This has to be a spoof like in Onion

[209]

 

Please tell me this is a spoof.

There can’t be a police sergeant out there that would make the comments attributed to him.  A .45cal cartridge is a “bullet used in assault pistols"?  Surely, the reporter must have misquoted him and inserted words he didn’t say.

They called a “bomb-sniffing dog” to the scene?

God help us all, is common sense totally absent in America’s schools?


http://media.www.thewheatonwire.com/media/storage/paper1134/news/2009/02/11/News/Bullet.Raises.Concern-3622571.shtml

Bullet raises concern

By: Katie Franklin '09
Posted: 2/11/09

The first Safety Bulletin of the year alerted campus of a 45-caliber bullet found in a washing machine of Beard Hall. Wheaton Public Safety is collaborating with the Norton Police Department on the case. According to one of the lead investigators from Norton Police, Sergeant Jacob Dennett, the ammunition was a live round, meaning that it had not been fired but could potentially be used.

According to Sgt. Dennett, a student found the bullet in the washing machine while doing his laundry. 45-caliber bullets are used in assault weapons such as handguns, not larger weapons like hunting rifles. Norton Police was called to aid in the investigation, and a bomb-sniffing dog went through the dorm to search for evidence. No firearms were found, but the investigation is still ongoing.

Some students were confused by the sight of dogs because the notice had not yet been sent around campus. "I saw the flyers before I received the e-mail [that Dean of Students Jack Kuszaj sent to the Wheaton community that afternoon]," said Beard resident Noah Burch '09. He also noticed Public Safety going door to door asking students if they had any information about the bullet.

"My guess is that it was in someone's pocket and it found its way through the laundry," said Sgt. Dennett, "but how that came to be is an unanswered question." At the moment, police say it's possible that someone found the bullet somewhere and innocently put it in their pocket and forgot about it, or there could be more malicious intents. There is no evidence to make any such conclusions though.

"I don't think it's a big threat," said Burch, who thinks that students are concerned but not terribly worried. One of the RAs in Beard, Gregory Thompson '10, warns that students should be more vigilant because of this event. "As long as people are aware of what they're doing, like not letting people in they don't know, or propping the doors open," Thompson thinks safety should be fine. "If we can at least stop the riskier stuff from happening, then it'll be less likely that we'll have a scary problem that might lead to an unsafe situation," he said.

[PTK]

"I don't think it's a big threat," said Burch, who thinks that students are concerned but not terribly worried.

That should be the only thing really printed about the event.

[AZRedhawk44]

This is a college?

Talk about panties in a twist over nothing.  Some student went shooting and probably stuffed a dud round into his pocket after it failed to go off.  Then it got washed in the washing machine, got wet, and is now worthless for assaulting anything.

Except intelligence. :rolleyes:

Want out of class some day?  Just drop a 45acp (assault college punisher, dontchya know) cartridge in the hallway outside of class.  School will be evacuated, the ATF will come in and defuse the nefarious device, and your school will spend a week singing kumbayah (non-denominationally of course) in front of the student union building and donate the rest of the student union discretionary fund to the UN disarmament program.

[Standing Wolf]

This is a college?

Like my eight-pound cat is a saber-toothed tigress, but yeah, same general idea.

[Jamisjockey]

Kyumbai, my chosen diety or non diety, kyumbai.....

[Nitrogen]

This reminds me of an article i once read about a near panic induced in the UK when someone found a unexpended .22 round.
They called armed police, bomb sniffing dogs, and coordined off the entire area for hours.

because of a single .22 round.

Quotes all went off about how this was a "serious crime" and all that...

[Seenterman]

he he he
imagine the fun to sprinkle a brick of .22lr rounds all over Britain.

 

[geronimotwo]

while reading the comments (95% are pro-gun) posted on the papers website, i found the authors apology.

Katie Franklin
posted 2/11/09 @ 4:42 PM EST
You got me. I made a mistake. I asked (what I thought was) a reliable source, and they said a 45-caliber bullet was used in assault weapons like handguns. My bad. I'm sorry for the confusion it has caused. I should have researched more. I'm sorry.

As for trying to create panic, a campus wide alert was sent out by the administration (as I stated in the article) before the Wire came out with the story. I was merely doing follow up.

Wheaton's a small school (1500 total) so this is a big story, regardless of whether it should be.

I never insinuated that I am anti-gun.

Anything else that needs clarifying please ask. As for blatant insults just for the sake of insulting me or my gender, they are not appreciated nor constructive and will be deleted.

at least she accepts her mistake of quoting an idiot.

[Balog]

She doesn't seem to realize the issue with "assault weapons like handguns" does she?

[Manedwolf]

This reminds me of an article i once read about a near panic induced in the UK when someone found a unexpended .22 round.
They called armed police, bomb sniffing dogs, and coordined off the entire area for hours.

because of a single .22 round.

Quotes all went off about how this was a "serious crime" and all that...

And it was a .22 short, even. They said they were afraid it could go off.

[AJ Dual]

he he he
imagine the fun to sprinkle a brick of .22lr rounds all over Britain.

 

I have had the same thought many a time...

Stupid Jihadis... A couple of dollars, and they could bring London to a standstill.. 

