Teacher Jailed for Pellet Gun Attack

A London schoolteacher has been sentenced to six months for shooting teenage vandals with a pellet gun.

Teacher jailed for pellet gun attack (Reuters)

A teacher has been jailed for six months for firing a pellet gun at teenagers she said were conducting a campaign of vandalism against her property. Linda Walker, 48, was convicted of affray and possessing a firearm after she confronted a group of youths with a pellet gun and air rifle near her Manchester home in August 2004.

She told Manchester Crown Court she was under stress at the time of the incident, having received several nuisance phone calls. She said youths had stolen fish from her pond and ornaments from her garden. Walker, who teaches children with behaviour problems, eventually confronted a group of youths with the weapons, firing the pistol near their feet.

She was sentenced to six months for possessing the firearm and one month for affray, to run concurrently.

Pellet gun case teacher jailed (Huddersfield Examiner)

A teacher who opened fire with a pellet gun after “yobbos” launched a campaign of vandalism against her family has been jailed for six months. Linda Walker, 48, who teaches children with behavioural problems, kept the gun in her underwear drawer for four months after her shed was burgled. In August last year a confrontation with a gang of youths drove her to fire the weapon at the pavement near one teenager’s feet. Walker was found guilty of affray and possessing a firearm with intent to cause fear of violence after a week-long trial at Manchester Crown Court.

[…]

A spokesman for Salford City Council said: “Linda Walker was suspended from her teaching post pending this police investigation and court action. “Now legal proceedings are ended, any formal disciplinary action can also be concluded. This will be completed as quickly as possible.”

While shooting at them with a pellet gun may well be an effective behavior modification technique, it may be a little bit more than the law will allow.

(Hyperlinks inserted to assist in translating from the English.)

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James Joyner
About James Joyner
James Joyner is Professor and Department Head of Security Studies at Marine Corps University's Command and Staff College. He's a former Army officer and Desert Storm veteran. Views expressed here are his own. Follow James on Twitter @DrJJoyner.

Comments

  1. joy_of _sects says:

    Note that she did not shoot direclty at the scum but rather at the pavement near the feet of one of these little darlings. What a crock.

  2. Jammer says:

    Unless there is a lot more to this than the article indicates, its sad to see a country of free people being reduced to peons.

    But they have free health care!

    (I’m a bit frazzled this morning, pardon the tone)

  3. Pellet gun as a “weapon”? If this is the case then so are nerf-ball “guns”.