California Student Shoots Bully, Surrenders To Teacher

Sixteen-year-old told teacher, “I don’t want to shoot you”

While leaders and gun advocates in Washington, D.C. debated how to successfully implement reforms to the nation’s gun laws on Thursday, a California teenager brought a shotgun to school and wounded a student he claimed had bullied him. The 16-year-old boy was then confronted by a popular teacher, Ryan Heber, who convinced him to surrender and put down the weapon. The distraction allowed 28 students at Taft Union High School to escape their classroom. “I don’t want to shoot you,” the teenage gunman told Heber before giving up the shotgun. Ten minutes before the incident, teachers had been going over new protocols for school safety, adopted in the wake of the school slayings in Newtown, Conn. last month that killed 20 children and six adults. The teen victim, who students say was a member of the school’s football team, was in critical but stable condition at Kern County hospital on Thursday night and was expected to undergo surgery on Friday. (Associated Press)

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