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Posted by: rs on 3/26/1998@13:13hrs:
In Reply to: Re: schoolyard killings posted by: Gina - Art I gotta ask ya on 3/26/1998@12:21hrs:
Right you are, Gina. I've always told my boys they're responsible for themselves when they go out with friends; I tell them if their friends want to do something stupid it doesn't mean they have to cooperate or stick around. They can say "don't" and leave, soonest. So far so good, but I don't fool myself that the game is ever over...
I have no idea why schoolboys do such unimaginable things, except the things aren't quite so unimaginable. When I was a sixth grader I knew Stalin was a bad guy; used to daydream about how if he made a state visit wouldn't it be heroic to pick him off; set up the machine gun nest in the Moravian Church lot, wait for the motorcade to come by, you get the idea. Stupid but imaginable. So this enraged kid acts out his fantasy, gets his grandfather's guns, a vehicle, a younger companion, a plan, to pull the alarm, and fires away...almost unbelievable.
What does the law have to say about this? There are some things so outrageous they defy the legislators' ability to write laws in anticipation; I mean, who would have believed when they set the age at fourteen for criminal responsibility that eleven and thirteen year olds would do something like this?
Commentators, such as the governor of Arkansas, speculated that this atrocity says something about us as a society. No doubt it does, as does everything we do, even the bizarre. Do you think we're going to be able to agree on what the problem is? I doubt it.
You know, there is something called "anger management," and in some places they have classes, such as for warring spouses, parolees, probationers, etc. Would have been nice if the schoolkids were exposed to whatever they call to attention in such gatherings, before the tragedy was committed. Then there's the problem of the festering, nursed grudge, which this thirteen year old apparently maintained, per the news reports (always risky to judge on news reports, but sometimes that's all we get). Unless the individual tips off someone, and the clue is taken as true, even if said in jest, I can see how something like this happens. You know, you can't even joke about bombs at airports; reason: prudent people don't think this is funny, and those who do may be so imprudent as to bear scrutiny, such as an interrogation and an intrusive search. Too many strange people around, and we're so dependent on fragile systems that can be easily disrupted.
We've seen a number of discouaging acts of violence across the country recently. A culture of violence, some call it. Too many guns, too much fantasy violence in the movies and on tv. This wasn't the way it was when we more senior types were growing up, but we had plenty of violence that we were exposed to. We had World War Two. Daily pictures of ruined cities and dead soldiers, and it was real. After the war ended and we stopped seeing the real stuff, we got the ersatz (a WWII German word for phony coffee) stuff in the John Wayne movies.
Sometimes you can just mourn and shake your head and go about your business. All those little children, and their teacher, cut down. Then there was the murderous rampage in Scotland where schoolkids by the dozens were wiped out by a gunman.
I don't keep guns. A lot of people do. I'd like to see them not keep guns. Too easy for haywire to set in. -rs