Picture This: Anything for My Boy
Michele Cossey, the mother of a 14-year-old who had a cache of guns, knives and explosive devices in his bedroom for a possible school attack was charged today with buying her son three weapons. Mrs. Cossey bought her home-schooled son, Dillon, a .22-caliber handgun, a .22-caliber rifle and a 9 mm semiautomatic rifle, authorities said. According to press acounts, the teenager felt bullied and tried to recruit another boy for an attack at Plymouth Whitemarsh High School in suburban Philadelphia. Three weapons? Why didn’t she just get her son an Ipod or Halo-3 like all the other put-upon moms in America?
October 12th, 2007 at 4:02 pm
Where did he get the rest of his arsenal? He could have launched an attack on a small country. This story will get even more twisted and discouraging. I am going to bet he was not home-schooled but just dropped out and the mom claimed he was home-schooled. That would leave plenty of time for this boy to fester and plan his revenge. What a world.
October 12th, 2007 at 4:13 pm
I was thinking the same thing: where did he get the rest of it?!
October 12th, 2007 at 4:24 pm
Believe it or not, aside from his horrific spelling, the kid apparently has genius level IQ, according to those interviewed by local news reporters.
October 12th, 2007 at 5:07 pm
Many brilliant people can’t spell worth a darn. I would think being extremely bright was another burden for this boy — another reason he didn’t fit in with his peers and, sadly, emotional IQ can badly lag behind academic IQ.
There is so much to be said for being normal and average.
October 12th, 2007 at 6:05 pm
I tend to agree with Compassrose that this kid was not really home-schooled, but, had a lot of time on his hands. This is the first I’m hearing of this case. I haven’t watched the news or read any other articles about this. And WTF is with the mom plying her teenage son with weapons? What was her excuse going to be IF he had pulled a Columbine type shooting and killed a bunch of people?
I think it’s the right thing for the mom to be charged with buying her son all those weapons. She has to know that only tragedy would come from that.
October 12th, 2007 at 7:37 pm
The boy was picked on because he was exceedingly overweight. Mom has done this boy a disservice on several levels. I am guessing she gave him comfort foods too. I cannot begin to imagine what excuse he could have given her to prompt her to purchase a rifle with scope. Mom is in serious denial.
October 12th, 2007 at 7:52 pm
Reminds me of the motto of Jay Leno’s garage.
The motto of the garage is “more money than brains.”
http://www.jaylenosgarage.com/
October 12th, 2007 at 8:41 pm
Mom Charged With Buying Pa. Teen Weapons
The link is the AP article on Comcast dot net. Here’s an interesting paragraph from said:
The boy’s father also tried to buy his son a rifle in December 2005, but was not allowed to because he was a felon, according to court records. Frank Cossey, 56, had pleaded guilty in 1981 to manslaughter in a drunken driving death in Oklahoma and spent about six years in prison, the records show.
Okay, here’s the picture. A 30 year old guy pleads guilty to causing a death while driving drunk on the good roads of Oklahoma, over a quater of a century ago. He gets out of prison when he’s 36, with plenty of life still left in front of him.
He finds a girl-friend and gets her pregnant and she gives birth to his son in 1993 when he’s only 42 years old.
12 years later, dude tries to buy his kid a firearm, but the law won’t let them sell to him because of his previous felony conviction. This is why convicted felons always seek out a female with a clean arrest record to hook up with. She can get a loan or rent a car or buy a gun when he can’t.
Why does this kid have 30+ air guns? I want to know why he has 30+ air guns of the type manufactured and designed to look like real firearms.
Why does Ineligible-To-Buy-A-Firearm Dad try to buy his son a firearm? Who asked mom to buy it, and why did she agree?
The 14 year old kid did not acquire all of those air guns by himself. No way.
October 12th, 2007 at 9:32 pm
I completely agree Mike and was wondering the same things myself. In another article (I’ll post the link below) the attorney for the boy had this to say: “They’re showing 30 guns on a desk that appear to be handguns and saying this was a Columbine in the making,” Farrell said. “That’s simply not borne out by the facts.” It’s not? You sure could have fooled me!
