ania. In April 1998, a 14 year-old student walked into a school dance with a .25-caliber handgun and opened fire, killing a science teacher and wounding several students. When he fled the scene, the owner or the hall, James Strand, chased him down with a shotgun into a field and held him for 11 minutes until police arrived. Kenneth Smith reports that New York Daily News said only that Strand had “persuaded” the shooter to surrender and the shotgun was never mentioned. In May 1998, gun education stopped 15-year old Kip Kinkel from his shooting spree in the cafeteria of Thurston High School in Springfield, Oregon. At one time, he pointed a .22 caliber semiautomatic rifle at a student’s head and attempted to fire three times but nothing happened. Jacob Ryker, who was shot in the lungs, Charged 15 feet and tackled Kinkel and disarmed him. Kenneth Smith wrote ABC’s Ted Koppel credited Ryker with halting the shooting, non-of the specific details were given and the program quickly turned into another debate on gun control. Kenneth Smith’s retaliation in his report was Ryker knew when to attack Kinkel because Ryker knew the gun was out of ammunition. Ryker and his family were hunters and target shooters and his familiarity with firearms helped to stop the shooting. Secondly, gun control would raise the crime rates in the U.S. The public would not be able to protect themselves against criminals with illegal firearms. Even Darrel Scott, whose 17 year-old daughter, died in the Columbine massacre, is skeptic of the new gun control measures. Scott argues, “ No amount of laws can stop someone who spends months planning this type of massacre. Furthermore, as reporter Kenneth Smith points out, a Florida State University study says Americans use guns to defend themselves as many as 2.5 million a year. In most cases, the gun were not fired but was used to deter the criminals. In addition, when Great...
