22 Wounded in School Stabbing; Evil is as Evil Does - Doesn't take a Gun to Kill

By Elizabeth Nelson 

Further proof that any tool in the hands of an evil person can kill. It doesn't matter if it's a gun, car, rope, pantyhose, baseball bat, hammer or, yes, even a knife, yet it would seem that it's only the gun that people want to blame when it's used for mass killings. 

I have to wonder, will that be the case in Pittsburgh, after yesterday's mass school stabbing.  Oops, the student didn't use a gun when he chose to stab 21 students and an adult, so I guess liberals will want to ban all evil 8" to 10" knives now.  

A 16-year-old boy was charged Wednesday after he allegedly stabbed 21 students and an adult -- leaving four seriously injured -- during an early-morning attack at a high school near Pittsburgh, authorities said.

Authorities are charging the suspect, a sophomore at Franklin Regional High School, the scene of the stabbing spree, as an adult rather than a juvenile. Late Wednesday, he was charged with four counts of attempted homicide and 21 counts of aggravated assault. He was jailed without bail.

As word of the incident spread and children streamed out of the school, parents told FoxNews.com they were shocked by the attack and one district official expressed relief that it was carried out with a knife rather than a gun.

At a late afternoon press conference, Murrysville Police Chief Thomas Seefeld said "one or two" of the victims remained in critical condition.

He also said the suspect had been armed with two eight-to-ten inch straight knives.

"Nobody's ever prepared for something like that as a parent," Matt Provenzo, who had dropped his son, Mark, off at the high school moments after the stabbings, told FoxNews.com. "As he got out of the car, you could see students exiting the building and that the fire alarm was pulled There were a few students who were visibly upset."

Another parent, Tim Graham, told FoxNews.com he picked up his daughter Alicia, who was not injured. But some of her friends were among those injured, he told FoxNews.com.

"She is with me and she was very close to the incident and a couple of her friends are stabbed," Graham said. "It could've very easily been my daughter."

Alicia Graham said she was in the school's library when the initial fire alarm went off.

"Everyone was screaming and people were being trampled over," she told FoxNews.com. "It was a very bad scene. I was very scared. I didn't know what was happening. I thought it was a drill."

Alicia Graham characterized the suspect as a "small, skinny" classmate who didn't talk much. She didn't know him personally, but has acquaintances who do, she said.

Roberta Cook, a Franklin Regional School Board director and a member of its safety committee, said the local schools have well-practiced procedures in place for such events.

"But I'm just glad it wasn't a shooter, because if it had been a shooter, there would have been fatalities," Cook, whose children previously attended the school, told FoxNews.com.

Dan Stevens, a spokeswoman for Westmoreland County emergency management, said a male student was in custody following the incident, which occurred inside the school before classes began. A security guard at the school, in an affluent community about 15 miles east of Pittsburgh, notified authorities at 7:13 a.m.

The student's motive for the attack wasn't immediately clear, Stevens said.

Four of the victims were taken to area hospitals via helicopter. One victim was later identified as an adult and had been discharged, but no identities were immediately released. All of the victims are expected to survive, doctors told reporters during an afternoon press conference.

The overwhelming majority of students evacuated in a "remarkably orderly fashion," said Provenzo, whose son was not injured.

"I saw one or two [students] who were visibly upset," Provenzo told FoxNews.com.

Earlier Wednesday, Dr. Mark Rubino said eight victims were taken to Forbes Regional Medical Center, where three remained in surgery. Two other victims were listed in critical condition, he told reporters during a midday press conference.

"Most of them were to the lower abdomen and they seemed to actually almost have a pattern," Rubino said of the stab wounds. "Most of them were to the right lower abdomen and to the right flank and that created some of the criticality of their wounds and the nature of their injuries."

Seven teens and one adult were listed in serious condition at Forbes Hospital, West Penn Allegheny Health System spokeswoman Jennifer Davis said, ranging in age from 15 to 60. A ninth victim, a 15-year-old girl, was listed in good condition, she said.

Reese Jackson, the hospital's president and CEO, told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that one of the victims may have saved the life of another.

"A surgeon came out and congratulated one of the victims by saying she had saved the person's life by applying pressure to the person's wound," Jackson told the newspaper.

Graham said the attacker, a sophomore whom he did not identify, had been a victim of bullying.

Congratulations, parents, you have coddled your children so much that you are raising a softer, weaker generation of children who cannot handle life's stress or the "bullies" of life, like we did when we were children; so how do you think they are going to cope with real life, and the nastier bullies, as adults?  Now we have children that kill others or just decide to commit suicide.  

"My point is this could've been avoided," Graham told FoxNews.com, adding that his daughter had been previously assaulted at the school. "That's my personal opinion."

Seefeld told reporters earlier a student or staff member at the school pulled a fire alarm when the attack began.

"The fire alarm being pulled probably assisted with evacuating the school," Seefeld said.

One witness told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that the suspect was tackled by assistant principal Sam King. Another witness told KDKA.com that the stabbings took place in the science wing of the school.

School officials did not immediately return messages seeking comment. Parents have been notified and were allowed to pick up their children at the school.

"A critical incident has occurred at the high school," a message on the school district's website read earlier Wednesday. "All elementary schools are canceled, the middle school and high school students are secure. Additional information will be released as soon as possible. Please keep our campus clear of traffic."

Gov. Tom Corbett said he was "shocked and saddened" by the incident in a statement released later Wednesday.

"As a parent and grandparent, I can think of nothing more distressing than senseless violence against children," Corbett said. "My heart and prayers go out to all the victims and their families."

Jack the Ripper, OJ Simpson, Ted Bundy and the BTK killer never used a gun to subdue or killer their victims, and yet our Administration would have us believe that guns are our enemy.  Guns aren't our problem, mentally ill people are. How many "clinically sane" people have you heard of that woke up one morning and decided to shot up their school, favorite theater, doctor's office or place of employment? 

We need to stop ignoring the pink elephant in the room, stop trying to put a band-aid on the problem and choose to stop being so PC - afraid to hurt everyone's feelings - and address the real issue, our mental health issue.