Lynn council seeks ban on weapons at schools

LYNN – Three years ago, Lynn school officials informed police that a student was carrying what looked like an assault rifle in his backpack. When officers responded and questioned the 15-year-old boy, it turned out the object was actually a paint-ball gun with its reservoir tank removed.”We couldn’t charge him with anything,” said Robert Ferrari, the Lynn police officer in charge of school security and emergency planning. “It wasn’t against the law. As it’s written, the law doesn’t cover things like paint-ball guns, box cutters, knives with blades less than 2-1/2 inches in length. But we’re trying to change that.”The same boy, Chrisna Choun, now 18, was arrested over the weekend for engaging in a gang-related gun battle on Long Beach near the Nahant traffic circle. He has been charged with assault to murder and other charges, including possession of a real weapon – a .22-caliber handgun.Ferrari and Lynn Police Juvenile Unit Det. Lawrence Wentzell, both former school resource officers, on Tuesday displayed a bag full of weapons to the City Council’s Ordinance Committee. The police officers asked committee members to vote in favor of holding a public hearing to potentially amend local weapons laws.According to Wentzell, by expanding the language in the current local laws related to weapons in schools and public buildings, police would be able to arrest those in possession of any kind of knife, spray or other weapon-like object.”We should be able to do something about these situations and right now we can’t,” said Ferrari. “And believe me, it’s a problem.” Over the past three years, Lynn police responded 57 times to disturbances in the city schools, said Wentzell, noting that police were called on an additional 30 occasions for weapons-related incidents, but only six arrests resulted.Although state laws makes illegal such devices as throwing stars, brass knuckles, studded bracelets and double-edge knives, it does not address chemical weapons like pepper spray and Mace-like agents. The amendment to Lynn’s weapons ordinance would include chemical weapons as well as paint-ball guns and other devices made to resemble weapons.”Most of the kids in the city do the right thing every day, but the small percentage who don’t are getting more creative all the time,” Ferrari said. “They also know that they can’t be arrested for carrying a knife with a short blade, so that’s what they do. Or they carry a box cutter, which looks like a cell phone in your pocket. These small knives do lots of damage in the gang battles that we’re seeing. We want the law to state any and all blades are not allowed.”The carrying of weapons in schools isn’t all gang-related, said Wentzell, explaining that bullies tend to use them to intimidate.”We want the kids to understand that if you bring a weapon to school, the action against you will be sure and swift,” Ferrari said. “There’s absolutely no reason to carry a weapon to school.”Besides, said Wentzell, police often have a fraction of a second to assess whether a weapon pointed at them is real or not, a circumstance made more difficult after dark. To make his point, he held up a long-barreled revolver similar to that carried by fictional vigilante Dirty Harry. It appeared as menacing as the real thing.”It’s a BB gun,” the detective said. “If we catch a kid with this, we can’t arrest him unless he threatens somebody.”Ordinance Committee Chairman Darren Cyr said the local law must be changed if students are carrying weapons to school and can’t be held accountable.The Ordinance Committee voted to hold a public hearing that could be scheduled before the end of July.