1993 Chelsea school shooter on gun control.

I find this article interesting because this incident happened in my hometown and I often forget that. I was in the sixth grade when this occurred but I remember it well. My older sister was at the school when it happened and heard the shots. This was big news when it happened. Almost as big as the sandy hook incident is today. There was a lot of discussion over the drug Prozac as that was the drug Mr. Lieth was taking when the incident occurred. His wife died just a few years after the incident of cancer. Mr. Jones taught for many more years and recently retired. I had him as an English teacher when I was a freshman in high school. Mr. Mead became the principal for many years and now teaches math at a local community college. I believe that what he has to say almost 20 years later is both important and relevant to todays debate over gun control.

Most of you know where I stand on gun control even coming from a town that has been rocked by gun violence in a school shooting. The incident occurred after normal school hours but many after school groups and athletic groups were still present on campus. It is sad what happened but I agree with Mr. Leith in the observation that our society bears a great weight over how people have become. I do not think religion is the answer though.

www.mlive.com...

Leith, who will turn 59 in May, was a science teacher at Chelsea High School near Ann Arbor when he fatally shot Superintendent Joseph Piasecki and wounded Principal Ron Mead and teacher Phil Jones. He had been reprimanded for making inappropriate remarks about a female student, and responded by filing a grievance.

At a Dec. 16, 1993, meeting in Piasecki’s office to discuss the grievance, Leith became angry and stormed out, carrying a copy of his personnel file.

“My goal was to go home and cool off,” he says.

He did go home; he didn’t cool off.

At his home, a haven he had built on 10 acres near Chelsea, he kept firearms he had begun collecting in 1986. The more guns he amassed, the more he wanted. By the day of his grievance meeting, his collection had grown to four handguns and seven long guns, including an AK-47 assault rifle he had bought because “I figured at one time they would not be allowed to be sold, and I wanted one in my collection.”

In his kitchen, he glanced at his personnel file, and his anger grew.

“I went into this rage,” Leith says. “All I remember doing is just screaming at the top of my lungs.”

He grabbed his newest gun -- a 9-mm Browning, semi-automatic handgun he kept under his bed for protection -- and sped back to the school.

“It was like I was in a trance,” Leith says. He recalls repeating three phrases: “He has no right to do this to me. Gotta stop the pain. Gotta keep going.”

In his office, Piasecki was still meeting with Mead and Jones, a teacher and union officer there to represent Leith. As Leith opened the door, he faced Piasecki across a desk. Mead, on Leith’s right, and Jones, on his left, sat with their backs to him.

Leith pulled the gun from his pocket and fired several shots at Piasecki, and then, as Mead dove for cover, fired at him, striking him in the left leg, then at Jones, grazing his abdomen. Leith insists he did not knowingly shoot Mead or Jones – “my best friend” – but fired when he saw movement.

When he stopped firing, “it was like I was standing there looking at this mess,” he says. “I went into something like a convulsion. After I came out of the convulsion, I began to realize the enormity of what I’d done.”

That’s when his wife, Alice, an English teacher, appeared at the door. He pointed the gun at her. “Steve, give me the gun,” she said. He doesn’t recall if he did, or if he placed it on a secretary’s desk, as others recalled.
Minutes later, the police found him in his classroom grading papers. “I had to get them done for the next day,” he now explains.

Yeah let's listen to what the psychopath says about gun control... *rolls eyes*

What's next, you guys going to hire Charles Manson to be your spokesman?

Leith was a man on a mission, and sure he was in a trance but what is that really but just a state of complete focus on getting the job done, killing the source of his pain the principal and then getting onto marking the papers. I cant see how his dedication to his work has anything to do with laws to control guns.

...How angry can you get when you've brought it on yourself...

Originally posted by Ghost375
Yeah let's listen to what the psychopath says about gun control... *rolls eyes*

What's next, you guys going to hire Charles Manson to be your spokesman?

edit on 11-4-2013 by Ghost375 because: (no reason given)

With the gun debate flaring from all sides I believe it is important to look at every side and every viewpoint. The fact is he committed a heinous crime and now almost twenty years later he is willing to talk about it. I did not post this as a pro-gun, anti-gun agenda run thread which I am sure that is the conclusion you have jumped to with your comments. I just feel it is relevant to the current debate that is waging across the US right now.

