Harmless Toy Gun Nearly Kills Student
As guns are removed from everyday life, yet allowed to persist as “toy” guns and movie images, society forgets the grave responsibility of firearms and treats them all as props and playthings.
Weapons are not going to disapper, they are just going to get more dangerous as we collectively eliminate familiarity with them. If society suddenly stopped teaching people how to drive cars, there would still be a few who fearlessly formed groups to drive safely. If the government prohibited learning how to drive, yet still allowed cars on the roads, our highways would be very dangerous indeed! There would shortly arise an effort to outlaw those deadly vehicles. That’s exactly what we’re seeing with guns.
The article below is an example of kids messing around with a harmless toy because they don’t have the training with real guns.
Keep on Glockin’,
Morgan
A centimeter from death
He was minding his own business, on his way to the Blockbuster video store on Woodlands Village Boulevard.
The BB or pellet somebody fired from Citizens Cemetery lodged about a centimeter from one of the large veins and arteries in his neck. After examining the wound, a doctor at Flagstaff Medical Center decided to leave the projectile in his neck. It might work its way out, or it may remain in his neck the rest of his life.
The 20-year-old NAU junior, who, as a victim of a crime, asked not to be identified, said the hospital staff told him if the pellet had hit one of the big veins or arteries in his neck, he likely would have died.
While police continue to search for whoever may have shot the young man, a friend has stepped forward to offer a $1,000 reward for information leading to an arrest in the case.
The young man said the shooting happened at about 9:45 p.m. Saturday. He was driving southbound on South San Francisco Street. A friend was in the passenger seat.
“I had my window down and I heard a CO2 (pressurized carbon dioxide) noise just when I felt something hit my neck,” the young man said. He initially thought he might have been hit with a paintball. Then, he put his hand to his neck and saw he was bleeding.
He turned to his friend.
“And I said, ‘I think someone just shot me in the neck.’”
After pulling over to the side of the road for a moment and noticing he wasn’t bleeding badly, he decided to continue on to Blockbuster. The young man placed a call to his dad, and his father told him to go to the campus police department.
At the station, he told the night dispatcher what had happened, he said. Almost immediately, an officer was at the station, and soon a half-dozen city and university officers were combing the cemetery. Police suggested the young man go to the hospital.
He drove himself, he said.
According to NAU police reports, officers searched the cemetery and surrounding area with no results. The case has been closed unless more leads develop.
At the hospital, the young man said he was rushed into the trauma room at the emergency department when staff heard what had happened.
He was put on an IV and had a CT scan taken of the wound.
The physician in charge told him that trying to take the pellet from his neck would likely do more harm than good, he said. Staff also said that had the pellet entered a centimeter over, it would have killed him.
Dr. Eric Henley, medical director for the central region of North Country HealthCare, said that necks have large veins and arteries on either side. A hole in an artery leads to a quicker loss of blood than veins because the pressure in an artery is greater.
The quickness of blood loss depends on the size of the rupture, Henley added.
The young man said he thinks he was shot by some younger juveniles who had no concept of what could have happened. An adult knowingly shooting at passing cars was a disturbing concept to him.
His incident was not the only that night. According to information from NAU police, another victim had been driving in the same area when his window was shattered by a pellet.
“I just unluckily had my window down,” he said.
He added that he is not angry and is glad he was the one shot rather than another person who might have been more vulnerable.
“I just want whoever did it to realize how serious it is,” he said.
His friend, Chip Casner, a longtime Flagstaff resident, was upset that something like getting shot in the neck with a pellet happened to such a nice person. He’s offering a $1,000 reward to anybody who turns over information on who did the shooting.
“It was the least I could do,” Casner said.
Anybody with information about the case is asked to contact the NAU Police Department at 523-3611, or call Silent Witness at 774-6111 or (877) 29-CRIME.
Larry Hendricks can be reached at 556-2262 or lhendricks@azdailysun.com.
24 Jun 2009 11:15 am morgan 0 comments
