14-year-olds plot to take over America thwarted

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ArcturusMengsk
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14-year-olds plot to take over America thwarted

Post by ArcturusMengsk »

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A home-schooled teenager amassed a cache of guns, knives and explosive devices and tried to recruit another boy for a possible school attack, authorities said Thursday.

The 14-year-old was taken into custody after police searched his bedroom in a Philadelphia suburb Wednesday evening. He had talked about mounting a Columbine-type attack at Plymouth Whitemarsh High School, authorities said.

CBS News correspondent Maggie Rodriguez reports that officials here know the young suspect's motive: He felt bullied by the students at Plymouth Whitemarsh. But the plot for revenge was foiled when the young man tried to seek out an accomplice who led police to the suspect's house and a disturbing arsenal.

The weapons included a 9 mm assault rifle that the teenager's mother had recently bought for him, Montgomery County District Attorney Bruce L. Castor Jr. said. Prosecutors are reviewing her actions.

Police also found about 30 air-powered guns, swords, knives, a bomb-making book, videos of the 1999 Columbine attack in Colorado and violence-filled notebooks, Castor said. The weapons were plainly visible in the boy's bedroom, Castor said.

Also discovered were seven explosive devices Castor described as homemade grenades: plastic containers filled with BBs to which gunpowder could be added. Authorities said one grenade was operable and the others had been in the process of being assembled.

The search did not turn up any ammunition for the most dangerous firearm in the bunch, the assault rifle.

"I do not think an attack was imminent and I am not certain that an attack was going to occur at all," Castor said at a news conference. "It could have simply been big talking by a kid who thought that he was bullied previously and he was going to exact his revenge."

The teen previously attended middle school in the district but had been taught at home for more than a year after voluntarily leaving school, Castor said.

Plymouth Township police searched the home after getting a tip Wednesday from a high school student and his father.

The teen was charged as a juvenile with solicitation to commit terror and other counts and was being held at a youth facility. He was due in court for an initial appearance Friday morning.

A call to the county Public Defender's Office, which was representing the youth, rang unanswered after business hours.

Castor declined to name the suspect's parents and said he did not think they had retained lawyers.

"They are now under investigation by us, concerning whether there's any complicity in putting the weapon in this boy's hands," Castor said.

The arrest came the same day a 14-year-old in Ohio opened fire at his Cleveland high school, wounding four before killing himself.

Classes were held as usual Thursday at the Pennsylvania high school.
Apparently the lad intended this to be more than a school shooting:

Link to video detailing his master plan
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Post by The Duchess of Zeon »

There is no such thing as a 9mm assault rifle. It is probably one of those basically semi-automatic limited submachineguns they sell on the US market thanks to the old automatic weapons ban.
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Post by Resinence »

The Duchess of Zeon wrote:There is no such thing as a 9mm assault rifle. It is probably one of those basically semi-automatic limited submachineguns they sell on the US market thanks to the old automatic weapons ban.
Oh but you have to think like a sensationalist reporter! Anything you hold with two hands is an assault rifle, submachine guns don't exist :) anything with a barrel longer than 30cm = HIGH POWERED SNIPER RIFLE! :lol:
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Post by Sea Skimmer »

Actually the Russians have a version of the OT-14 bullpup rifle which fires 9x39mm, a necked up version of 7.62x39. It would be debatable if this cartridge should be considered intermediate or an SMG round though. Obviously, such a thing is not going to appear in the hands of some kids mother gone out shopping at the local gunstore.

I’d bet the weapon in question is here is a TEC-DC9 or another member of that glorified handgun family.
Resinence wrote:
Oh but you have to think like a sensationalist reporter! Anything you hold with two hands is an assault rifle, submachine guns don't exist :) anything with a barrel longer than 30cm = HIGH POWERED SNIPER RIFLE! :lol:
It is kind of funny that no one talks about banning .30-06 rifles… even though it’s the only caliber you can get AP ammunition for legally, and the thing is close to being able to shoot through a hummve.
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Post by His Divine Shadow »

Okay so the kids arsenal consisted of a bunch of airsoft rifles plus one hi-point 9mm carbine that there was no ammunition for and one copy of the anarchists cook book.
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Post by His Divine Shadow »

Oh and Foxnews calls it a "Teen Terror Arsenal" from what I heard :D

Foxnews would blow a fuse if they came into my house "Finnish man has .50cal armor piercing terror weapon of doom, Finland declared enemy of USA"
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Post by salm »

That video is pretty good for a 14 year old. Normally they use all these stupid "funky" types of transitions, you know, the ones that look like a page turning, or the ones that make the picture shatter in thousands of little pieces. And they normally use ALL of them in the same video. This guy managed to refrain from using these at all and even managed to get a nice blend length. He even managed to put in a relatively decent soundtrack instead of using some death metal crap which they normally are so fond of.
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Post by Temjin »

Isn't "Imperial Empire" kind of redundant?

