Stun gun used on boy -- Stepfather: Device suitable disciplinary tool

Houston Chronicle ^ | September 26, 2002 | Eric Hanson

[philetus]

"But I doubt we'll ever hear someone credit repeated use of a stun gun by a parent as the reason why they're a model citizen today."

I doubt it too.Like I said, I would have submitted to the stun gun over the switch.

Some kids are bad. Maybe it's genetic, I don't know, but they're just bad. They require special handling. Discipline is going to be required, probably along with rewards for good behavior.

How would you "special handle them?

On the afternoon of February 12, 1993, in a shopping center in Merseyside (in northwestern England, just outside of Liverpool), two ten-year-olds took two-year-old James Bulger by the hand -- his mother had turned his back on him for just a few minutes to buy some meat -- and led him away (as a security camera filmed them). A number of people saw the three boys walking and failed to intervene, despite the fact that James appeared to have been in distress and injured: the tabloids later referred to them as "The Liverpool 38".

Jon Venables and Robert Thompson made James walk about 2½ mi. before beating him to death.

[southern rock]

Here's your kinda guy. Jump in and defend him.

Lock him up and throw away the key. I just feel bad for the mother, who may lose all of her natural children to the state for what is most likely the "crime" of being terrified of this psycho. Once he is out of the house, I'm sure the 4 kids would be perfectly safe with their mother.

[vetvetdoug]

If you had known me when I was eight, you would have been putting crosses and garlic on your doors in hopes of keeping me away..
I have at last found my long lost sibling...

I got whippings every day; belts, switches, 2x4's, shovels, parachute cords, paddles,cattle prods; whatever they could get their hands on. I was bad. Teachers would not let me out for recess because I would scale the barbed wire fence and run away. Once caught, I would fight like a trapped animal, biting, kicking, screaming...you name it. My parents tied me to the bedposts if they had to do something that required me to be out of sight for even a minute. My sisters were straight "A" students with "A's" in deportment. Once, at 5 years old, I ran away from Cheyenne and made it 11 miles toward Lincoln before a Highway patrolman caught me. I tried to kill my little sister when I was 5 with a bell pepper laced with tabasco sauce. At 8 I caused an international incident when I walked into a Shinto shrine and opened and played with all of the gifts to the gods. I learned to buy liquor in Mexico at ten and was burned out on alcohol by the time I was fourteen. This was before drugs thank God. Football and the USAF saved me. I pray to God that my daughter has more of her mother's genes than mine.

[philetus]

I got my first drunk in public when I was 12.

[newcats]

If my dad had been a permissive parent who didn't use capitol punishment, God only knows where I would be today.

If your Dad had used "capitol punishment" on you, today you would be pushing up daisies.

Whats worse, for a cghild to be zapped with a stun gun or for a child to be sold between inmates for a pack of cigarettes?
And just how many 8 year olds are in adult prisons?

[philetus]

"If your Dad had used "capitol punishment" on you, today you would be pushing up daisies"

I meant corporal punishment.Thanks

[Deguello]

"Would he use a stun gun on his dog?"

People do this all the time, but they may not know the extent of the shock. What is this? It is the anti-barking collars and the invisible fences that are currently used. There also electric fences that are used to either keep stock secured in one area or to prevent entry to an area for animals such as feral pigs. Though it is not good to be the bird that lights on a wire over a stock tank to take a drink of water.

No, what he did is not excused or permissible. Yet at the same time I have watch young brothers at "shows" zap each other to the floor, then daddy yanks them back up and tells them to quite playing around. A coke and bag of chips later they are back at the tables trying to zap each other again.

[artios]

Come on - exhausted after a mile? Something is weird there. a mile is not that far. And I am a nice person, - it;s just that something sounds strange there.

[artios]

jeesh. No - I don't stun gun my daughter.

[PBRSTREETGANG]

jeesh. No - I don't stun gun my daughter.

I didn't think that you did. But calling the kid a wimp because he quit walking after a mile of being stun-gunned in the ass, and then comparing him to your (presumingly well-parented) daughter, seemed a bit unfair.

[hunyb]

Let's see how far you get after being 'stun-gunned' a few times.......then we'll talk......

[artios]

I don't think someone should have to walk ten feet while being stun gunned.

[JZoback]

I have a stepson just like you.

Born hell raiser. Don't know why either. Raised him from age 18 months

I had to discipline him almost daily. It was always done in a loving and evenhanded way. I whacked his arse plenty. He knew the rules and he knew the consequences. The rules were always fair.

Walking behind your kid goosing him with a stun gun is not discipline unless you are running a house of horrors or just a complete moron

[philetus]

I in no way endorse walking behind a kid, gooseing him with a stun gun. That would be more than just punishment.

My dad loved me. He didn't want me to end up in prison or dead. I heard him cry after whipping me. He was not a sadist who enjoyed it.

Punishment should fit the crime.
I deserved the whippings I got.....



But I'm much better now.

[Scruffy]

" - or for the purpose of oppression of legitimate political dissent"

Exactly my point. The police know that pepper spray can be lethal when applied directly to a person's face, yet, in Seattle, let few people go stupid and riot and all the other peaceful people get sprayed 6 inches from their with pepper spay full blast. Stun guns were used on people simply watching the mayhem. Police used "less than lethal force" on many people undeserving of any force, and the police used such "less than lethal force" in lethal ways.

[Scruffy]

"Suitable disciplinary tools are a belt, or a ping pong paddle. Cattle prods ain't. Sheesh."

No one is advocating using stun guns on kids. The question is why do we use them on adults. Besides, there are many who would argue against the belt.

[FatherTorque]

All I'm going to say is this. If I'd have had the choice when I was a kid between my mother's switches, my father's belt, or a stungun, I'm taking the stungun every time!

[Liberal Classic]

Well, nobody but Theodore E. Moody.

[ZinGirl]

Do you have kids now?

(not a flame....truly curious. I'm a stay-at-home mom of 2. I can honestly say I've spanked both of them numerous times.....much to the chagrin of others. Not beatings....spankings. My older one would try the patience of Jesus, himself. At age 2 1/2, she came up with an imaginary friend....that she didn't get along with. They're now 10 and 8 and I can't remember the last time either one of them got a spank.)

anyway, considering your upbringing, I was just wondering how you felt about punishment for your own children.

[philetus]

"Do you have kids now?" I have four kids and three grandkids.