Posted on 04/05/2006 1:27:08 PM PDT by 300magnum
An Evergreen High School student who posted Internet photos of himself posing with guns was convicted Tuesday on a charge of possession of a handgun by a juvenile. The conviction came despite his parents' testimony that they gave him permission to handle guns in their home without their supervision.
Colorado law prohibits possession of a handgun by a juvenile but permits parents to give them permission to possess guns in their homes - even without supervision.
"This is a very difficult case," defense attorney Barrett Weisz said in his closing argument.
"We have pictures that raise images of the Columbine massacre. But if we set the specter of Columbine aside," he said, the boy should be acquitted and sent home.
The photos were posted on the popular teen Web site MySpace.com. The photos showed him posing with a number of rifles and three handguns - a .45-caliber pistol, a .22-caliber revolver and a .357-caliber revolver.
The 16-year-old boy, who has been held in detention since his arrest in February, will be sentenced June 1. He was acquitted on two additional charges of handgun possession.
The judge set a $5,000 bond, but ordered that the boy must be evaluated and a safety plan drawn up before he can be released.
The boy's parents testified they were upset and disappointed with their son when they discovered the photos, but said he had permission to handle the weapons.
"I was not pleased and told him to take (the photos) down," his father testified. "I told him, 'What were you thinking when you took these pictures?' I was upset."
The father, a gun collector and enthusiast who is an airline pilot and retired Air Force pilot, said he gave the boy and his brother extensive training in the safe handling of weapons.
He said he gave his sons permission to handle the guns in the home even when he wasn't there, and the boys had access to keys to trigger locks.
"It was due to their experience and my trust in them" to safely handle the weapons, he said. They often cleaned the guns after they had gone shooting and he was out of town for his job, the father said.
They also built guns from kits, he said.
But Jefferson County District Judge Brian Boatright said that that permission had limits.
"That doesn't mean juveniles could run around the house and do whatever he wanted with the gun," Boatright said, noting that the father testified the boys were not allowed to load or fire the weapons unless he was present.
Boatright acquitted the boy on two charges in which he posed with the handguns but did not have his finger on the trigger. One of the charges stemmed from a photo entitled "angel of death," in which he posed on the floor with guns surrounding his body.
The judge was more concerned with a third photo in which the boy appeared to have his finger on the trigger.
"That exceeds the scope of his training, experience and trust (his father) placed in the juvenile," Boatright said.
Weisz argued the boy has spent far too long in detention already and needs to get on with his life. He has been enrolled in a private school. Weisz said he would appeal the case.
He assured the judge that no weapons will be in the house again. "The hobby is gone. The guns are gone and won't be back," Weisz said.
It looks like Colorado has joined Kalipornia, New Joisey, New Yawk, Taxachusetts, Illannoyed, and Floriduh in the idiot competition.
Things sure have changed from looking at LE as a friend then to that of an adversary today. As the old timers retire we will see more and more of the mirrored sunglass variety. It is a shame that this young man has had to go through this and for what?
No, it's not you. This abortion of a judge seems to think he's a better father than the dad in this story. Welcome to the Nanny-State.
Except when Colorado doesn't feel like allowing what the law allows.
should have had the Department of Homeland Security in on
this big, series bust.
I guess pedophiles AND hoplophobes cruise Myspace now.
Colorado law prohibits possession of a handgun by a juvenile but permits parents to give them permission to possess guns in their homes - even without supervision.
The jury just convicted this kid of not breaking the law. The law doesnt say you can have parental permission to have a gun unsupervised as long as your finger isnt on the trigger.This judge needs to be impeached the prosacuter and jury need to go to prison
fascist jbt ping
Needs repeated, over and over again, to every Senator, Congressman, State legislator, County government, City and Village Board members, judges, magistrates and whacko liberal nut jobs, everywhere.
Son of Senate president offered plea deal in assault case
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1609544/posts
>>>> Two young men charged with sodomizing 18 boys at a youth camp last year have been offered a plea agreement that may net them little jail time and no record of sexual assault. <<<<<
YUP!
Yep!
If he asks for the depleted uranium rounds, you better get up and check it out.
I think you misstate that. Reading through the article you find acknowledgement that what was done was specifically legal.
If this article is anything remotely like factual, then this judge is simply a loon.
Guns=Columbine (/simplistic liberal anti-gun sentiment)
Sadly, a lot of people look at things that are happening and think, "Does it personally have anything to do with me? It doesn't? Then, I'm too busy to care." It's just easier to ignore it. Then they will wonder how things got so out of hand.
This should be easily overturned on appeal.
Good grief. Even people accused of murder can raise bail.
The world has gone insane. I remember classmates in my HS leaving guns in their trucks (exposed in rear window gun racks) in the school parking lot because they were going hunting after school. We also had REAL WORKING military M-14s (two fully automatic) in the school armory for the ROTC unit.
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