A woman admitted that she helped her troubled 14 year-old son build an arsenal of weapons by buying him a .22 calibur handgun, a .22 calibur rifle, and a 9 mm semiautomatic rifle equipped with a laser scope, and gunpowder.

Michele Cossey, age 46, pleaded guilty on child endangerment charges on Tuesday in Norristown, PA. Cossey admitted that she had previously bought her son a .22 calibur handgun, a .22 calibur rifle, a 9mm semiautomatic rifle with laser scope and gunpowder, which investigators state he was using to build grenades. Pennslyvannia State Prosecutors say her son, Dillon Cossey, came to idolize the Columbine High School Shooters and was planning an attack on Plymouth Whitemarsh High School, which some former Columbine students attended.

Bullied over his weight, Dillon Cossey had left public school in seventh grade to be home-schooled by his mother. Montgomery County Assistant District Attorney, Christopher Parisi, said he thought the purchasing of weapons was "an attempt to boost his self-esteem...".


Dillon Cossey at his October 14th court date.

Michelle Cossey's sentencing hearing won't happen until after she undergoes a psychiatric evaluation. The maximum possible prison term is 3½ to 7 years, but her defense attorney she could get less than a year or even just probation under Pennslyvannia sentencing guidelines.




Michele Cossey attending her son, Dillon, court hearing.


Dillon Cossey was sentenced to a Juvenile Treatment Facility where he could remain until the age of 21. The judge who sentenced Cossey said that Michele Cossey had fostered a "me-and-mom-against-the-world" attitude in her only child.

Authorities did not think the school attack was imminent, but the boy did amass an arsenal -- knives, swords, BB guns, .22 calibur handgun, 2 rifles and partly assembled homemade grenades -- in his bedroom at his Plymouth Township home.

Police learned of the planned attack when Cossey invited a friend to join him. The friend went to police last fall.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/09/23/bullied.student.guns.ap
http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/10/12/student.arsenal/

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This is a story I came across today and quickly caught my interest. Over the years I have read my share of school shooting articles. It's a shame that I have read so many. I always find myself interested in why the person did it. And I always ask myself another question, where the hell were the parents? In this case the parent was buying the weapons for her son. Now I have to ask, what was the parent thinking? I understand that you love your son. If you want to buy him something, buy him something nice, like a bike. Don't go buying him a semiautomatic weapon with a laser scope. Would'nt that be a signal? I couldn't image the conversation that had occured.


"Hey mom?"
"Yes?"
"Would you buy me a semiautomatic weapon?"
"Of course I will! I'll even buy you a hand gun and some gunpowder."
"That way you can make grenades too".
"Thanks mom! You're the best!"
"I love you too son".



If the world wasn't screwed up as it was, now we're resulting to buying our children weapons. Not only are we buying them weapons, but there is no punishment. Wow, Dillon Cossey will spend the next seven years of his life in a Juvenile Treatment Facility. What makes people think that when he's 21 he'll be able to live as a functioning member of society? Oh, and the mother could get probation. All our judicial system is now a days is a slap on the wrist. We worry too much about giving people a second chance and not enough on the punishment at hand.


So what do you think? Does the Cossey family deserve harsher punishments?

Questions? Comments? Feel free to contribute to the post. I love having feedback from readers.





Speaking Only In Vowels,
Matthew K. Snyder