Wednesday, June 03, 2009

Toy Gun

It seems some kid in New Jersey found a toy gun in a dumpster and headed toward Princeton University.

Predictably, the whole university went into lockdown.
Police took four juvenile suspects into custody just before 11:30 a.m. None of the four suspects were students. One had a dark green toy gun in his waistband that school officials said could have been mistaken for a real gun.

The four kids were apparently rummaging through some sort of trash dumpster and told cops that's where they found the toy gun, police sources told NBCNewYork.com. One of the juveniles picked up the fake gun, put it in his belt and started walking away with the other three kids when a woman spotted the gun in his waistband and called police. It's not clear whether or not she was a student.

No shots were fired. It wasn't clear how many people were on campus at the time of the incident. Police believe the incident stemmed from a bigger problem of kids from town going on campus and rummaging through dumpsters looking for unused alcohol, which campus security says has been on ongoing problem.
This is New Jersey and guns aren't allowed. At all. So, four kids were found with a toy and the police detained them.

I'm reminded of my own university experience where we routinely kept our guns in the dorm room. Yeah, it was forbidden, but no one seemed to care. Lots of us hunted and it helps to have a gun on campus if you're going hunting after class.

Then, years later when I adjuncted Police Science courses at the same campus, I was in a plain-clothes assignment and I'd head to the campus after work and more often than not, my revolver was tucked in a holster on my belt. Only once did anyone even make notice of it. When the cop responded to the "man with a gun" complaint, we laughed and chit-chatted for a few minutes before he continued on his way.

The folks in New Jersey really need to get a grip.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

"Get a Grip"

Won't happen until Noo Joisie comes back into the United States. That will happen sometime following the onset of the Stygian Ice Age.

Gerry N.

JimB said...

People in NJ react like that because that's the way they are brought up. All guns are evil... only bad people have guns. If you want to see a look of confusion just mention if that's the case ... All cops are bad...'cause they have evil guns....

Old NFO said...

Never happen in the Peoples Republik of New Jersey... They have been "indoctrinated"...

Rivrdog said...

Old NFO, it's happening to ALL the urban universities. The rebirth of the urban drug gangs has put those campuses at some severe public safety risk.

The drug lords used to stay off the campuses, because there weren't enough "customers" there to warrant having pushers on the campuses.

Now, everybody on two legs is a drug pusher's potential customer in the urban areas, and the new gangs have invaded the campuses.

That said, it seems to me that allowing the students who are legal and responsible to carry concealed would be the best answer, not these silly lockdowns which paralyze all campus activity for hours or days.