Teens & guns in the news

There were two sobering stories about teens and potential violence this week, from Colorado and Virginia. The Richmond Times-Dispatch reported that four boys – 16, 15, and two 13-year-olds – have been charged with plotting to blow up two high schools. All of the charges are felonies, which means detention until age 21 if the boys are convicted (the juvenile trial starts next month). "Police, who seized three computers, two shotguns and other unnamed items from the boys' homes, said the four plotted in Internet chat rooms." In Colorado, a 16-year-old student at Evergreen High School was arrested after posting in his MySpace profile photos of himself with guns, CBS News reported. He "was being held at a juvenile detention center facing three misdemeanor charges of juvenile possession of a handgun and will be in court on Monday." There were no threats in his profile, reportedly, but some parents kept their kids home from school after seeing the content and reporting it to the school, which reported it to the police. "One photo allegedly showed him lying on a floor surrounded by nine rifles with the caption, 'Angel o' death on wings o' lead'."