“Cold Dead Hands”: Teen shooter believed he had gun rights at school
The shooting of two administrators at Denver East High on Wednesday morning has prompted public outcry from students and parents after another series of seemingly missed red flags failed to prevent gun violence on campus. Why was a student allowed to attend class when he needed to be searched every day? What prompted these searches? Why didn’t the school do more to prevent this shooting?
Answering these questions brings us to a convergence of multiple social and legal issues that are internal and external to school security.
Gun Rights: The 17-year-old shooter was a good student and varsity athlete who was interested in engineering. He was also a vocal advocate of the Second Amendment and told school officials that 2A gave him the right to carry guns at school. When questioned by administrators about photos with guns during the 2 years prior, he claimed to be a gun collector.
Limits of Reporting Apps: In 2021, he was expelled from a different high school after classmates made tips on app Safe2Tell about his SnapChat posts with guns. Last week at Denver East High, students made another reporting app tip that he had a gun on campus, but he left before administrators could search him. Without finding a gun, the anonymous reports alone were not enough to suspend or expel him, but his father consented to daily pat downs.
Ghost Guns: Colorado has no regulation of gun kits, 3D printed gun parts, or other homemade guns known as ghost guns. The shooter was interested in engineering, gun rights, and had assembled multiple ghost gun kits. In 2021, after the first Safe2Tell app report, his mother allowed police to search his bedroom where they found a fully assembled ghost AR-15 with a silencer and extended magazine.
Plea Deal: When the ghost AR-15 was found, the shooter was a 15-year-old good student with no juvenile history in a state that has generally conservative attitudes about gun ownership. The gun was seized and he was offered a plea deal with probation.
State Laws: When an anonymous report was made last week that the shooter had a gun, but school officials couldn’t search him before he left the campus, police wanted to search his house. His father said no. An anonymous app report doesn’t provide probable cause for a search in Colorado. It was within the father’s right to refuse to have his home searched by police. Many Americans who are interested in gun rights and manufacturing firearms wouldn’t voluntarily let police search their house either.
Ad Hoc Security: After the anonymous report, the shooter’s father did allow school officials to search the shooter each morning and Denver East High had an administrator who was designated to search students. On Wednesday morning, that administrator wasn’t available, so two others without training were told to search the 17-year-old. When they attempted a pat down, he pulled a handgun and shot them multiple times before fleeing from the campus.
Suicide Prevention: The teen immediately fled, and his car was found in the mountains outside of the city. He died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound with a ghost handgun recovered next to his body. To commit suicide immediately after, he had thought about suicide before. Most school shootings and mass shootings are crimes of despair because the shooter feels there is no other option. Recognizing signs of suicidal ideation and connecting teens with suicide prevention programs can prevent these attacks.
We are left with a complex problem. Students used the reporting app, police tried to investigate, schools used all the disciplinary tools available, and the school had a security plan (partially), yet state laws allowed this teen to easily obtain a gun online. When he was caught, there was a lax judicial reaction to a seemingly good kid who was just interested in guns. The fever pitch of “shall not be infringed” rhetoric in our society influenced (or radicalized) a smart kid enough that he felt justified building and carrying firearms to school. Belief in his 2A right was so fervent that he shot two adults when they tried to take his gun away. Just months ago, this area’s Congressional Representative Ken Buck (R-CO) led a CPAC session on gun rights titled “Cold Dead Hands”.
When other kids, schools, and police are trying to do everything they can to stop school shootings, we need to think about the laws and political messages that are enabling a shooter.
David Riedman is the founder of the K-12 School Shooting Database and a Ph.D. student at the University of Central Florida. To support the K-12 School Shooting Database and The Violence Project, please donate.