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071013/ap_on_re_us/student_arsenal;_ylt=Ap1UNHHM.66bXBRBybWFStas0NUE
October 12th, 2007 at 11:15 pm
“Mom can I have an assault rifle?”
“Why son?”
“Just in case I need to kill someone who teases me.”
“Oh sweetie! Of course!”
Damn,they get more stupid by the day.
October 14th, 2007 at 12:47 pm
I know my Mom bougt me a Tec 9 when I got picked on. What in the hell??
October 14th, 2007 at 2:31 pm
Wow . . . don’t these people have any “family”? I never had to do my own dirty work when someone picked on me at school . . .
October 14th, 2007 at 7:26 pm
Okay Lisa, that was just sarcastic damn funny!
How about the latest rapper, T.I., arrest? He had a little arsenal he was gathering, including machine guns. What was HE going to do? Thank God he was caught, and thank God this kid was caught also. But how many more are out there?
I’m a gun supporter, we have guns and are licensed to use them. It’s not the guns that scare me, it’s our insane society at this point.
October 14th, 2007 at 10:08 pm
On an aside note, I keep thinking that the crackdowns & lockdowns & massive school security precautions are just not working. We try to teach kids that bullying is wrong & that “difference” should be appreciated…but hey, it’s gonna happen anyway, and these are teens we’re talking about — no matter how much teaching you give them, they’re gonna be ruthless to anything they see as different. I’m not blowing off bullying, however, bullies don’t listen to such things and don’t care; they don’t think it applies to them. That’s why they’re bullies.
We need to start teaching kids how to handle bullies more effectively, how to shrug off that crap, that yeah, people aren’t gonna like you & there’s gonna be @$$hats from day one…but here’s how you handle it, and high school ain’t the end of the world. I’d also love to see a class where “popular” kids are put on the receiving end of such teasing (similar to the experiment in racism that one teacher did with blue/brown eyes) — maybe THAT would help the problem, by forcing those popular brats to develop empathy.
What that kid did was wrong, but I feel for him, I really do. I was a target of bullies all through grade school & high school, and all that rage & anger & sadness just build and build to a point where you either explode or turn it inward.
October 15th, 2007 at 8:38 am
Chris,
I can relate. I was a total nerd and got picked on. Fortunately I had a mother that taught me that those people don’t matter and they are certainly not worth trying to be friends with.
My concern is that the answer more and more is to use a gun. Bullying has been around since forever in all areas and all social classes, but using a gun to solve the problem is relatively new and increasing yearly.
Children do need to be taught how to deal with bullys. Another excellent point. Bullies aren’t going to listen to some feel good speech. They don’t care that is why they do what they do. It is sad that they picked on him because of his weight and whatever other issues he had, but the answer is not killing. That is what really needs to be taught here.
They should have several avenues to seek out help. Counselors, teachers etc.
This one was stopped, but there will be another one next week to take it’s place.
October 15th, 2007 at 11:02 am
Totally off the subject, but I just have to ask if anyone else thinks the chick on the right of the picture looks like the Ellen Pompeo from “Grey’s Anatomy”?
lol.
Ok, carry on!
October 15th, 2007 at 12:36 pm
Why the hell would someone buy their child weapons? A 9mm semi-auto rifle?? WTF??
October 16th, 2007 at 10:10 pm
ok can I just say mommy of that size ain’t gonna be able to check the entire house for weaponry. I have a mommy pretty much that size and she doesn’t move much at all so I doubt that other than the ones she bought she knew about the rest. I am glad they are holding her accountable though. About damn time they did.
Sure I was picked on in school but you know what? I was abused at home at an earlier age so I just learned not to react to it. I never kept a “list” of people that made fun of me for future revenge. I just figured their lives must be pretty miserable if they have to take the time to make someone who is already miserable even more so.