Posted on 03/14/2002 2:18:00 PM PST by 45Auto
As he awaits court action on a firearms charge, social service center administrator Adrian L. Ford said yesterday he will not dodge responsibility for leaving his loaded gun in his unlocked office. Two sixth-graders are accused of stealing the gun and taking it to B.F. Brown Middle School. “For 30 years I have been challenging people to take responsibility, personal responsibility,” Mr. Ford said. “I'd feel like a hypocrite if I didn't let people know how I really feel.”
In an interview yesterday, Mr. Ford, chief administrator of Three Pyramids social service center, said the matter of the stolen gun has been difficult for him because of what could have happened and because it affected so many people, particularly pupils and staff at B.F. Brown. He said he is remorseful.
“I thank God that no physical harm resulted from this incident; that's what stays in my mind,” he said. Mr. Ford was charged by police with improper storage of a firearm -- and his firearms identification card was revoked -- after the pupils allegedly took Mr. Ford's .25-caliber handgun from a briefcase in his third-floor office at Three Pyramids, 66 Day St.
The theft occurred Jan. 28. The next day, the youths brought the gun to school, where Principal Bernard A. DiPasquale found it after being tipped off by their classmates, police said. The two pupils have been expelled and face juvenile court charges of larceny of a firearm and gun possession. Mr. Ford, 55, who is scheduled to be arraigned on the firearm charge April 29, said he decided to speak out after he determined it would be wrong to downplay the seriousness of the situation. Since the Columbine shootings, he said, guns and schools are a mix that can fray nerves, even if the gun is not fired.
“I want to publicly say that I am profoundly sorry,” Mr. Ford said. “and I apologize particularly to the parents, the students, the teachers, the staff and especially the principal at B.F. Brown for any emotional harm I might have caused.” Mr. Ford said the gun was taken from his office while he was elsewhere in the Three Pyramids building. He was out of his office for a few minutes, he said.
“It only takes a second,” he said. “That's what people have to understand. It only takes a second for someone to pick up a gun and for something to happen.”
Mr. Ford said he had carried the semiautomatic gun for three decades, dating to his involvement in civil rights issues and other social movements. His activism generated threats to his family, he said. He kept the gun tucked in his shoulder-style briefcase and was confident it was safe, he said.
He did not realize the gun was stolen until investigators inquired if he knew it was missing, according to police reports. The youths apparently told police the source of the gun. When police came to his office to ask about the gun found at the school, Mr. Ford turned over a second gun he owned, a .44-caliber handgun.
I was getting hostile there to. No reason to name call here or anywhere else for that matter. Sorry.
Anybody and everybody knows enough to discuss this,but that doesn't mean anybody and everybody has taken the time to think it through,OR had enough different experiences in life to understand that not everybody has the same living conditions.
O.K. I have thought it thru and still come to the same conclusion.
Wrong. He had every right to expect his office to be inviolate when he closed the door and walked away from it. He wasn't working in a open setting.And beyond that,he had the pistol hidden inside his briefcase where it was out of sight,and he had a reasonable right to assume out of reach to others.
This is where it gets sticky, at least to me. The guy knows there are kids running around his office. He knows he's got a gun that is easily accesible. He may have a right to expect privacy in his office but he knows that in reality his office is un-secure. He knows that his briefcase is vulnerable.
In that case you should know better.How many of YOUR guns were locked away out of sight and your reach while YOU were growing up? How many of your friends killed each other playing with guns that were never locked away?
My guns were always locked up when not in use. The only firearms that weren't locked up, out of sight, out of reach were the pistols. One, .45 on my father at all times, the other 9mm, unloaded and on top of the fridge. The ammo was in my moms purse.
Yes,you are. That is EXACTLY what you are doing when you say you support these laws,since these laws would tell me how to live.
I'm not supporting any law. I don't think the guy should be punnished. I just think that people should treat firearms with more respect than a screwdriver or jewlery.
My guns are under control. They are locked up inside my house,on my person,or locked in my truck.
Do you leave them in your office? Do you put them in a briefcase and leave them on a desk in an unlocked office with children running around? You obviously take more care with your weapons than Rich did. Rich could take a lesson from you and that is why he took responsibility. He left his weapon un-secure and the worst happened.
First off,this has nothing to do with actual safety,and everything to do with passing yet one more gun law that gives the cops the authority to arrest you so you have your gun rights taken away. In other words,they don't need a REASON to try to take the guns away from any of us,only the excuse. If it isn't this,it will be something else.
This is the current "hot" reason. You said it a coupla times. It's for the chilluns!!! And until they cannot use this reason it'll keep coming back.
Secondly,NOBODY is going to take my guns. Period. That's my line in the sand.
I'm with you. But there are lots of gun owners that would rather not fight for their rights. And every time one of them looses his/her rights, we loose some of our clout.
They may TAKE my rights from me,but I won't be losing OR surrendering them. I don't have any illegal weapons now,and if any of the weapons I do have are ever banned in the future,that's not my fault. I'm not hiding anything,I'm not denying I own anything,and I'm not giving anything up. If the authorities ever come to my house to confiscate any of my weapons,I will treat them the same as I would any other armed robber.
I hope it never comes to that. I really do.
I guess we are going to have to agree to disagree on this. We are both headed in the same direction just by separate paths. I'll say again tho. I don't think there should be any laws concerning gun control or propper storage. They only serve to restrict our rights. But the more people are lax in their gun practices the more support the million mom march will have.
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It appears that we don't disagree at all.
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