Originally posted by Ghost375
Yeah let's listen to what the psychopath says about gun control... *rolls eyes*

What's next, you guys going to hire Charles Manson to be your spokesman?

edit on 11-4-2013 by Ghost375 because: (no reason given)

Very funny! I guess we should not try and understand why this type of thing happens at all. What's next, your going to just bury your head in the sand and pretend it's just the guns that do this. Oh wait you already do.

I think Casper is a good spokesman for you and your ilk, because we can see right through you!

reply to post by AthlonSavage


I agree that his dedication to his work has nothing to do with the laws. However it does show his state of mind at the time when he went straight to grading papers in his classroom. My sister saw the police bringing him out and outing him in the police car and she said he was a clam as ever.

Originally posted by usmc0311

Originally posted by Ghost375
Yeah let's listen to what the psychopath says about gun control... *rolls eyes*

What's next, you guys going to hire Charles Manson to be your spokesman?

edit on 11-4-2013 by Ghost375 because: (no reason given)

With the gun debate flaring from all sides I believe it is important to look at every side and every viewpoint. The fact is he committed a heinous crime and now almost twenty years later he is willing to talk about it.

Actually, his viewpoint is the only one that doesn't really matter. We don't let felons vote,do we?
I'm sure many would actually say we should do the OPPOSITE of what the murderers say. It's actually quite logical.
That's the only point I was trying to make. If you start holding up this guy's opinion as evidence, which I'm not saying you're doing, sane people are going to laugh.

I'm pro-gun, that's why I point out when you guys do things that harm the gun cause. Some of you, not you OP, are so obsessed with guns you can't see the big picture about how you come off.

The article is fine for here, and I did think it was interesting. That's why I flagged it. I was mostly making a joke, but my point is important. If anyone starts taking this article outside this site, they'd HARM the gun cause.

Originally posted by Infernalis

Originally posted by Ghost375
Yeah let's listen to what the psychopath says about gun control... *rolls eyes*

What's next, you guys going to hire Charles Manson to be your spokesman?

edit on 11-4-2013 by Ghost375 because: (no reason given)

Very funny! I guess we should not try and understand why this type of thing happens at all. What's next, your going to just bury your head in the sand and pretend it's just the guns that do this. Oh wait you already do.

I think Casper is a good spokesman for you and your ilk, because we can see right through you!

Yeah, and I guess you won't try to understand my stance on guns before running your trap.
you don't see me at all.

reply to post by Ghost375


I get where you are coming from. I do think his viewpoint does hold some water though as it gives us a look into the mind of someone who has done such an evil thing and has had almost twenty years to think about it.

Originally posted by usmc0311
reply to post by Ghost375

 

I get where you are coming from. I do think his viewpoint does hold some water though as it gives us a look into the mind of someone who has done such an evil thing and has had almost twenty years to think about it.

I likeseeing other people's viewpoints, and it's an interesting perspective.
problem is he admits he really hasn't thought about it much lol.

As often happens in these thread people cant see the forest for the trees.

what is the #1 factor in the majority of these shootings that gets brushed aside.

Leith accepts responsibility for killing Piasecki and wounding the other two. But he insists that, although he was carrying a gun, he didn’t intend to shoot them. He had been seeing a psychiatrist for depression and was taking an antidepressant, which he believes clouded his judgment and sent him into a dreamlike state.

Big pharm poisoning the populous with drugs that side effects may not be fully known and which can include suicidal thoughts...

Oh but please lets focus on the symptom and not the cause.

reply to post by benrl


When this incident first occurred guns were not in the forefront of the blame. It was Prozac that was brought into focus as I believe it was a relatively new drug at the time. I have taken anti-depressants and I never will again because of how bad they made me feel. The drugs are one of the biggest factors I believe when it comes to incidents such as this one.