Gun control, weapon training lead conversation surrounding incident at Timberview

Austin Folkertsma
campus editor

The shooting at Timberview High School Oct. 6 resparked gun control conversations among the faculty.

“The first thing to know about gun control is it’s a really complicated topic, and people have very strong, emotional feelings about it, and the laws vary from state to state,” NE paralegal studies professor Karen Silverberg said.

Some laws prohibit people from carrying a gun in a high school and those laws supersede and are superior to the new law as of Sept. 1, which is what people are calling the constitutional carry law, Silverberg said.

There’s no question for Silverberg that taking the gun, using the gun and trying to settle an argument with a gun is ever the right answer. She said her understanding of the case is the student in question was subject to significant bullying and this was not a random situation. This was targeted at specific individuals, she said.

“Because nobody died, thank goodness, the charges are not murder or even attempted murder, but aggravated assault with a deadly weapon which is a different level of crime,” she said. “He is guaranteed reasonable bail under the 8th amendment of the Constitution.”

NE paralegal studies professor Pat Rake said, as a lawyer, he recommends if an individual owns a gun that they should attend a license-to-carry program and learn about gun safety. Also, he said they should do extensive research as well as spend a lot of time with a licensed instructor.

“When people talk to me they think I am anti-gun,” he said. “I’m not, but I am for responsible care. If you look at statistics and shootings and stuff like that, even in a gunfight at close range, substantial numbers of gunshots do not reach the target.”
Rake said if the shooter had been better trained, he would have shot fewer people. An untrained person with a gun and from three feet away is going to miss, he said. Five, six feet away, they’re gonna miss, even more.

“It was absolutely wrong for him to bring a gun to school under any circumstances,” he said.

NE associate professor of psychology Murray Fortner said people are not as outraged as they should be because it happens so often, which makes it a major societal problem.

“We live in a culture where people seem to go to violence, and with the availability of guns, I don’t see this getting any better,” Murray said.

Bullying in schools is another societal problem, he said, which means several institutions are failing.

“There was a time when interpersonal communication was more prevalent,” he said. “As we move more toward a society that is more reliant on the media, it seems to be at the expense of interpersonal dialogue.”

He said school systems and parents are failing, and if this was a reaction to being bullied, solutions should be put in place by schools to not allow fights to further escalate.

“How did this young man bring a gun on campus,” he said. “Where was the security? On the other hand, how do you not know that your child is at the point of carrying out such an act?”