Springfield Twnshp Student Kills self with AK-47

[KeithPA]

Damn I was hoping it wasn't an AK. On the news they just said a "rifle." I was hoping it wasn't something that Rendell tried to make illegal.

Someone will still come on saying, well his dad wouldn't have been able to have it so therefore the son wouldn't be able to take it.

Is it too much to ask for people to kill themselves with low-cap weapons.

[exceltoexcel]

This school is close to me ~10 minutes.

Truly sad that someone this young didn't feel as though he could get through whatever he was dealing with.

I had a friend kill himself in 12th grade over a breakup.

Shotgun - Cornfield - Smart guy - Why?

Never could figure it out, never saw it coming and I hung out with him every school day.

Sat next to me in first period AP Bio and I knew his ex-girlfriend too.

I would say it triggered at least half a dozen people to go down the wrong path.

Hearing about this makes me want to smack him upside the head all over again.

I still wish he would've said something about it to me, anything that would've indicated he was in bad shape.

Never once, always a smile on his face, even after the break up he seemed fine.

Ugh, it is what it is.

I feel bad for everyone involved in this boys life....

[exceltoexcel]

Come to find out this isn't the school around the corner, I misinterpreted springfield for springford.

[Furious Styles]

Originally Posted by exceltoexcel

Come to find out this isn't the school around the corner, I misinterpreted springfield for springford.

Hi, neighbor, I'm around the corner from you. I'd divulge details, but I use this same handle on other boards.

Strangely, I read something in the Daily News about the firearm that didn't seem to make any sense:

Later yesterday, police found sawdust in the home , indicating that Shane had sawed off the barrel of the AK47 so it would fit in his duffel bag when he left for school ...

... The boy was clutching a machine gun. He stood in silence .

from http://www.philly.com/mld/dailynews/16230330.htm

The child is dead. The media's drama and inaccuracy do nothing to help in any case, and I find it repugnant that they might attempt to create a martyr. Why is it that they tend to smear us, as if we were personally at fault in some way for the terrible turn that a person's life might take, and then caption descriptions in lurid terms intended to entertain readers already jaded with a surfeit of Hollywood and video game violence?

I would tell the papers the same thing in a letter to the editor, but it would never get printed.

[KeithPA]

Don't forget....

"One of the things that I have to decide is, do I have the detectives dig the slugs out of the wall or literally ruin the walls to get to them," he said

That article is very overly dramatic. Not surprised, it's Philly.

After reading that article over twice that didn't set well with me. Always sensetionalizing something that involves a gun. It completely contradicted LE statements about the use of slugs and sawing off of the barrel. I have to think this was a shotgun and not an AK.

Fired this off a minute ago...... to: simone@phillynews.com

Hello,

I would like to thank you for reporting the news of the tragic death of this student. While this is very important news I would appreciate if you could accurately report this story and not sensationalize the news. Your use of dramatic words to describe the firearm are definitely not need, and are actually incorrect. You mention the sawing off of a barrel on an AK47, you mention slugs being fired into the building, and you finally mention a machine gun. None of these are compatible in describing each other. An AK47 clone you can buy in the United States is not a machine gun and it does not fire "slugs." A shotgun fires slugs and its barrel can be sawed off. There is no need to use the catch phrases "AK47" and "machine gun" to encourage those fighting the Second Amendment or incite readers. Your quotes from Law Enforcement conflict with your own writing.

I do not appreciate your dramatization of a tragic incident and hope this is a honest mistake. No one gains from such an incident even those fighting the Second Amendment.

Thank You