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Chris Jacob
No, "stun gun" could not easily be replaced with "gun". The kid did not want to go around shooting people. He just wanted to go around shocking them to be a tease/bully. "but he probably didn't know" the stun gun could not kill someone? Of course this 13 year old knew stun guns don't kill people. Good lord, guys, wake up!
Further, the Bulgarians would not have sold the kid a "gun" like they did with the "stun gun".
And by the way, why did you never mention the boy's parents?
Lastly, the "capable of up to 30,000 volts" line is needlessly thrown in to scare/impress us with a large/scary sounding amount of electricity when you (should) know that doesn't mean anything without knowing how much amperage it outputs.
@The_Gas_Man: I agree with you. 30,000 volts is nothing. My college friend got one and zapped himself to see what it felt like. He was fine.
In fact, even in the same article above, it says this:
"In 2007 a teenager was sentenced to six years in a young offenders institute for electrocuting a teacher with a stun gun of almost one million volts in an unprovoked attack in Bristol."
So yeah... there are worse things out there. That kid would have done more damage by punching other kids.
Don't blame the Bulgarians, I live in the UK and I got a stun gun from USA (via eBay) for $15. Also, I heard on the News last week that the Mexican drug gangs were buying most of their guns from American gun shops.
BTW I got the stun gun for the high voltages components - not to stun people.
@fluxlasers: In America, to buy a firearm, you must have at least a green card, have resided in the state for at least 90 days, and be able to show government issued photo id. Then when you purchase the firearm, it is registered to you. 'Mexican gang' members are not going to go walk into a gun store and try to buy a gun. Either they are not in the country legally, or if they are, they dont want a gun they might use to kill someone to be in their name.
Big whoop; if I had a blog where I posted an article every time some 15 year-old did something a little bit stupid, I'd be a rich man. I
'm not really sure why this would be of concern - if it's not "strong enough to kill anybody" and he wasn't trying to kill anybody, doesn't seem worthy of the attention of the Internet, where only the most important things rise to the level of mention.
@weatherman: As a kid I bought firecrackers, booze and a switchblade on a school organised day trip to France when I was 15.
The difference is my friends and I didn't use any of these items on other kids.
We drank, puked up and got hangovers. We let the firecrackers off in the forrest, and blew up a few *cowpats in the fields nearby. We carved our names in some trees with the switchblade until the mechanism broke (it was a cheap piece of crap). In general, the only people we endangered were ourselves.
Back then customs didn't search every bag on every bus that boarded the ferry, but technically all three items were illegal in the UK or for kids our age, or both.
The point is, this kid used a device, in school and on other kids, that cops are issued with to disable 300 lb criminals, and he somehow got it all the way from Bulgaria unchecked. Those points alone make it newsworthy.
*Note: Steamer bombs are fun and visually impressive, but if you're stupid enough to stick a 3" firecracker with a 1" fuse into a steaming pile of cow shit, don't extend that stupidity and re-light a fuse that goes out when there's less than 1/4" left unless you want a long, moist walk home covered in crap with all your friends laughing hysterically the entire way. In fact, just don't do it at all. Play with Mentos and coke instead.
@CrispyAardvark: You can get more powerful stun guns on eBay [shop.ebay.com] They're not really a big deal. I'm pretty sure that there are fights every day in schools, in which kids wail on each other with sticks or chairs, producing far more grievous injuries.
@Duff-Lad: I should clarify my position - this is a stupid, dangerous and probably criminal. But it's the activities of a 13 year-old with a non-lethal device. The fact that it was "smuggled" from another country and that he's "attacked" three kids just seems to add to the hype around this. It's not like he went crazy shooting people in a schoolyard. It sounds to me like what he did was intended as a prank, and while clearly it was a stupid thing to do, he's a 13 year-old kid who probably didn't recognize the danger associated with these devices. I'm just saying we shouldn't be making him out to be some kind of mass-murderer by suggesting "this could have been a real gun."
Spoken like a true American. If you ever travel outside your own country, be sure to talk loud and wear jean shorts and a T-shirt with a US flag on it.
...I hear Bulgaria is quite nice, and it is very popular with the Brits.
@cereal_killer: I'm Canadian, so you're a bit off. To me, Bulgaria just seems like a strange place to visit. I have been to other places in Europe, and liked it a lot.
