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Where'd They Get Their Guns?

An Analysis of the Firearms Used in High-Profile Shootings, 1963 to 2001

Date: February 29, 2000

Location: Theo J. Buell Elementary School, Mt. Morris Township, Michigan

Alleged Shooter: Not revealed due to his age

People Killed: One

People Injured: None

Firearm(s): Davis Industries .32 pistol


Circumstances

A six-year-old at Buell Elementary just outside Flint, Michigan, allegedly brought a Davis Industries .32 pistol to school and shot fellow first-grader Kayla Rolland. The two children had reportedly quarreled the day before the shooting.


How Firearm(s) Acquired

The gun was acquired illegally. The six-year-old took the gun from a shoebox in his uncle Jamelle James' bedroom. The gun was originally sold at a Flint, Michigan, gun store in 1999 to Stanley E. Mayo. According to a police report, the gun was stolen from Mayo's home on December 6, 1999. According to police interviews, James purchased the gun from Robert Lee Morris for $40 and a bag of marijuana. James was sentenced to two to 15 years in prison for involuntary manslaughter because he provided the six-year-old access to the gun.

 
  1. Debbie Howlett, "The Shooting of Kayla Rolland," USA Today, 2 March 2000, sec. A, p. 1.
  2. John Bacon, "Mich. shooting by 6-year-old draws prison for gun owner," USA Today, 12 September 2000, sec. A, p. 3.
  3. Ron French, et al., "�I'm Going to Die,' Kayla Told Classmate After Boy Shot Her," Detroit News, 10 December 2000, p. 4.

 

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 All contents � 2001 Violence Policy Center

 


The Violence Policy Center is a national non-profit educational foundation that conducts research on violence in America and works to develop violence-reduction policies and proposals. The Center examines the role of firearms in America, conducts research on firearms violence, and explores new ways to decrease firearm-related death and injury.