Unfortunately, all gun owners get painted with the same brush as this guy.
This is what the sheep see when they think gun owner: Illegal transfers (think gun show loophole), teaching a kid to use gun means he'll use it (funny how that doesn't compute when it comes to sex ed), too easy for criminals to have guns......heck, you couldn't have designed a better story for the antis to use as fodder.
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This is what the sheep see when they think gun owner: Illegal transfers (think gun show loophole), teaching a kid to use gun means he'll use it (funny how that doesn't compute when it comes to sex ed), too easy for criminals to have guns......heck, you couldn't have designed a better story for the antis to use as fodder.
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http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/lo...an26,1,1597100.story?coll=bal-local-headlines
Father said to show son use of gun
Boy charged in wounding of girl at day care center
By Greg Barrett and Greg Garland
sun reporters
January 26, 2006
ROCKVILLE -- The father of an 8-year-old boy charged with shooting and wounding a 7-year-old girl in a Germantown day care center showed his son "in great detail" how to handle, load and fire a .38-caliber revolver the night before the child smuggled the gun into the day care center, the Montgomery County state's attorney said yesterday.
The father, John Linwood Hall Sr., was arraigned yesterday on charges of illegal possession of a firearm, storing a firearm in a location accessible by an unsupervised minor and contributing to the delinquency of a minor. Hall, 56, was not asked to speak to Montgomery County State's Attorney Douglas F. Gansler's assertion that he had shown his son how to use the weapon.
In a separate hearing behind closed doors, a judge ordered that the boy remain in the custody of the Department of Juvenile Services for treatment at a undisclosed location. "He is in a facility where he will be able to get the treatment he needs," said Wendell Phillips, a department spokesman.
The boy had been held after his arrest Tuesday at a detention center for juveniles in Hagerstown. Phillips said the boy had no previous contact with the juvenile services agency.
Prosecutors have said they believe the shooting was unintentional.
Girl not identified
The girl, whom police did not identify at her family's request, was listed in good condition yesterday at Children's National Medical Center in Washington with a gunshot wound to the upper right arm.
In a statement issued though the hospital, her father said he did not hold the For Kids We Care day care center Germantown responsible for the shooting.
"My daughter will be going back as soon as she is well enough," the father said. He added, "Parents need to realize how dangerous it is to keep guns in a place where their children can get to them."
Outside court
Outside the courtroom yesterday, the boy's aunt, Darlene Hall, said her nephew has attention deficit disorder and had been taking Ritalin until it disrupted his appetite last year.
She said that the boy is always "jittery" and that only his father can control him.
The boy lived with his mother, Debbie Shipp, at Northlake Apartments in Germantown, the same complex that houses the day care center.
Son's bedroom
Prosecutors say John Hall frequently slept in his son's bedroom, which is where the revolver and ammunition were stored unguarded in a hatbox in the bedroom closet.
But Darlene Hall insisted that her brother lived with her in Gaithersburg and was hardly ever at the Northlake apartment. Shipp, who was at the courthouse, stood next to Hall quietly and nodded in agreement.
"He is a great influence on that boy," Darlene Hall said. "A very calming influence."
Felony record
The father has a felony record stemming from handgun and assault convictions dating to 1982, but District Court Judge Mary Beth McCormick reduced his bond from $750,000 to $75,000 yesterday.
She noted his clean record in recent years and his steady employment at the National Institutes of Health, where he has been employed since 1993 and is a housekeeping aide.
John Hall appeared in court via closed-circuit television from the Montgomery County Detention Center and answered the judge's questions with a soft "yes, ma'am" or "no, ma'am." Public defender Samantha Sandler described the shooting as an accident, not a premeditated act that Hall participated in.
Meanwhile, a Germantown man was charged yesterday with "knowingly transferring or selling" the gun to Hall. County police said Clyde Colmes Jr., 53, of Lake Geneva Way, is the registered owner of the gun used in the shooting. He turned himself in yesterday afternoon, police said.
He was charged with participation in an unlawful transfer or sale of a regulated firearm, knowingly transferring or selling a firearm to a person convicted of a crime of violence, and reckless endangerment.
Prosecutors repeated yesterday that they do not believe the shooting was intentional, and Gansler dismissed reports that the boy was attempting to rob the girl.
"I do not believe this was a robbery gone awry in any sense of the word," he said.
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