Ask the Right Question in This School Shooting

Where did he get the guns?

Where did an angry 14-year-old Cleveland boy with a history of mental illness and suicidal thoughts get his hands on guns to shoot two teachers and two of his fellow students before sticking a barrel into his own mouth and pulling the trigger?

That's the question we should be asking, not just this time, but every time a crime is committed with a handgun.

This is our nation's first fatal school shooting of the academic year, and when I filed this column, we didn't know yet how Asa Coon got his illegal guns.

What we do know, through studies by Harvard University and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is this: Five out of six guns recovered in crimes have the taint of an illegal transaction. And more than half the guns used by juveniles and 18- to 24-year-olds come from straw purchasers who buy the guns legally and then sell them to criminals and kids.

These thugs are dealing in our neighborhoods, and business is booming.

"The illegal pipeline is thriving," said Nancy Robinson, executive director of the Massachusetts Against Trafficking Handguns Coalition, the first statewide group of its kind, focused on restricting the number of guns to criminals, kids and terrorists. "We have got to get everybody — law enforcement, parents, schools, legislators and the media — to ask: Where did the guns come from?"

The gun lobby hates this question, insisting that streamlining the process to track a gun's point of origin is just a brazen attempt to close down gun shops. They attack anti-gun activists as naive and paranoid. Consider this statement on the National Rifle Association Web site: "The incidence of mortal violence in the classroom is so extremely rare as to be statistically insignificant."

We're not feeling that statistical insignificance here in Cleveland. Barely a month ago, a 12-year-old girl was shot coming out of a candy store. And now an entire community of students is afraid to go back to school.

Ken Hanson, legislative chair for the Buckeye Firearms Association in Ohio, said the problem is not that guns are available; they're just not in the right hands.

He posted this on the group's Web site Wednesday: "We know that teachers and school officials who have the knowledge, skills, and tools to stop the killing of our innocent children are by law not permitted to bring the only tool (a gun) which can stop an active shooter onto school premises. Too many lives have been lost. For the sake of our children, it's time to revise this well-intentioned, but disastrous policy."

He said that, except for underage students, everyone at schools, from cafeteria workers to custodians, should be able to pack "with proper training."

To Lori O'Neill, that sort of reasoning is "obscene." She is a longtime gun control activist now working closely with Massachusetts' Robinson to bring a similar program to Ohio. "Gun guys always assume that if only one of their 'law-abiding gun owners' were present at a shooting, that person would become an instant hero and save everyone … but ask any police officer how realistic it is to presume that just because one or two people had guns, they would somehow be at the exact right place at the exact moment."

O'Neill raises other troubling questions: What happens to those caught in the crossfire between a gun-toting teacher and an assailant? How are police who arrive at the scene supposed to know who's the good guy? And what about those students who, knowing a teacher is armed, assault him in an attempt to get his weapon?

On Wednesday, reporters asked a lot questions about Asa Coon.

We know he was suspended on Monday from SuccessTech Academy and that he went back to school on Wednesday to settle a score.

We know his high school was heralded just recently for its academic progress.

We know his world was riddled with the kind of problems that rob you of hope before your life barely has started.

What we don't know is what everyone should demand to find out:

Where did he get the guns?

Connie Schultz is a Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist for The Plain Dealer in Cleveland and the author of two books from Random House: "Life Happens" and "… and His Lovely Wife." To find out more about Connie Schultz (cschultz@plaind.com) and read her past columns, please visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.

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