PHS77 Well said!

@PHS77 : I was bullied constantly and beat up constantly in high school here many years ago. Sad to see that hasn't changed. I had to go to the police when one bully pulled a knife on me. It's no wonder this kid thought he needed a gun to present him.

@Islifefair : that he needed to defend himself?

@PHS77 : It is Texas law that the guns in your home have to be secured where children are likely to be present.

@davidpetersonharvey : Texas's law is the weakest of the laws that is on the books in 27 stateswww.texastribune.org /2018/05/21/texas-ha s-law-aimed-keeping- parents-guns-ouTexas law allows prosecutors to go after parents whose children gain access to their loaded firearms, but it's one of the weaker ones among the 27 states with a child-access prevention law.Eleven states require gun owners to lock their guns securely in the first place instead of just holding them accountable after any breaches of that security.**********************************************Texas law is less stringent than the child-access prevention laws in other states both because of its lower age requirement and because it penalizes only adults whose guns are loaded when they are accessed by children. In other states, experts said, parents can be penalized when their unloaded guns and their ammunition are accessible separately.

I have a kid at Alexander now, and he LOVES it. He is a good kid, and so are most of his friends. You need to raise your own kids, and not expect the school to do it for you.

@Frodobaggins : You can buy a lockable handgun safe for $6o-70. They aren't expensive, and I'm sick of hearing people say they can't afford one when they spend $600 to buy a handgun.

@davidpetersonharvey : I was bullied in school for years. Lost several fights, and won one or two. It never occurred to me to bring a weapon to school and I had my own from the age of nine. I get more than a little sick of people rationalizing stuff like this by assuming out the kid was bullied in school and thus he/she was driven to it. It doesn't pass the smell test with me. The kid goes to jail, the parents that enabled the behavior go to jail. No tolerance. None.

Please note that gun violence is much more prevalent in states with more guns like Texaswww.txgunsense.org/g un-violence-factsOver 3,353 gun-related deaths occur in Texas each year. By better understanding the scope of the problem we can build strong solutions that save lives.www.cdc.gov/nchs/pre ssroom/sosmap/firear m_mortality/firearm. htmAlso - note that Texas has lots of firearms discovered at the airports in both Dallas and HoustonTop 10 Airports For Firearm Discoveries In 2017: Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL): 245 (222 Loaded)
Dallas/Fort Worth International (DFW): 211 (165 Loaded)
George Bush Intercontinental Airport - Houston (IAH): 142 (124 Loaded)
Denver International (DEN): 118 (102 Loaded)
Phoenix Sky Harbor International (PHX): 115 (109 Loaded)
Tampa International (TPA): 97 (90 Loaded)
Orlando International Airport (MCO): 94 (82 Loaded)
Dallas Love Field (DAL): 93 (81 Loaded)
Nashville International (BNA): 89 (71 Loaded)
Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA): 75 (60 Loaded)

@Dorothy : With the hundreds of thousands of people traveling each year, I'd say those are pretty low numbers. I'd be very interested to know if any of those weapons were military personnel, and if so, how many?
Similarly, on the gun deaths, what's the per capita death rate? How many are accidental? How does the gun death per capita compare against the motor vehicle death per capita?
Numbers are just numbers until you put them in perspective.

@susieq : Mine went there and LOVED it. Most of the teachers were extremely nice also. It's sad!

@PHS77 : My son has been bullied, but has never thought about this approach. The schools are more lenient than they should be. They do not follow their "no tolerance" policy. If they did and used the "old school" way of guidance center or expelling those who bully or fight, I think this would reduce some of the issues. I think teachers should pay more attention to the students in the classroom also. They see our kids more during the day than we do. It is sad the first "excuse" is well he/she was bullied. This does not make it acceptable at all!

@PHS77 : Full disclosure: I have a grandchild that attends Alexander. I've been watching all these school shootings over the past several years with increasing alarm and dismay. I get why some parents choose to home school their kids. The kid that shot up Santa Fe HS should have been shot to death by the cops once he was cornered and his parents put in prison if it is found they did not adequately secure their weapons. Our lack of effective response to these horrible events are only encouraging the deranged and the thrill-seeker. There can be no tolerance for these active shooter events. The response should be swift and merciless. Visible, swift and harsh punishment will stop most of these heinous crimes. What am I most concerned about? That our public officials have lost their nerve, and are unwilling to do what is necessary. It sickens me that we have come to the point where we must seriously consider acting in this manner, but it seems what we've been doing to stop it hasn't been working.

@Soccer2018 : It's not a matter of that making it acceptable. This is bright up because it's one of the main factors in turning a child into a criminal. That, along with parents that are absent either physically or emotionally, is a prime determining factor in most of the cases. Not just murder but other crimes. I had a friend in high school who lost his parents, then the grandparents he went to live with after his parents died. He was a small guy and bullied incessantly in school. He turned to crime, committing armed robbery with several other people. A minister followed the getaway van , reporting location to police until they dumped nails from the back of the van and flattened his tires. When they were caught and cornered by police, Joe Maxwell shoot and killed himself rather than be captured.These facts are important because we can prevent these things from happening with heavy enforcement of no-tolerance policies toward bullying in schools, providing restricted access with armed guards (Santa Fe had too many access points for the guard to cover) and by getting involved in the lives of kids who have lost their parents or have family issues. By the way, Santa Fe's school should not have allowed the young man to wear a trench coat to school every day. In fact, there's a lot Santa Fe should have done differently.

@Inb0913 : "Ruining their lives" is a bit much. Offenses at that age are usually erased from the record after a probationary period.