A BB Gun and a Minor Facial Injury

jackieblack

Jojo_the_Tightfisted wrote: »

You know, children and adults who are bullied can take what outsiders would feel are completely disproportionate steps to try and regain some power. This can be exacerbated if the person has some form of difficulty in relating to others, such as ASD, or mental illness.

On the surface, whilst it may appear to be simple good natured banter, to that boy, it may have been the culmination of a very long period of having his things taken from him, being put on the spot by a large group, that kind of thing. Perhaps he had the pellet gun for shooting at targets, but perhaps he had it because he thought the next time he was hassled by the gang, he could scare the ringleader and get left alone - after all, go for the ringleader is a common piece of advice when someone is being picked on, 'stand up for yourself and they'll leave you alone'.

While the above may be true, none of it is justification for committing a firearms offence.

peachyprice

Jojo_the_Tightfisted wrote: »

On the surface, whilst it may appear to be simple good natured banter, to that boy, it may have been the culmination of a very long period of having his things taken from him, being put on the spot by a large group, that kind of thing.

There again it may not. It could just be 3 13yo girls and 3 13yo boys teasing each other on their way home from school as they have since time immemorial.

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

jackieblack wrote: »

While the above may be true, none of it is justification for committing a firearms offence.

peachyprice wrote: »

There again it may not. It could just be 3 13yo girls and 3 13yo boys teasing each other on their way home from school as they have since time immemorial.

It isn't justification. It could be an explanation for it, however.

It doesn't appear that the recipient of those teenagers' attentions felt it to be just teasing.


Anyway, hopefully they will leave him and anybody else alone now they've discovered that some people react to 'teasing' in different ways that they don't like. Better now with a lad with a pellet gun than a lad with a very scary big brother who carries.

keystone

Thank you for your insightful post but I have to say that I also agree with peachyprice and jackieblack.

Jojo_the_Tightfisted wrote: »

The important thing is that your daughter is reminded how lucky she is that she isn't in the middle pages of the local rag as the kid who lost an eye or who was killed when taking somebody's scooter.

Indeed she is lucky, she does know that and I have to say that so is he very lucky that he is also not on the front page of the local or even national rag as having done the deed.

She and her friends, no matter how much they may protest that they were only joking or just playing, have to be told that in no circumstances are they to speak, make sounds, hand signals or in any way communicate with or about that boy at anytime.

The school have told both of them to stay well away from one another.

If not because it's the right thing to do, because he's obviously looking for extreme ways of dealing with those he perceives as hunting in packs.

Mmm. How does a small group of 13 year old girls interacting with a similar sized group of 13 year old boys constitute "hunting in packs"? We have no idea that the group of which the boy was a member were not guilty of being aggressors dealing out provocation in the first instance to which the girls reacted. I'm not suggesting that such was the case but the possibility cannot be ruled out either until the true facts actually emerge. You see there is a danger here of jumping to the conclusion that he has been subjected to behaviour from his peers leading to the circumstances you describe. It's possible. Equally it may not be like that at all.

Cheers

kaya

I have several guns and do a lot of shooting , I would say call the police , next time he pulls a gun of any kind In public he risks the chance of being shot and killed by armed police because they won't wait to get close enough to see if its real or not and quite rightly so , besides which idiots like that give other sensible shooters who operate within the law a bad reputation , you would actually be doing him and his family if the police went round and explained this to him before he gets himself shot with a real gun

peachyprice

For some perspective:

An Asian boy, walking home from school with his three friends, threw my daughters pencil case into a tree, my daughter was with her three friends.

These are a group of children who walk home together all the time, the boys tease the girls, the girls tease the boys, there's a little bit of fancying going on, girls pull boys ties, boys throw pencil cases, all very flirtatious.

The fact that this boy threw my daughters pencil case into a tree doesn't mean that a 'pack of boys' is bullying her, it doesn't make it a racially motivated attack and it certainly doesn't mean that she's justified in taking a rounders bat to his head.

aliasojo

peachyprice wrote: »

For some perspective:

An Asian boy, walking home from school with his three friends, threw my daughters pencil case into a tree, my daughter was with her three friends.

These are a group of children who walk home together all the time, the boys tease the girls, the girls tease the boys, there's a little bit of fancying going on, girls pull boys ties, boys throw pencil cases, all very flirtatious.

The fact that this boy threw my daughters pencil case into a tree doesn't mean that a 'pack of boys' is bullying her, it doesn't make it a racially motivated attack and it certainly doesn't mean that she's justified in taking a rounders bat to his head.

But this isn't real life, this is MSE.

You can't have basic standalone situations here, this is the home of assumption, self projection and AE trolling.

You're just as daft as some of the replies if you think you can get something considered simply on it's own merits. :rotfl:

peachyprice

aliasojo wrote: »

But this isn't real life, this is MSE.

You can't have basic standalone situations here, this is the home of assumption, self projection and AE trolling.

You're just as daft as some of the replies if you think you can get something considered simply on it's own merits. :rotfl:

Oh darn, silly me

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

keystone wrote: »

Thank you for your insightful post but I have to say that I also agree with peachyprice and jackieblack.

Indeed she is lucky, she does know that and I have to say that so is he very lucky that he is also not on the front page of the local or even national rag as having done the deed.

The school have told both of them to stay well away from one another.

Mmm. How does a small group of 13 year old girls interacting with a similar sized group of 13 year old boys constitute "hunting in packs"? We have no idea that the group of which the boy was a member were not guilty of being aggressors dealing out provocation in the first instance to which the girls reacted. I'm not suggesting that such was the case but the possibility cannot be ruled out either until the true facts actually emerge. You see there is a danger here of jumping to the conclusion that he has been subjected to behaviour from his peers leading to the circumstances you describe. It's possible. Equally it may not be like that at all.

Cheers

I was suggesting his perspective and what could lead to somebody deciding to obtain a weapon and use it directly at another person. To take a firearm of any type and point it directly in somebody's face, then fire at what sounds like not far from point blank range suggests to me that this is personal.

To choose to use a weapon also suggests to me that he didn't feel equally matched. At 13, girls tend to be bigger, taller and heavier than boys. It's not always the case, but it's common enough.

Even as fully grown adults, my male friends will say that groups of girls/women are scary. The hunting in packs was their description and I think it conveys just how intimidating three females can be.


Like I said, it's not necessarily how it is reported that's important; it's the boy's perception that is. If he perceived them as being predatory bullies, he would react differently to if he'd perceived them as flirting with him. And, as I've said, his perception could easily be affected by more than just their behaviour.


I hope your daughter does listen to your advice and the school's in leaving him alone now. He doesn't want to play. He obviously takes it far more seriously than they did. Learning that other people have different tolerances and opinions of the same events will be useful.

keystone

peachyprice wrote: »

Oh darn, silly me

Me too by all accounts.

Cheers