Urbana High student arrested for bringing stun gun to school

[GuyWithQuestions]

http://www.gazette.net/stories/113007/frednew162918_32372.shtml

Urbana High student arrested for bringing stun gun to school
by Margarita Raycheva | Staff Writer


A 16-year-old Urbana High School student was arrested Friday morning for bringing a stun gun to school.

The student was carrying the weapon — a handheld, 9-volt battery-operated stun gun — inside his backpack, said Cpl. Jennifer Bailey, spokeswoman for the Frederick County Sheriff’s Office.
Deputy Jeffrey Pepple, who is assigned to the school, found the weapon after he received a tip from one of the school’s administrators, Bailey said.

Pepple confiscated the weapon, and arrested the student at around 9:20 a.m.

The student, a Mount Airy resident, was charged with possession of a weapon and carrying a dangerous weapon at school, both misdemeanors that can each result in up to $1,000 in fines or three years in jail, Bailey said.

‘‘This is not something that is appropriate to be on school grounds,” she said. ‘‘I don’t know how he came into possession of it.”

Bailey said she did not know if the student took the stun gun out of the backpack during the day. The stun gun is an electroshock-powered weapon, and is weaker in charge than the Tasers used by sheriff deputies.

The student was referred to the Department of Juvenile Justice and released to the custody of a parent, she said.

Since it says that it was a hand held stun gun, I take it that it's not a TASER but one of those hand held shocker regular stun guns. I guess people who say that the hand held stun guns are dangerous weapons have obvious never shocked themselves with one before. These are the people who'd say that water spray bottles are dangerous weapons. Most law enforcement agencies that have tested out hand held stun devices say that they can hold it for minutes against their own jaw and nothing happens other than muscle twitching and just a little irritation. It feels more weird than hurts, for anyone here other than me who's shocked themselves with one of those 950,000 volt stuns guns. It's the amps that affect the cardiac muscles, which are a different tissue than the muscles that you voluntarily move around. The voltage is what determines how far the arcs with jump. Hand held stun guns are also quite useless in immobolizing.

Quoting

The student, a Mount Airy resident, was charged with possession of a weapon and carrying a dangerous weapon at school, both misdemeanors that can each result in up to $1,000 in fines or three years in jail, Bailey said.

‘‘This is not something that is appropriate to be on school grounds,” she said. ‘‘I don’t know how he came into possession of it.”

I wonder what Maryland's definition of a dangerous weapon is? If he gets convicted on something that's not really dangerous in any shape or form, that's messed up. It's one thing if he's in trouble for bringing an annoying toy to school. People may say, "What about in the movies like 24 when that guy gets zapped with a stun gun and he dies and the bad guys have to revive him?" Also remember that in the movies they have other feats that go against science like those cartoons where people can talk in space although there's no air for the sounds to travel across. It's amazing what stupid and scientifically unsound things people get in trouble for with the legal system.

 

[Don Gwinn]

Legal forum. Legal questions or information only, please.