Comments on: Maine Gunman Held Fifth-Graders Hostage

55-Year-Old Man Arrested By State Troopers; No Students Were Hurt

[docpeter1953]

Hatchets are taxonomically differentiated from hand axes by some using one or more of the following characteristics: the addition of a hammer head and a head 1-3 pounds (500 to 1,500 grams) in weight

Posted by meinnv at 04:32 PM : Oct 31, 2008

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DANG IT! Now with all of this talk about axes, hatchets, and gun control I am going to have to go home and chop & split some wood and reload some ammunition all weekend long. and I had hoped to get some R&R and watch some phootball.

[liesabound]

Posted by kofwells
What I would like to know is how the gunman was able to get into the school in the first place. Aren''''t the exterior doors locked and the main doors secure enough to not allow just anyone to walk thru?


ALSO a good point. It''s a very fine line we tread in this community. We are all basically small towns here - we don''t automatically lock our doors at night, or our cars. I leave my keys in the car....even my purse, sometimes! And I feel safe doing so. Which I love. But if *anyone* can walk in the school, or a classroom, we need to think about that.

[meinnv]

As far as word usages, sometimes people have different words for things. Like in England, they have lifts (elevators), flats (apartments) and I kid you not f a g s (cigarettes).

But yes a hatchet is from and related to the axe family. Unless you''re "splitting" hairs, they are similiar weapons.

[meinnv]

Just looked it up:

Hatchet from the French hachette a diminutive form of the word hache, French for axe. The hatchet is a single-handed striking tool with a sharp blade used to cut and split wood. Hatchets may also be used for hewing when making flattened surfaces on logs; when the hatchet head is optimized for this purpose it is called a broadaxe.

Hatchets are taxonomically differentiated from hand axes by some using one or more of the following characteristics: the addition of a hammer head and a head 1-3 pounds (500 to 1,500 grams) in weight

[meinnv]

What I would like to know is how the gunman was able to get into the school in the first place. Aren''''t the exterior doors locked and the main doors secure enough to not allow just anyone to walk thru? To me, that''''s an issue more important than debating whether Mainers should have guns, or whether people with mental illness should be able to walk the streets! Those are issues we cannot control, security among out schools we most certainly should be able to have a handle on!

Posted by kofwells at 04:25 PM : Oct 31, 2008

That is a good point too. I know when I went to school here in Nevada, albeit my elementary school days were in the mid 80''s, all visitors had to sign in at the office, our schools didn''t lock the doors to the classrooms, but you had to enter a gate into the school (our school was considered "outside"
since we didn''t have main doors or corridors for the classrooms), which was mostly watched by the secretary in the office. If you weren''t supposed to be there, she told you to sign in or leave and you had to be on the child''s "approved" list to visit (a list the parent filled out when registering the student).

[slim1h2o]

So she didn''''t kill anyone and the hatchet was not the murder weapon. Lets this serve as an example to you. Learn before you post!~

posted by schoollord,,,,


you are wrong, the bodies were shown to be hacked.

And the only way a can be hacked is by hatchet, or by knife, or an ax.

Stop making up lies to fit your agenda....

[docpeter1953]

Hatchets tend to be small hafted axes often with a hammer on the back side (the poll).


I was half wrong. I admit to my mistakes as should all responsible people. So, yes a hatchet is still an axe, and I was wrong about the spelling.

Posted by meinnv at 04:15 PM : Oct 31, 2008
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Sorry, but I think you are wrong on this, but then I may be wrong. The hatchet with a hammer on the end is actually termed a "roofing axe". Used primarily by earlier roofers before nail guns (oh he11, there''s that word gun again). A hatchet is a small single hand-held axe -just a smaller version).

[kofwells]

What I would like to know is how the gunman was able to get into the school in the first place. Aren''t the exterior doors locked and the main doors secure enough to not allow just anyone to walk thru? To me, that''s an issue more important than debating whether Mainers should have guns, or whether people with mental illness should be able to walk the streets! Those are issues we cannot control, security among out schools we most certainly should be able to have a handle on!

[meinnv]

GOOD GOD! Why are you all arguing about GUN CONTROL?!!! Thats not the real issue!!! This IS Maine....people hunt....most people DO have guns. I personally do not - but a lot of folks here DO have guns, legal and otherwise. Guns are a fact of life in Maine. The real story that no one is talking about is mental illness, and how the Searsport Police have abused their power and ignored the facts on Randall. They KNOW him to have mental problems.


Posted by LIESABOUND at 04:01 PM : Oct 31, 2008

Absolutely correct. Some want to take our rights away, those of us who are and would be responsible. Some don''t seem to understand violent people will use anything in their grasp and those who are mentally ill should be placed where they can be treated properly or at best monitored.

[meinnv]

Hatchet from the French hachette a diminutive form of the word hache, French for axe. The hatchet is a single-handed striking tool with a sharp blade used to cut and split wood. Hatchets may also be used for hewing when making flattened surfaces on logs; when the hatchet head is optimized for this purpose it is called a broadaxe.

Since we''re "splitting" hairs...

