<p>“About 40 law enforcement personnel converged on the scene, including hostage negotiators who set up inside the school, according to Skorik. They had not talked directly with the student some three hours into the incident, but did get regular updates from the teacher.
Skorik said that the hostage-taker is a student at Marinette High, and that he believed – though he could not confirm – was assigned to the class that he took over.
Police know the identity of the student, though they haven’t name him publicly, and have talked with his family members. Skorik said law enforcement believe the the young male, armed with a single handgun, is acting alone”</p>
<p>What an ordeal for these students and teacher and their families!
I would like to know more about how the hostage-taker obtained a gun and how he brought it into the school.</p>
<p>Well, he probably just stuck it in a gym bag or backpack. We live in a small town and if anyone said we would need metal detectors, we would have died laughing.</p>
<p>I think the news reports said that the teacher did a lot of the negotiating work. Whoever it was is a real hero.</p>
<p>Yes, twomules, there was a hero at this scene.</p>
<p>Maybe not, silverturtle, but the public should know how this was done.
Years ago, news media began to report routinely on whether motor vehicle accident victims were wearing seatbelts. This is valuable information that helps the public and policymakers.
Likewise, I believe that it would help us to know, every time there is a gun crime, how the gun was obtained and how it got to the scene. I would like to know the details of this, not just whether the gun was illegal or legal. For example, if it was illegal, who originally purchased it, where, and who reported it lost or stolen and when, and how many guns has that person reported lost or stolen? If it was legal, who is it registered to, and how did the perpetrator obtain it and carry it to the scene? It is only when we know things like this that we can make meaningful decisions about how to prevent crime.</p>
<p>Reading more about it now… it appears that he held the hostages for a couple of hours before anyone noticed that they were missing. I can’t imagine that happening in my kids school (which is about the same number of students, although a broader age range).</p>
<p>This is such a sad story for so many reasons, not the least of which is that a 15 year old boy had easy access to two semi-automatic weapons. It boggles the mind.</p>
<p>Local news reports say he carried two guns, a knife, and extra ammo in a duffel bag. At some point during his sixth-period class he asked permission to leave to go to the bathroom. When he came back he was carrying the duffel bag, which police speculate he probably got from his school locker. His sixth period social studies class was watching a movie. He opened fire on the movie projector, and at that point the hostage crisis began. The teacher and classmates report being scared, but some said it seemed pretty clear he didn’t want to hurt anyone. He made no demands, and refused the teacher’s attempts to get him to talk about why he was doing this.</p>
<p>He was described by friends and teachers as a straight-A student with a “sweet” disposition and no history of behavioral or emotional problems, though one former teacher said there were “some problems at school” of an unspecified nature. My speculation: the “problems” might possibly have been with some other students. For understandable reasons the family is not talking to the news media. The police say they don’t know where the guns and ammunition came from, but the family should be able to confirm that the guns were, or were not, theirs.</p>
<p>Very easy access to firearms of all types in Wisconsin, a strongly outdoors-, hunting-, and fishing-oriented culture. Handguns of the type used by this kid have no legitimate use in hunting, but the state’s numerous hunters present a solid wall of opposition to gun regulation of any kind. My guess is he probably just took them out of a gun rack at home, but that’s something we’ll know soon enough.</p>