Everyone, thanks for your advice but I forgot to say that the kid saw me when he was leaving. He knows that I know that he has the gun. If the police go to his house, he’ll know who turned him in. This is what makes me nervous.
What are the alternatives to contacting the police? Wait until he commits a crime or at the least shoots somebody by accident? You’re going to have to step up and call the cops. Better yet, call your sector lieutenant and explain the situation. If you don’t, you’re just becoming part of the problem.
stop with the kindness.
wild west (churchill rules).
i say shoot um up
stop with the bullshit.
those that shoot first shoot last
just the title of the stupid string “YOUNG’ man with gun
get over your political “correct’ B.S.!
rid good of bad.
simple>
let the mouth to mouth happen somewhere else later….
The title is mine. When I was putting this together from the email my thoughts went to Chester Himes’ Blind Man with a Pistol.
Anon, I can almost guarantee that there are others who know that he has it. If he was careless enough to let a neighbor see him, I’m sure he’s shown the gun to all his friends.
It’s sad children that age is walking around with guns…this is second incident that I’ve heard of this summer of a young person playing in the community with a gun. However, this summer has been a high crime and violence season mostly due to the economics of our country… adults are in jobs usually given to youths during the summer and cut back on youth programs. These young people do not have adults in their lives to let them know this is not the correct behavior.
I recently had holes patched in my gutters from adults shooting off gun at New Year’s Eve and 4th of July. And the illegal fireworks were also a concern this summer…purchased by adults and sold to children in the community. Children get a lot of the behaviors from the adults in their lives.
Yes, please call the police in these incidences. However, do not forget the problem started long before these incidents. We as neighbors need be positive in our interactions with these young people regularly so when see negative behaviors we have a open line of communication the community youth. We need activities, program and training programs in the community to help them learn the correct behaviors. Lots of kids want a way out of their environment but can’t find the answers or have the mental capabilities to make the right choices on their own.
I really like Robin’s remarks above in post #12.
This dilemma reminds me of similar situation we had with a neighbor about two years ago…we got it “fixed” with a call to Child Protective Services.
Here’s the back story:
Everyone knew this guy was a heavy drug user. Plus, was a TON of weird shit going on at his house. Including some amazing building code violations.
Not surprisingly, all the other known drug users and illegally engaged folks in the area partied day and night at this guy’s house.
This guy wasn’t a life-long resident of the hill. He actually had a part-time job (manual labor) along with an understanding with the landlord that he was do to “repairs” on the house. He simply took over the lease one day in one of Union Hill’s most interesting pre-civil war homes (a house which had actually been renovated in the 80’s).
This tenant also had a bunch of abandoned vehicles and a wide assortment of rotting/rusting junk (old sofas and the like) in the back yard, causing a pretty juicy eye-sore.
It might sound crazy, but we actually could have lived with this guy’s lifestyle, and tolerated all the other stuff about the house, except there was a child involved. The guy had a toddler. So that’s where we drew the line.
Many of us had witnessed really poor parental care that was obviously bad for this child’s physical health, not to mention the child’s long-term mental cognitive potential.
We called Child Protective Services, told the agent what we’d observed and gave the physical address. Also, we let the CPS agent know about the building code violations.
And we called the Building Inspector, too, and reported the code violations.
This was an extreme situation, and the first and only time I’ve only been involved in something like this in the 20 years I’ve lived in Church/Union Hill.
Eventually, the child was removed from the home (hopefully to a safer environment,) the tenant left the house and the building code violations got fixed. The low-lifes that used to go in and out of the house all hours of the day or night are gone, and the current tenant is a nice guy.
Sometimes you gotta do the “full court press” up here…use the law, and get your like-minded neighbors involved.
“We as neighbors need be positive in our interactions with these young people regularly so when see negative behaviors we have a open line of communication the community youth…”
That may be, but this is a kid with a gun, not a kid throwing rocks at streetlights. While you’re building bridges, being positive in communications, and analyzing the societal trends that led this wayward youth to this junction in his life, he has ruined somebody else’s life by putting a bullet in their brain.
Try to sell the story about negative behaviors to the family of the dead person who that kid killed, maybe deliberately, maybe by accident.
Kid with a gun = call the cops. Period.
I would not have hestitated for one minute to call the cops. I would have called while the kids were still firing. It’s for the child’s own good. We are a village.
Not immediately reporting a teen with a gun is like not reporting a ticking bomb. A teen with a gun is like a bomb on a timer. It’s just a matter of time before the bomb will explode, unless it’s discovered and disarmed. Usually it’s another youth who is injured or killed … as many 14 year old’s living in this area are overly sensitive to what they perceive as being “dissed” and do not want their peers to see them as being weak or passive. Also, the fact that he saw you should motivate you to call, as there is no telling what’s going on in the mind of a 14 year old…I’m sure it’s a frightening situation though…the fear of retaliation can be quite immobilizing. It (fear) is the number one weapon for today’s urban criminal. In fact, fear is such a great weapon I thought of signing in as anon2, as you so fearfully did, anon.
Keep in mind that it’s not entirely out of the realm of possibilities that the kid with the gun knows how to use the internet and maybe even reads this blog from time to time (or someone he knows does and has referred him to this thread).
If such is the case, the kid now knows without any doubt that you saw him and that you’ve spilled the beans about it to the general public… and also that you’re afraid of him and haven’t yet contacted the police.
Not the best combination. I’m not at all faulting you for alerting the community to this potentially dangerous situation. But if I were you I would call the police now. And I would keep calling every time you see something like this again.
If a confrontation is necessary to resolve this, the police are better suited for that situation than the average citizen – and they need to be in the loop as to what’s going on in the community. Furthermore, it’s possible that the kid has already committed a crime somewhere and that the police are waiting for a tip like yours to help them solve that case.
Pick up the phone.
In addition to all the other excellent points everyone has made, if the gun is a pistol, and if the kid fired the gun from an alley or any public place, then the kid has broken the law, and so has the person who gave him the gun.