[meinnv]

Hatchets tend to be small hafted axes often with a hammer on the back side (the poll).


I was half wrong. I admit to my mistakes as should all responsible people. So, yes a hatchet is still an axe, and I was wrong about the spelling.

[meinnv]

The fact remains, we have more gun control than in the past. We have more crime than we did in the past.

If someone is determined to do a violent crime, a violent crime will be committed.

Guns are easier to carry and use than axes, hatchets, knives, baseball bats or anything that could be used in a violent manner.

I was watching American Justice on Clara Harris who ran over her cheating husband, killing him with her Mercedes (interesting murder weapon, creative I''ll give her that). Andrea Yates'' children drowned, her conviction thrown out because of mental illness. Susan Smith drowned her kids. If some sets out to kill, they will.

[meinnv]

Shortly thereafter, while Lizzie Borden was being tended by neighbors and the family doctor, Sullivan discovered the body of Mrs. Borden upstairs in the guest bedroom. Mr. and Mrs. Borden had both been killed by blows from a hatchet, which in the case of Andrew Borden, not only crushed his skull but cleanly split his left eyeball.[4]

It wasn''t an uzi, nOBama4

[meinnv]

Do you want to proofread my comments as well??

And, I am not a gullible gun owner. I believe in using the brain we were born with and utilizing common sense and logic.

With reference back to Miss Borden....

The prosecution was hampered by the fact that the Fall River police did not put credence in the new forensic technology of fingerprinting, and refused to take prints on the hatchet.[9]
A few days after the murder, Borden tore apart and burned a light blue Bedford cord cotton dress in the kitchen stove, claiming she had brushed against fresh baseboard paint which had smeared on it.[5]

Mr & Mrs Borden were killed by an ax or hatchet (some people have different names for things); that can not be disputed. And thanks for the wikipedia references....

[ccdsswrkr08]

GOOD GOD! Why are you all arguing about GUN CONTROL?!!! Thats not the real issue!!! This IS Maine....people hunt....most people DO have guns. I personally do not - but a lot of folks here DO have guns, legal and otherwise. Guns are a fact of life in Maine.
The real story that no one is talking about is mental illness, and how the Searsport Police have abused their power and ignored the facts on Randall. They KNOW him to have mental problems.


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Posted by LIESABOUND at 04:01 PM : Oct 31, 2008

good point. far too often our police are not properly trained in how to deal with someone who has a mental illness.

[nobama4]

So she didn''''t kill anyone and the hatchet was not the murder weapon. Lets this serve as an example to you. Learn before you post!~



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Posted by elcantante1





? So she used an Uzi?:0P

[liesabound]

GOOD GOD! Why are you all arguing about GUN CONTROL?!!! Thats not the real issue!!! This IS Maine....people hunt....most people DO have guns. I personally do not - but a lot of folks here DO have guns, legal and otherwise. Guns are a fact of life in Maine.
The real story that no one is talking about is mental illness, and how the Searsport Police have abused their power and ignored the facts on Randall. They KNOW him to have mental problems.

[meinnv]

That results in a lot of deaths and close to 100,000 students bringing guns from home into our schools each day. That''''s far from responsible!~

Posted by elcantante1 at 03:52 PM : Oct 31, 2008

While your stastics are impressive. I am trying to stress RESPONSIBILITY.

My uncle and some others like him are responsible gun owners and lock the guns up in a cabinet or safe. Those who PROPERLY MAINTAIN (including locking them up) their weapons are responsible gun owners and shouldn''t have their guns taken away.

Those who aren''t should lose their weapons. I am not against that idea. Perhaps I should be more clear and explain that anyone who fails to do the responsible things--clean, lock and keep their guns away from people who should not have access to them should lose them.

But don''t take the guns from the people who will be RESPONSIBLE.

As of note, my uncle was in the military and received extensive weapons training he passed the knowledge down to his kids and myself. As youngsters, we were too afraid of getting our a**es beat by him to even think about getting near the gun cabinet, or looking at it.

[tapsettle]

Nowhere else in the ''civilised'' world does this sort of thing happen so frequently. You dumb-arses are so in love with your guns you cant see how easily they help lunatics kill and maim people. Yes, it IS people that kill people, but guns make it SO MUCH EASIER. God bless america? Dont make me laugh.

[nobama4]

That''''s not true. As a matter of fact, most shooters in a mass shooting do not have a criminal record. They are law abiding people going postal or mentally ill people with guns!~



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Posted by elcantante1





You are incorrect Sir. It is more likely that a child will be killed by his/her parent than an active shooter...FACT.

It is more likely you will be mauled by a pit-bull than killed in a mass shooting.


Stop worrying about the 1 or 2 ways you dont want to die, and start thinking of how you want to live.

I carry a firearm for protection, as a citizen, police officer, and soldier. I support my fellow Americans BIRTH RIGHT to own firearms.

Unlike my liberal friends I trust my neighbors to do the right thing, and I trust that there are enough bad-guys that I need to carry in order to protect my neighbor.

Gov''t should fear their people, the people should not fear their Gov''t.