[griz]

From the article:

He also noticed Public Safety going door to door asking students if they had any information about the bullet.

I can see an officer coming to the door of an APS member:

"Do you have any information about the bullet?"

"Sure, what caliber do you need?"

[Werewolf]

A spoof?

Hardly...

It is very easy to imagine a police sgt saying such a thing to the media. VERY, VERY easy.

It is even easier to imagine a journalist inserting the whole assault weapon thing into what was written. Sensationalism is a habit with many of them and adding hot-button words is to be expected. Add to that that many journalists are left of center politically, and also anti-gun and imagining that they are playing to their own personal agenda isn't a stretch either.

[Scout26]

Whew, I live in Wheaton, IL.  And there is a Wheaton College here (FYI, it's also home of the Billy Graham Center, it's a very conservative, Christian school).  I went through ROTC there and in one of the buildings there had/has a smallbore rifle range in the attic.

I don't think (at least I hope) my Wheaton College wouldn't get their panties in knot over finding a .45 round in a washing machine. 

[AJ Dual]

I think it's probably just CYA, that they're afraid of a VT-style shooter.

Post-VT, I could sort of see the uproar if it turns out some ammo had been found in (whatshizname? Cho?)'s wash a week before the shooting, and nobody did anything about it.

So the sensationalisim could also be to get the students thinking, "Hey, I did see so-n-so, that depressed always angry loner-guy doing his wash in there earlier... Campus police? Yeah it's probably nothing, but this one weird guy on my floor, he was doing his wash in there..."

And then they interview him, and find his gun and his notebooks planning the massacre. Tragedy averted.

I'm not saying I agree, but trying to get inside the school administrations heads, that's what's probably going on.

[Manedwolf]

I think it's probably just CYA, that they're afraid of a VT-style shooter.

Post-VT, I could sort of see the uproar if it turns out some ammo had been found in (whatshizname? Cho?)'s wash a week before the shooting, and nobody did anything about it.

So the sensationalisim could also be to get the students thinking, "Hey, I did see so-n-so, that depressed always angry loner-guy doing his wash in there earlier... Campus police? Yeah it's probably nothing, but this one weird guy on my floor, he was doing his wash in there..."

And then they interview him, and find his gun and his notebooks planning the massacre. Tragedy averted.

I'm not saying I agree, but trying to get inside the school administrations heads, that's what's probably going on.

Like the Denver school where a girl is likely to be expelled for having her drill rifles in her car? Which weren't even rifles?

[AJ Dual]

Like the Denver school where a girl is likely to be expelled for having her drill rifles in her car? Which weren't even rifles?

Yep. Although at least here was real live ammo, which implies a real firearm somewhere. (although obviously could be off-campus)

And again, not saying I agree, just trying to get in their heads to see where such hysteria comes from.

[Regolith]

Yep. Although at least here was real live ammo, which implies a real firearm somewhere. (although obviously could be off-campus)

And again, not saying I agree, just trying to get in their heads to see where such hysteria comes from.

*expletive deleted*it...a search of my vehicle when I was in high school was pretty much guaranteed to come up with at least a .22 LR round.  Same with about 80% of every other vehicle in the lot.

I park my vehicle in a university almost every day, and the chance of finding a rifle round in it isn't any smaller...But then again, my university allows students to keep guns on campus (usually locked away in a  special firearms storage area only accessible by a RA, but still), so they probably wouldn't freak out over it anyway. 

[Perd Hapley]

Since I want my outrage to be unique -   

Can we really not find a better terminology than "bomb-sniffing"?  Seriously?  How about bomb-finder dog?  No, not much better.  We could just say "bomb dog," but that sounds like something out of the Urban Dictionary. 

I give up.

[Headless Thompson Gunner]

If that had happened in my dorm, I'd resolve to drop a round into the washing machine once a week for the rest of the semester.

[Bigjake]

If that had happened in my dorm, I'd resolve to drop a round into the washing machine once a week for the rest of the semester.

FTW!

Funny would be empty .223, 7.62x39 and 9mm cases all over campus...

[209]

If that had happened in my dorm, I'd resolve to drop a round into the washing machine once a week for the rest of the semester.

Please transfer to the campus I work at and then drop .223 rounds.  I need the ammo. 

I'm a police sergeant and work for the State.  Currently I work at a university.  We find various types of ammo from time-to-time.  We have never called a dog to the scene.  I mean come on, that's a bit over the top.  We would write a few lines about it because that's just the nature of the beast having to document everything in this environment, but it'd be very few lines.

And I want to know where I can get me one of them there assault pistols.  I obviously have a hole in my gun collection that needs filling.  :rolleyes:

[Strings]

Why do I suddenly feel the urge to wander around a campus with a couple boxes of .22s in my holey pants pocket?

Did something similar when we found my brother's stash of pot seeds: planted amongst all the flowerbeds around the local police station and courthouse...

[Antibubba]

This IS Wheaton Illinois.  No such thing as overreaction. 

[Balog]

Why do I suddenly feel the urge to wander around a campus with a couple boxes of .22s in my holey pants pocket?

Did something similar when we found my brother's stash of pot seeds: planted amongst all the flowerbeds around the local police station and courthouse...

Full. Of. Win. How'd that turn out?