Rick wrote:

He shot the kid with a single shot .410 shot gun. The smallest shot
gun made, and not a war weapon. The kid wasn't innocent, he knew the
old guy was tweaked about his lawn and walked on it repeatedly. So
did his parents. I'm not defending the murder of an unarmed and
stupid teenager, but guns and gun laws had very little to do with it.

Except that ready access to a gun makes it _so_ much easier for nutters to
do something leathal when they snap. The alternative is a lot of yelling
and frothing at the mouth and sometimes swinging a kitchen knife or shovel.
Sure you can kill somebody with a kitchen knife but its so much easier
easier with a gun.


Lack of parenting and respect for others property, the arrogance of
youth, combined with mental illness had everything to do with it. FWIW
if a tweaked old man threatens to shoot you with a shot gun if you
don't quit walking on his lawn, don't laugh, cuss at him and tell to
"just try it". Our society murdered Martin just as surely as Martin
murdered the boy.


Youth has always thumbed its nose a authority, shown disrespect and raised
the ire of their elders: this is nothing new. Sure the mental health of the
perpetrator and the flaws of society at large bear most of the blame for the
cause but if it wasn't for the convenient gun his chance of doing real harm
would have been so much less. This argument that because there are other
causes, that having a gun is not the primary cause, is very weak once you
look at the whole process not just the causes.

We'll need those guns and bullets as we transition into whatever
thieving rich get richer system seeks to replace capitalism in the US.
Couple of tweaked old men with .410s placed at the doors of democratic
town hall meetings might calm things down and allow debate to proceed.

A dark prediction and a darker solution.

David