Dad Poses As Shooter At School

South of the border, the gun-toting drama continues. As a means to test his kid's school security, a dad pretended he was armed when he approached a greeter saying, "You're dead."

According to an article in the Huffington Post, Ronald Miller wasn't actually armed when he arrived at Celina Elementary School one morning and threatened the greeter by pretending to be a shooter. 

In the wake of so many school shootings, can you really blame him? The latest, gun-related tragedy to take place on school property, at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Conneticut, is still fresh in everyone's minds. 

After he left the campus, police arrested 44-year-old Miller and charged him with third-degree felony terroristic threats, with bail reportedly set at $75,000.

But parents at the school were surprisingly forgiving of the dad's intentions, even if his actions were misguided. 

"We are not prepared," parent David Siano said. "His intent was just simply to say, 'you've done nothing' and that's what it showed... So if that's what it takes, it's a shame."

Despite the spate of violence, kids aren't deterred from gun ownership, according to a study by American University / GfK Custom Research LLC as reported on Science Daily. One third of some 4,000 high school kids polled had been raised with guns in the home, while 40 per cent intended to own a gun of their own. I wonder if the findings would be any different had they been conducted now, after Sandy Hook...

Other stats from the study posted in the article include:

• Personality Traits: Roughly 50% of young people who self-identify as "depressed," "stressed out," and/or have "difficulty making friends" plan to have a gun in their household.
• Video Games: High school students who regularly play video games for more than 4 hours per day are 50 percent more likely than those who do not typically play video games to report plans to own a gun. The results are similar, but less pronounced, among college students.
• Gender Gap: Girls and young women (40%) more likely than their male counterparts (32%) to fear gun violence and less likely to report planning on owning a gun in the future.
• Race Gap: Half of the Black respondents fear gun violence, compared to only 31 percent of White respondents. Blacks are less likely than Whites to report planning on owning a gun in the future.
• Party Gap: Democrats are nearly twice as likely as Republicans to fear gun violence (45% compared to 25%) and less likely to report planning on owning a gun in the future."

So much for learning from the previous generations' mistakes...