I wasn’t going to post this story, but this one detail I found amusing:
According to police and court documents, the younger Gladden brought a disassembled shotgun, 21 rounds of ammunition and a bottle of vodka with him for the first day of school Monday morning. On his Facebook page, he wrote, “First day of school, last day of my life.”
Odd, I thought minors couldn’t posses alcohol, and certainly can’t bring it to school! Hell I knew a guy who was probably a pre-hipster who carried a hip flask in school, filled with benign beverages, or just water. He got in trouble and was threatened with suspension if he brought it to school again. He had a point that a hip flask itself isn’t a bad item, and his was a vintage item he snagged at a thrift store, and he was quite proud of it. Still I have a few hip flasks that I’ve acquired over time, and overall I don’t find much use in them, as they’re small and don’t really hold much more than to give you a good buzz if you down most of it in a sitting. I bring mine camping when I want to take a quick snort around the camp fire and pass it around, but I never saw the point when I see my pulp/noir heroes pulling out a flask and taking a quick hit when things got stressful.
Still its not like he was quenching his thirst with it, he was simply carrying it to make a scene, and there was always the potential that if the authorities got permissive he probably would have filled it up with rot-gut for drinking between periods.
Again, rules are ONLY useful for punishment, not CHANGING behavior. So why have rules that punish GOOD behavior, like lawful adults carrying guns when they go to work, pick up their kids, or attend functions?