Justifiable preemptive force?

In the area, a news story about a middle school student who sneaked his dad's .44 revolver onto the school bus, and attempted to shoot a high school student:

"Possibly some bullying going on from the victim who is the older of the two and it's kind of festered into this conflict," Sergeant Clift said.

Now, I'm generally not in favor of allowing juveniles to carry firearms. But I do acknowledge that 3 years' age difference can be significant when a kid is being bullied. And hey, weren't the Columbine killers bullied? Is it better that a student goes postal in the actual bully, or on the school at large?

And yes, taking a gun to school because someone threw a Twinkie is a bit extreme, but we don't know yet if that was the first incident between these kids.

pm