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Scary Situation at Elon University Averted

I’m going to assume this woman – she’s only eighteen – has a psychiatric history. She seems to have taken breaking up with her boyfriend hard, since she loaded up her car with lots of weaponry and went to Elon, where he’s a student. Her parents notified the boyfriend, he notified Elon, they notified the police, and she was arrested as soon as they spotted her on campus.

How, though, does an unstable eighteen-year-old manage to load up on all those armaments?

Margaret Soltan, November 26, 2012 9:02AM
Posted in: guns

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14 Responses to “Scary Situation at Elon University Averted”

  1. Alan Allport Says:

    How, though, does an unstable eighteen-year-old manage to load up on all those armaments?

    Welcome to America, UD.

  2. James Says:

    She goes to a gun show. Easy peasy.

  3. dmf Says:

    wouldn’t be so sure that these kinds of incidents are in and of themselves signs of psychiatric illness, all too common to have domestic-ish violence to include firearms.

  4. Shane Street Says:

    Unless I missed something, the linked article says she “had a rifle, ammunition and other weapons in her car.” Since “other weapons” could include kitchen knives or mace or a baseball bat or whatever, this hardly sounds like someone “loaded up on armaments”.

    One is also free to leave America, UD. Unlike, e.g., Cuba, or North Korea. Gee, I wonder if things like freedom and guns are related in some way?

  5. Margaret Soltan Says:

    Shane: Check out my ten-part series on guns at Inside Higher Ed for my take on guns in America.

    http://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/university_diaries/professor_meets_gun

  6. Alan Allport Says:

    I wonder if things like freedom and guns are related in some way?

    Not in any clear way, if international gun ownership per capita is anything to go by.

    Top ten gun ownership rates:

    United States
    Serbia
    Yemen
    Switzerland
    Cyprus
    Saudi Arabia
    Iraq
    Finland
    Uruguay
    Sweden

    If you think you can parse some clear moral conclusion out of that list, go for it.

  7. Shane Street Says:

    What? People in war-torn countries might want guns? No!
    Switzerland, eh? Wonder what’s that about…http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_politics_in_Switzerland. Unconquered since the Romans.
    But at least you’re not reverting to the Bellesilles fantasy. I suppose that’s progress for historians.

  8. Alan Allport Says:

    Unconquered since the Romans.

    Napoleon would have begged to differ.

    Sounds as though guns = freedom falls into the category of the overwhelming exception fallacy.

  9. Shane Street Says:

    Ah, the Helvetic Republic. So effective Napoleon gave them back their sovereignty within five years (as soon as the occupying French troops were needed elsewhere).

    But you’re the historian, Alan. Tell us how freedom has nothing to do the application of force. Or is freedom not worth talking about since it is just a construct of our collective false consciousness?

  10. Alan Allport Says:

    Dude, if you think I’m a Marxist, you really need to get out more.

  11. BB Says:

    It’s not clear whether this young woman obtained the guns on her own (through the above-mentioned loophole that lets individuals buy guns at gun shows w/o the otherwise-required paperwork) or whether she just took them from her parents’ house. I will point out that no responsible gun owner leaves firearms lying around the house; they are kept in locked cabinets or are otherwise secure.

  12. Shane Street Says:

    BB, without more information, we could imagine what they found her with was a .22 squirrel rifle from underneath her kid brother’s bed. But in any event it’s clearly a threat to civilization.

  13. Contingent Cassandra Says:

    Well, at least *somebody* called the police. One could wish for a more direct route (possibly-dangerous armed adult child leaves house; parents call police; not easy, I know, but sometimes you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do), but it beats complete denial that anything bad was happening (and/or that a woman might be seriously dangerous).

  14. University Diaries » “He apparently expressed surprise that the guns were in the locker,” Hartman said, then told police he did not feel well and was taken to Rex Hospital.” Says:

    […] at was courtesy of an eighteen year old woman who drove to Elon College to I guess uh talk – with a little backup – to her boyfriend. Now here’s a guy at North Carolina State – he works in the […]

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