Proviso West High School Panthers mascot (courtesy proviso.k12.il)

I’m of two minds on this one. On one hand, a bullet. Two bullets. Three bullets. Big deal. On the other hand hauling off a 14-year-old to the police station for possession of ammunition – without an Illinois FOID card!  – seems a valid response. With one proviso: there are contributing factors. The ammo was discovered and the Proviso West High School student was sent to juvie after a fight broke out. So it wasn’t likely he was carrying the ammo inadvertently after a little range time with Mom and Dad and the sibs. Equally . . .

Proviso seems to have something of a gang problem. Last year, chicago.cbslocal.com reported that 18 Proviso West Students Arrested, Suspended Over School Brawls. greatschools.org gives PWHS 2 out of 10 for test score and college readiness, after five years of being on “academic watch.” So maybe the OMG should be aimed at Hillside’s failed education system. Know what I mean?

22 COMMENTS

  1. The local media lost their minds as well. Some even sent their expensive, fuel-guzzling choppers over to Proviso in order to get live shots of the scene. Which included a cop digging through the garbage and others standing around. It all made for some gripping reality television. Juxtapose this incident with bullet-related carnage on the south and west sides of the city that the same media mostly ignores. No news choppers hovering over Englewood on a Friday night.

    Illustrating Chicago Crime, Murder and Mayhem at http://www.heyjackass.com.

  2. Oh, come on, Robert. There is a portion of our populace that simply cannot be educated no matter how much we productive wageworkers are taxed up the downspout with that utopian fantasy in place.

    That’s not the problem, and you know it.

  3. Ya’ can’t get a FOID at 14 RF. 25 years ago me and the mrs. used to go to the Hillside theater. It was kinda’ iffy then. I can’t imagine how bad it is now. I know I’m in a minority but I don’t blame the cops. SMOKE=FIRE. Who knows what mayhem was on young bucks “mind”…?

    • A 14-year old can get a FOID card. If you are under 21, you just need a parent to sign-off on the application.

      • By golly you’re sorta’ right. It’s a little more involved than signing.And try buying guns or ammo at 14. I doubt young Hillside homie has a FOID carrying parent…

      • My 3 year old cousin has a foid. There is no limit to how young the child is for the parent to apply, but the kid can’t apply solo till 21.

        The parent has to be able to hold a foid in IL to sign the affidavit. It also includes language making the signing parent liable for any damages the minor causes with a firearm. Mind you a foid is needed to possess or purchase both hand and long guns and ammunition. So while a 18 year old can buy a shotgun legally by federal law, they can’t in Illinois because of the state law.

  4. “Prison Mentality.” That’s what all of this does to the rest of the students. “Prison Mentality…”

    • Hey, it’s the job of the school system to prepare the students for their life after school. So teaching them to have a prison mentality is just the right thing.

  5. A kid bought a bullet to my middle school. 1 bullet. This was maybe 23 years ago in Upstate New York. The assistant principal talked to him and then called the parents about keeping ammo strewn about the house. Done and done.

    • My former stepson brought a .22 round to his middle school by accident (fortunately, he got it from his grandfather and not from me). When he fished something out of his pocket, the long forgotten round fell out, right in front of his teacher. The poor kid thought that his goose was cooked. But no, the teacher just shook his head and told the boy to put it away.

      • Another flashback – 1st grade, a friend of mine bought a live .22LR cartridge in for show and tell. No one said a damn thing.

        Teacher probably thought it was fake/inert or didn’t care. Probably the latter.

        Nowadays, 1 .22LR cartridge in a school and the National Guard is going to show up.

        • I can guarantee you that during Deer, duck, squirrel and goose seasons, at least half of the cars in my high school parking lot had one, if not several firearms I’m them!

  6. I’ll work with you on thumb-and-index finger “guns”, just as I will with pop tarts, essay topics and even a stray innocuous comment referring to a gun. Zero tolerance has morphed into zero intelligence.

    Show up at a known gang-troubled school, fighting, and with ammo, then you’re busted. That’s the rule. It isn’t an hysterical interpretation of the intent of some vague rule. It is what it is. Man up, deal with it, and quit crying, I say.

  7. I heard that some kids are harassed and even threatened by gang member because they refuse to join the gang so if he carried ammo and a gun it may have been for protection against gang bangers. Alternatively the ammo may have been from a lawful target practice under direct supervision of a FOID holder.

  8. Just because he had ammo does not mean that he acquired it illegally or it would make going through a gun safety course a crime despite the law specifically allowing going through a gun safety course without needing a FOID card

  9. “On one hand, a bullet. Two bullets. Three bullets.”
    How much does anyone want to bet that what is actually meant here is “cartridges”, and not “bullets”?
    This is the exact same as the “magazine” and “clip” error that the antis always make. They are two different things, and this error is most annoying to those of us who reload our own ammunition. A bullet is the projectile part only. The complete loaded round is known as a cartridge.

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