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Signs: Observant parents prevented tragedy

Parents of a young man in Utah have a lot to deal with in the coming days, as their son is facing charges related to bringing two guns to school and firing one into the ceiling. One thing they do not have to worry about, however, is whether they did all they could do to prevent a tragedy.

After a morning in which both parents noticed their son had been behaving oddly, they realized a shotgun and a pistol were missing from their gun safe, after he went to school. That is when they made the decision to rush to the school and stop their son.

Though he managed to get one round into the ceiling before they caught up with him, the young man’s parents “disarmed him, then physically detained him,” according to police. They detained him until someone at the school dialed 911 and police arrived to arrest their son, then they handed him over.

It is an extraordinary example of parents who knew their child well enough — and interacted enough with him — to realize something was very wrong; and who then wasted no time in acting. They took responsibility for stopping him and handing him over, themselves. The town’s police chief called the unfolding of events “pretty amazing.”

Their son is now in a juvenile detention center, and those parents must grapple with understanding how he got to this point, and how they can help him. But they stopped him from carrying out what could have been a horrendous attack. And they put their own lives on the line to do so — according to one student witness, it was the mother who knocked the shotgun out of her son’s hands.

Thank goodness for parents who still feel that kind of responsibility for their children. Certainly a community in Utah is grateful for their quick thinking and action.

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