[goldstategop]

No. If it were your life on the line judge, your taxpayer funded bodyguard would use a gun. It seems to me a mighty fine way to break up a fight. And in this case it wasn't even fired.

[strela]

The 10-year-old told authorities she was "in fear for her life and her sister's life" when she made the decision to retrieve the handgun ...

What an incredible coincidence - that exact wording is the legal standard in many states to justify the use of deadly force for self-defense. Amazing that a 4th grader would use such precise language. You don't suppose some attorney coached her to say that, now do you?

[riverrunner]

The whole idea of a 10 year defending herself horrors apond horrors.(Sarcasm)

[waterstraat]

If a 10 year old was old enough to be convicted of a crime, why werent the 16 year olds, who created this incident, who went to the 10 year olds house and did assault and battery, let off with no penalty at all? The ones who initiated the violence were the ones that should have been punished, especially since they were older, and had to go out of there way to start all the trouble.

[JCG]

More news from Homosassa here: Click

(Must be an interesting place...)

America's Fifth Column ... watch PBS documentary JIHAD! In America
Download 8 Mb zip file here (60 minute video)

[chainsaw]

"It really bothers me that a 10-year-old girl learned that the way to resolve problems is with a gun," Smith said. "It's a really sad case."

It's even sadder when we have people like this Smith that can't see a 10 year old defending herself against juvenile delinquents that are much older then her.

In my opinion Assistant State Attorney Jeffery Smith's actions border on child abuse for political gain.

[Born on the Storm King]

until she performs 100 hours of community service...

So now the libs deem child and/or slave labor lawful!

[dennisw]

The reward for the taxpayers is they get to pay for a home tutor so this fine young lady doesn't miss out on any of her edu-mo-cation.

[rodeocowboy]

Why was she expelled from school? What did her elementary school have to do with this incident at all?

[john in missouri]

A couple of things bother me about this.

1) Why aren't we told the exact ages of the older girls (the four "victims")? In the only instance where we are, the age given is 16 -- six years older than the girl who went and got the gun.

There's a heck of a difference between a 16-year-old and a 10-year-old.

2) What the hell do they mean by, "A fight broke out between Bishop and the 10-year-old's sister?" Who was the aggressor, and who threw the first punch?

I note also that the 10-year-old's sister was 2 years younger than the girl she was fighting.

[metesky]

No one has mentioned that the older girls, even if they did initiate the fight, were in their car, leaving the scene when the 10 year old went and retieved Momma's pistola.

If she had fired at retreating perps, she really would have been in the soup.

[Lucius Cornelius Sulla]

'The four older girls were preparing to drive away when the 10-year-old ran into her house. She testified that she kicked down her mother's locked bedroom door and grabbed the Smith & Wesson handgun from its zippered pouch.'

For those of you who are supporting the 10 year old, and assuming that she was 'in fear for her life', please reread this passage. If the older girls were preparing to drive away when the 10 year old enterered the house, that is, they were retreating, there was no longer any self-defense justification. It seems fairly clear that the 10 year old was justifiably angry that she and her sister were attacked, and decided to get revenge by scaring the older girls, perhaps to deter them from coming back. Under any laws that I have heard of, she was entirely in the wrong.

[lavaroise]

"It really bothers me that a 10-year-old girl learned that the way to resolve problems is with a gun,"

Either she comited a crime, or she tried to resolve a problem, meaning she did not commit the crime. THe form to solve the problem is irrelevant if crime is the issue. I don't understand that judge.

[RWG]

The parent should be charged with leaving a gun easily accessible to a minor. Kicking down a bedroom door by a 10 year old indicates that the locked door is hardly a secure disposition of the gun.

[biblewonk]

I my humble opinion, the person that gave her the gun or easy access to the gun is more at fault. That would be obvious if she were 5 and much less obvious if she were 15.