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Young Man's Death Continues to Impact Tacoma Families and School

January 28th, 2008, blog post by kmcomer

Last week Douglas Chanthabouly, who opened fire last year at Foss High School in Tacoma was found incompetent to stand trial. He has been diagnosed with schizophrenia by three separate psychiatrists. Douglas shot his friend Samnang Kok in the face from a distance of less than one foot as Samang retrieved his books from his locker. Samang fell down and Douglas shot him twice more prior to fleeing the scene.

Students at Foss High School expressed, fear, concern, and blame when the shooting occurred last year. One student explained that attention the prevention of such violence was inadequate. Another expressed fear to return to school. Again, as has happened multiple times since Columbine, and happened again at Virginia Tech last spring, our young people find themselves face to face with violence and loss.

The handgun Douglas used to shoot Samang had been purchased legally at a gun shop and somehow got into the hands of the young man. Police said the owner had not reported the gun as stolen and were unable to put the pieces together as to how Douglas had gotten the gun.

While we don’t know how Douglas got his gun, one thing we do know is that, as the young people at Foss High School stated last year, guns are easy to get in our communities. The illegal firearms market feeds from the legal firearms market. For example, mandatory reporting of the theft of a firearm could have tipped off law enforcement that the gun might show up in the illegal market – or may have made the owner more wary of selling the firearm to a minor.

We can all be impulsive when we are angry – Douglas and Samnang had been friends, but had a disagreement just prior to the shooting – when firearms are easily available in such moments a simple argument can turn tragic. Just as it did last year in Tacoma. We need to educate our young people more about conflict-resolution, and do all we can to ensure their learning environments are safe and free of violence. And we need to strengthen our firearms laws so that it’s not quite so easy for someone like Douglas – young and struggling with schizophrenia – to get his hands on a gun.