And what kind of mother would buy their kid a fucking gun, little lone what sounds like a god damn submachine gun. I don't even fucking care if she didn't buy ammo for it, it's still a monumentally stupid thing to do.
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Post by His Divine Shadow »

Please, I got my first gun at 15 which was just for shits and giggles and plinking, before that I've had several air rifles and pistols. Lots of people here have had shotguns and high powered rifles at ages from 12 and participated in hunting and so forth. A cheapo 9mm carbine for plinking is no big deal, you can't buy ammo for it unless you are 21 anyway so the mother had control over the ammo-supply until he was old enough to buy it.
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Post by Siege »

Amusingly enough, radio news over here claimed the guy had "handgrenades" and "more than 30 handguns" in his possession. Whilst this might even be correct in a sense, of course no-one mentioned they were fucking BB-guns and BB-pellet/gunpowder grenades. I'm not entirely sure how lethal those damned things are, but they sure aren't what I (and I wager most listeners) picture when you mention 30 handguns and grenades.
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Post by Temjin »

His Divine Shadow wrote:Please, I got my first gun at 15 which was just for shits and giggles and plinking, before that I've had several air rifles and pistols. Lots of people here have had shotguns and high powered rifles at ages from 12 and participated in hunting and so forth. A cheapo 9mm carbine for plinking is no big deal, you can't buy ammo for it unless you are 21 anyway so the mother had control over the ammo-supply until he was old enough to buy it.
Just because a lot of people do it, doesn't make it a smart thing to do.
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Post by His Divine Shadow »

Doesn't make it a stupid thing to do either (it's as common as it's ever been and firearm accidents are at an all time low, though they have always been low). I am certainly going to teach any kids I'll have about firearms and proper handling thereof and encourage any interest. I think it's a much better option than prohibiting it.
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Post by ArcturusMengsk »

His Divine Shadow wrote:Doesn't make it a stupid thing to do either (it's as common as it's ever been and firearm accidents are at an all time low, though they have always been low). I am certainly going to teach any kids I'll have about firearms and proper handling thereof and encourage any interest. I think it's a much better option than prohibiting it.
Why? Unless you're preparing for peak oil, I hardly see any need to own a firearm, particularly if you're in Scandinavia where crime has always been minimal.
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Post by His Divine Shadow »

Need? Fuck need. Firearms are an insanely fun hobby and hunting is a good way to get more meat for cheap and if I have a choice I prefer my kids to know about firearms and being able to handle them than not. It's perfectly good knowledge and fun that I will not deprive my future children of.
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Post by Civil War Man »

SiegeTank wrote:Amusingly enough, radio news over here claimed the guy had "handgrenades" and "more than 30 handguns" in his possession. Whilst this might even be correct in a sense, of course no-one mentioned they were fucking BB-guns and BB-pellet/gunpowder grenades. I'm not entirely sure how lethal those damned things are, but they sure aren't what I (and I wager most listeners) picture when you mention 30 handguns and grenades.
I heard the story on ABC news. Unlike the radio news over there, they acknowledged that almost all the guns were BB-guns and that he had "some homemade grenades"
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Post by Jade Falcon »

The Duchess of Zeon wrote:There is no such thing as a 9mm assault rifle. It is probably one of those basically semi-automatic limited submachineguns they sell on the US market thanks to the old automatic weapons ban.
Could it be one of these

http://www.colt.com/mil/SMG.asp

After all, even to those who don't know much about firearms, the M16/M4 line is pretty well known. I know it's an SMG but some people when they see something like that will maybe just think 'Assault weapon'.
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Post by Ritterin Sophia »

Jade Falcon wrote:Could it be one of these

http://www.colt.com/mil/SMG.asp

After all, even to those who don't know much about firearms, the M16/M4 line is pretty well known. I know it's an SMG but some people when they see something like that will maybe just think 'Assault weapon'.
Awww... how cute, that's almost as cute as the pink AR-15 this eight year old girl I saw had.
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Post by Jade Falcon »

General Schatten wrote:Awww... how cute, that's almost as cute as the pink AR-15 this eight year old girl I saw had.
Was that the Barbie edition? :D
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Post by Beowulf »

