2009-02-10 : Pupil killed after sneaking gun into school

[GOSA]

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1 ... 109C730608


A father is reeling in shock after finding out that his 15-year-old son was
killed with his gun at a Pietermaritzburg school on Monday.


Mnsizwa Hlubi, of Imbali, Pietermaritzburg, was at work when he was called
to the township's Zamazulu School where his son, Sphamandla, was a pupil.


On arrival he learnt that his grade eight son had been shot in the head.


He was dealt another blow when he discovered that the gun used was his own.


Police Inspector Joey Jeevan said that Sphamandla had flaunted a 9mm pistol
to his classmates in the morning. A fellow pupil had suddenly grabbed the
gun.


It was believed that Sphamandla had shouted out that there was a round in
the chamber, and had tried to grab back the pistol. However, a shot had gone
off, hitting him in the forehead, said Jeevan.


Sphamandla's classmates said that he had removed ammunition from the gun in
front of his friend, who thought there were no more bullets left in the
weapon.


Hlubi said his gun had been kept in a locked safe, and that none of his
children knew where the key to the safe was kept.


On checking after the shooting on Monday, the gun was missing, but the safe
was still locked.


"I did not know that he knew where the gun was kept," Hlubi said.


Relatives and friends who gathered at the Hlubi home on Monday said that
Sphamandla had been kind to all those he came across.


Education MEC Ina Cronje visited the school and conveyed her sympathies to
the family.


"This is an extremely disturbing incident. How could a minor have access to
a dangerous weapon, and how was it smuggled inside the school when the
school is fenced and has a security guard?" she said.


Jeevan said a pupil had been arrested for the shooting, and that a case of
negligent safeguarding of a firearm was being investigated.


Also at Imbali on Monday, an off-duty policeman killed his wife before
turning the gun on himself.


Jeevan said Constable Owen Mduduzi Zuma, 34, shot and killed his wife,
Thobile Joyce Zuma, during a domestic dispute.


"It is alleged that Zuma shot his wife three times with his service pistol,
and then shot himself once in his head."


Jeevan said the couple's 4-year-old son had been asleep at the time and had
not been injured.


a.. This article was originally published on page 3 of The Mercury on February 10, 2009

[Koos Custodiet]

My reply to the thread on mybroadband.co.za :

I will leave a loaded gun lying in the middle of the dining room floor and I promise you, neither of the kids are going to shoot nothing.

Because they know how the thing works, they know it makes a loud noise and a small but expensive hole, and they know they just hafta ask and I'll drag them to the range with as much ammo as they want.

And they *know* that it's loaded.

Curiosity kills more than the cat, and whether it's AIDS, alcohol or guns, education is the answer.