Hysterical cries of an on-going active school shooter event that erupted last week in rural Alpine (TX) whipped the nation’s news media into a tizzy. They jumped the gun, of course.  There was no random mass murder of students. A 14-year-old female student shot another student before turning the gun on herself, and then a U.S. Marshal with poor gun-handling skills negligently shot a DHS officer in the leg as they verified that the school was clear of threats.

We now know that the girl who was shot wasn’t even the target of the attack, but walked in on the 14-year-old as she loaded a gun as part of a plot to murder her stepbrother at school.

The girl who fatally shot herself and wounded a classmate at a Texas high school last week intended to kill her stepbrother — but opened fire after her plan went awry, police said.

The 14-year-old freshman arrived at Alpine High School last Thursday armed with a 9-mm. semi-automatic handgun and 18 rounds of ammunition from her home, according to a statement Tuesday from Alpine police.

She planned to kill her 14-year-old stepbrother in the school, police said, and then kill herself.

But while loading her weapon in a bathroom, another girl — a 17-year-old junior — walked in and caught her.

The 14-year-old fired five times at the older girl, hitting her once in the lower part of the body. The older girl was able to flee, and the 14-year-old then turned the gun on herself, committing suicide.

We don’t yet know definitively where the girl obtained the handgun, but as she was relatively new to the area and didn’t know many people, it seems probable that the 9mm was stored unsecured by a family member.

It is imperative that responsible gun owners lock up firearms not under their immediate control, and not just when children are too young to understand how firearms function. This especially during the teenaged years, when raging hormones grossly overwhelm reason and a minor incident can lead to either suicide, or murder, or both.

I know the common refrain from some gun owners is something along the line of “my kid is well-trained and would never do that.”

Sadly, they do.