Two 10-year-old students were arrested in connection with a gun sold at their elementary school in Florida, county officials confirmed.

A deputy’s son “agreed to exchange a handgun, (later found to belong to his deceased father), for a sum of $300” back in February, the Hendry County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement.

The Country Oaks Elementary School was placed under lockdown Wednesday morning after the sheriff’s office received a call about “a suspicious incident” on campus. Authorities discovered ammunition in the backpack of the boy who purchased the gun.

The gun was later found in his backyard under a shed, hidden with a 74-gram bag of marijuana, according to investigators.

  • Che Banana@lemmy.ml
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    9 months ago

    Follow up story: 10 year olds’ gun charges dropped after being sentenced to 55 years on the mara-juannas.

  • shalafi@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    10-year-old students were arrested

    Fuck me. We didn’t used to arrest tiny children.

    And when shit like this comes up, I’m screaming, “How did a 10-yo have access to a GUN!?” Arrest whoever fucked that up please.

    There is no excuse. My kids are that age, and they won’t touch a gun. Period. (Partly because I’ve taught them, but mostly because they have brains.)

    I have a shitload of guns, and they’re all in safes except a couple of black powder arms (which they couldn’t arm and fire if their lives depended on it).

    Everyone wants “common sense” gun laws? Most ideas are silly, ineffective or run afoul of the 2A (which the courts uphold, like it or not). I see nothing stopping us from draconian storage laws.

    Make the laws, it’s on the owners to abide. Make an exception for one gun out for home defense, which some caveats. Hell, owners don’t even have to pay attention! But if a child lays hands on your gun, concrete and steel box for you.

      • theangryseal@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        I grew up in a neighborhood like that. By 9 the older kids had us bringing “sunflowers” that my friend’s dad smoked for whatever reason, and we’d trade a pocket full of buds for snacks and pocket change. By 11 one of the older kids decided to make a coke can pipe and show us why the sunflowers were so great. We sold pills and weed for some older people not long after that, that is until we all inevitably ended up trying those pills and becoming addicted.

        I remember one time, a walk that should have taken about 10 minutes ended up taking two hours or more because I couldn’t get my brother and our friend to move. They mixed Xanax and alcohol, I didn’t have the alcohol so I was able to drag them slowly up the road. Older folks were sitting on the porch shaking their heads at us. It was terribly obvious we were into something. I was about 12 when that happened.

        Those two slept for more than a day. My dad said, “I’m telling you, they’re on drugs!” And my mom said, “how could they be on drugs? They’re just babies!”

        I ended up getting arrested for pills in the 9th grade and put on probation. That turned me around for a while. It took a whole lot of bad shit before I finally got my life together, but I’m clean now. My brain developed on weed, alcohol, Xanax, and opiates.

        What a world.

          • theangryseal@lemmy.world
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            9 months ago

            Hey, I appreciate that.

            My brother did even better than me. He faced the threat of losing his wife who he had somehow managed to hide his addiction from for 5 years. She wasn’t having it. She told him to get clean or get lost.

            He went to my mom’s, got in bed, faced the withdrawal with no assistance, left her place clean. He was immediately hounded by everyone offering him drugs or asking for drugs. He relapsed, went back to my mom’s place, went through the horror again, and then left for police academy.

            His logic was, “not only am I the right kind of person for that job, but I dare anyone to offer me drugs when they know what my job is.”

            He hasn’t looked back and he and his wife have been happily married for 14 years.

            I actually required rehabilitation. I went through withdrawal intentionally one time and that was enough for me. Once I relapsed I just couldn’t do it again. I am in a permanent medication assisted program. I don’t like it, but I like it better than being a junkie on the outskirts of society, one bad moment away from being locked in a cage.

            I wish I had his strength. I really do. He was always stronger than me though, physically, mentally, spiritually. I don’t do religion, but I wish I had that whole larger purpose thing going on.

            For me, my purpose is simple. I have to guide my kids through this world better than my parents did. Not that I’m saying anything bad about my parents. They were a mess but they did the best they could with what they had.

    • prole@sh.itjust.works
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      9 months ago

      And when shit like this comes up, I’m screaming, “How did a 10-yo have access to a GUN!?”

      Hang around here long enough, and someone is bound to respond and try to defend it. Has happened to me multiple times. Apparently thinking that children shouldn’t have access to firearms, period, is a controversial take in the US now.

      • bitchkat@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        The article says the gun belonged to his dead dad. It doesn’t offer any evidence of when his dad died or how he came to be in possession,

  • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    I wish I had $300 when I was 10. I would have spent $150 on Star Wars figures and another $150 on G.I. Joes.

    • chatokun@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      9 months ago

      Legos and SNES games for me. Probably more the Legos. I used to look through the catalogs longly, wishing I could afford the bigger city, jungle, and pirate sets.

      Nowadays I still look longingly, but at more sets and a little less at the city sets.

      • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        I was never hugely into Lego. I enjoyed it and had some, but it wasn’t the thing I was totally into.

        I like that they have adult stuff now though. I can’t say I had a lot of fun putting together the Lego Yellow Submarine, but it was still worth the experience.

        I got my wife some of the Lego plants they have now for her birthday last year. Succulents and an orchid, I think. She loved them.

        There’s no reason creative toys like Lego need to be just for kids.

        Also, there’s an antique mall near me that has a booth with like every G.I. Joe figure and vehicle made in the 80s. My parents would have had to drag me away from that booth.

        • chatokun@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          9 months ago

          Yeah, I love the adult ones too, and aside from my personal experience I’ve heard a lot of people discuss the calming feeling it gives. For people with ADHD alot of us find it calming, relaxing, and something we can focus on unlike other ventures. Gives lots of hits of dopamine for each section you do etc.

  • babypigeon@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    “The gun was later found in his backyard under a shed, hidden with a 74-gram bag of marijuana, according to investigators.”

    This whole story would a great opening to a film about a mob kingpin.

  • tsonfeir@lemm.ee
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    9 months ago

    How did a 10 year old get $300, presumably in cash, and wtf was he going to do with it?!

    That kid is gonna be an arms dealer.

    • ArcaneSlime@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      9 months ago

      Presumably from selling weed, he had 2.8oz, probably down from a quap or half p. Now, who fronted the kid to get his start is the real question.

      • tsonfeir@lemm.ee
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        9 months ago

        Glad I can go across the street and buy weed legally at a store instead of getting it off some 10 year old with a gun because it’s still illegal.

        • ArcaneSlime@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          9 months ago

          Lucky you. Kid doesn’t wanna be some washed up 12yo’s lick though, he needs to keep that pole on him so his opps don’t catch him lacking! Understandable really.

          • tsonfeir@lemm.ee
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            9 months ago

            When you put it like that, it really does make sense. Small businesses are rough.

      • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        There is a kid at my daughter’s former middle school that sells nicotine vapes and weed. He must get it from his parents or an older sibling. I can’t think of any other explanation.

    • sramder@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      Seriously! I was just thinking this was the most Florida headline I had heard this year.

  • SeaJ@lemm.ee
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    9 months ago

    That deputy is another totally responsible gun owner. /s