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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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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.