ArcturusMengsk wrote:
His Divine Shadow wrote:Doesn't make it a stupid thing to do either (it's as common as it's ever been and firearm accidents are at an all time low, though they have always been low). I am certainly going to teach any kids I'll have about firearms and proper handling thereof and encourage any interest. I think it's a much better option than prohibiting it.
Why? Unless you're preparing for peak oil, I hardly see any need to own a firearm, particularly if you're in Scandinavia where crime has always been minimal.
I hardly see any need for you to: own a car, own your own home, own a computer, own any books, own a TV, a radio, etc., etc. Fuck needing to own anything.
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Post by The Yosemite Bear »

brain, what are we going to do tonight?
Same thing we do everynight, laugh at people in the news business


sorry, this is at most a stupid gun nut, with a lightweight arsenal about enough to make a high school fake action movie on video, not a credible terrorist threat or a viable plan for taking over a fast food restuarant much less the united states.
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Post by Glocksman »

Temjin wrote:Isn't "Imperial Empire" kind of redundant?

And what kind of mother would buy their kid a fucking gun, little lone what sounds like a god damn submachine gun. I don't even fucking care if she didn't buy ammo for it, it's still a monumentally stupid thing to do.
Given both the extraordinary expense, restrictions, and amounts of paperwork involved in legally purchasing one, I doubt that it's a submachine gun.
As others have said, it's probably a 9mm semi-automatic* carbine of some kind.

Personally I see nothing wrong in buying your teenager a gun and teaching them how to shoot, hunt, etc., but when he or she is not actually shooting the thing, it's going to be in a locked up firearms vault that he doesn't know how to get into.


When I heard this story on the radio yesterday, it was reported in the sensationalist 'arsenal of doom' manner.
My first thought was 'where in the fuck would a 14 year old get grenades?'. :shock:
My second thought was 'Some reporter or editor doesn't know his ass from a hole in the ground', and that the 'grenades' mentioned were either mason jars stuffed with scrap metal or were deactivated surplus grenades that can only hurt you if you bash your head on one.
Nice to know my second thought was on the money. :D




*A Semi automatic weapon is a gun that fires one shot with each pull of the trigger.
Full automatic weapons fire more than one shot with each pull of the trigger.
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Post by Sidewinder »

I shudder to think of how bad a job the authority figures in the kid's life-- parents, teachers, etc.-- did to make him consider emulating the Columbine Massacre. What, they didn't realize that bullying is a serious problem, and gave him the "Just ignore them," bullshit that was so damn useless in my time?
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Those gun nuts do not understand the meaning of "overkill," and will simply use weapon after weapon of mass destruction (WMD) until the monster is dead, or until they run out of weapons.

They have more WMD than there are monsters for us to fight. (More insanity here.)
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Post by SCRawl »

Beowulf wrote:
ArcturusMengsk wrote:
His Divine Shadow wrote:Doesn't make it a stupid thing to do either (it's as common as it's ever been and firearm accidents are at an all time low, though they have always been low). I am certainly going to teach any kids I'll have about firearms and proper handling thereof and encourage any interest. I think it's a much better option than prohibiting it.
Why? Unless you're preparing for peak oil, I hardly see any need to own a firearm, particularly if you're in Scandinavia where crime has always been minimal.
I hardly see any need for you to: own a car, own your own home, own a computer, own any books, own a TV, a radio, etc., etc. Fuck needing to own anything.
*sigh*

I think that if we replace the word "own" with the word "possess", then this issue falls away nicely. We all need shelter, transportation, research material, entertainment of some kind, etc. in varying degrees. I think his point is that we as civilians don't need to possess the ready means to kill other people. It's the classic argument for gun control; pro-control believe that it's true, and anti-control people don't.
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Post by RIPP_n_WIPE »

I just liked the video and his spelling of phycopath...
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Post by Illuminatus Primus »

His Divine Shadow wrote:Please, I got my first gun at 15 which was just for shits and giggles and plinking, before that I've had several air rifles and pistols. Lots of people here have had shotguns and high powered rifles at ages from 12 and participated in hunting and so forth. A cheapo 9mm carbine for plinking is no big deal, you can't buy ammo for it unless you are 21 anyway so the mother had control over the ammo-supply until he was old enough to buy it.
"My mommy did it, so its okay!" We know you didn't kill yourself or others, that doesn't mean its intelligent to give lethal weapons to children who can't even drive legally.
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