Gun Displayed in Mobile Bathroom Appears to be Loaded S&W Model 36

A middle school student form Mobile, Alabama, is shown holding a revolver in a school bathroom. The picture has gone viral. The picture was taken some time before September 11, 2018. From mynbc15.com:

MOBILE, Ala. (WPMI) — A photo of a Mobile middle school student allegedly depicting the student with a gun in a school restroom is under investigation by Mobile police.

The picture was posted on Facebook on Thursday October 11.

The photo was a allegedly taken inside a bathroom at Chastang-Fournier K-8 in the Trinity Gardens neighborhood of Mobile.

The picture was well focused on the revolver. Whoever took the picture did a good job. School officials and police have identified the people in the picture. The student who was holding the revolver is no longer a student in the Mobil Public Schools.

Because the picture is well focused, several interesting details are apparent. The revolver appears to be a high quality, if well used, Smith & Wesson model 36. We cannot be absolutely certain, as this common and well thought of revolver has been widely copied throughout the world. The odds are it is a genuine Smith & Wesson, however.

The revolver is loaded. Look at the chambers of the revolver cylinder on the left as you look at the picture. Peering into the chambers, you see the glimmer of bullets in the two chambers, indicating the revolver was loaded at the time of the picture.

The student who is holding the revolver is observing some basic safety precautions. He is not pointing the revolver directly at the person with the camera, thus observing two of the basic safety rules.

1. Do not point a firearm at anything you are not willing to destroy.

2. Know your target and what is beyond your target.

He is following a third safety rule as well. His trigger finger is outside of the trigger guard.

There are prominent signs outside the school informing people that the school is a “gun free zone”.

Clearly, such signs did not dissuade the young man in the picture from taking a revolver to the school. I doubt that imposition of costly metal detectors at some entrances will make much difference either.

Taxpayers will not be well served by purchasing metal detectors and paying for the necessary armed security to man the detectors whenever school is in session, and anytime anyone has access to the schools.

Such measures are only effective if they are enforced rigorously. If they are not, the children (or inmates, in effect) are quick to learn the vulnerabilities of the system and to find ways to circumvent them.

For example, keeping a gun hidden inside the school, after bringing it in at an entrance that is briefly not monitored.

My friend Roy Eykamp informed me of a time he and/or a friend brought a revolver to a one room school in South Dakota around 1930. The teacher discovered they had the revolver and asked what the purpose was. The boys said they intended to shoot gophers during lunch hour. A bounty was paid for gophers by the county. The teacher instructed them to follow the safety rules, and allowed them to keep possession of the revolver. Roy was about 12 at the time.

Today, things have changed, and no always for the better. Parents are much more removed from the management of the schools. Legislation and regulation has taken away much parental and teacher responsibility.

Schools and parents would be better served by teaching and enforcing discipline and ethical norms.

Teaching students that the “system” or the “man” are stacked against them works in exactly the opposite manner, encouraging them to game the system or ignore the rules.

©2018 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.

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