@.357: Well, it depends on what you want to get from you vacation. Going to a poor country (or one with problems) can give you a lot of perspective on what it means to live in the top 1% of the world, socioeconomically.
@squish123: I didn't make TV the scapegoat either. You, like bpapa9013 should really stop trying to add context to my original comment that wasn't there in the first place. Dan wrote, "The kid apparently "feels sorry" for acting like a jackass". That is what my comment was based on.
And who's to say if this kids parents were doing their job or not. Kids do stupid things no matter how hard their parents try to raise them with good values and common sense. Should they have frisked him before he left for school? Should they have searched his luggage to make sure he didn't buy anything inappropriate in Bulgaria? How do we know this kid's parents aren't the dumbasses and maybe they bought the stun gun for him to begin with?
03/14/09
No, "stun gun" could not easily be replaced with "gun". The kid did not want to go around shooting people. He just wanted to go around shocking them to be a tease/bully. "but he probably didn't know" the stun gun could not kill someone? Of course this 13 year old knew stun guns don't kill people. Good lord, guys, wake up!
Further, the Bulgarians would not have sold the kid a "gun" like they did with the "stun gun".
And by the way, why did you never mention the boy's parents?
Lastly, the "capable of up to 30,000 volts" line is needlessly thrown in to scare/impress us with a large/scary sounding amount of electricity when you (should) know that doesn't mean anything without knowing how much amperage it outputs.
< / rant >
I still love you guys, I swear.
03/14/09
In fact, even in the same article above, it says this:
"In 2007 a teenager was sentenced to six years in a young offenders institute for electrocuting a teacher with a stun gun of almost one million volts in an unprovoked attack in Bristol."
So yeah... there are worse things out there. That kid would have done more damage by punching other kids.
03/14/09
BTW I got the stun gun for the high voltages components - not to stun people.
03/14/09
[www.atf.gov]
03/14/09
Gun shows are a whole different deal tho ...
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03/14/09
"Don't tase me bro."
Flame on.
03/14/09
03/14/09
"the boy had bought the stun gun for £15 while on a skiing trip to Bulgaria in February with their father and other brother"
It seems like they are more of the jet-setting wealthy type than going-to-get-drunk backpackers.
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'm not really sure why this would be of concern - if it's not "strong enough to kill anybody" and he wasn't trying to kill anybody, doesn't seem worthy of the attention of the Internet, where only the most important things rise to the level of mention.
03/14/09
That is of course assuming the intended recipient of the shock doesn't have some pre-existing medical condition that might be exacerbated to this..
03/14/09
03/14/09
The difference is my friends and I didn't use any of these items on other kids.
We drank, puked up and got hangovers. We let the firecrackers off in the forrest, and blew up a few *cowpats in the fields nearby. We carved our names in some trees with the switchblade until the mechanism broke (it was a cheap piece of crap). In general, the only people we endangered were ourselves.
Back then customs didn't search every bag on every bus that boarded the ferry, but technically all three items were illegal in the UK or for kids our age, or both.
The point is, this kid used a device, in school and on other kids, that cops are issued with to disable 300 lb criminals, and he somehow got it all the way from Bulgaria unchecked. Those points alone make it newsworthy.
*Note: Steamer bombs are fun and visually impressive, but if you're stupid enough to stick a 3" firecracker with a 1" fuse into a steaming pile of cow shit, don't extend that stupidity and re-light a fuse that goes out when there's less than 1/4" left unless you want a long, moist walk home covered in crap with all your friends laughing hysterically the entire way. In fact, just don't do it at all. Play with Mentos and coke instead.
03/14/09
03/15/09
03/14/09
(Assuming of course the family was traveling by plane that is..)
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03/14/09
Spoken like a true American. If you ever travel outside your own country, be sure to talk loud and wear jean shorts and a T-shirt with a US flag on it.
...I hear Bulgaria is quite nice, and it is very popular with the Brits.
03/14/09
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03/14/09
and ban all violent video games while you're at it...
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03/15/09
And who's to say if this kids parents were doing their job or not. Kids do stupid things no matter how hard their parents try to raise them with good values and common sense. Should they have frisked him before he left for school? Should they have searched his luggage to make sure he didn't buy anything inappropriate in Bulgaria? How do we know this kid's parents aren't the dumbasses and maybe they bought the stun gun for him to begin with?
03/14/09
03/14/09