The Kid

Been a while since I have written in my blog, but this week’s events motivated me to sit down to the computer.  As some may have heard, the greater Cincinnati area experienced its first school shooting this week.  Luckily, no one was killed, but 4 Jr. High school students suffered wounds.  Of course the entire school and community were traumatized and now a 14-year old student sits in jail awaiting a decision that will affect the rest of his life.  

The mystery behind this event is ‘Why?’  By every account that has been published/broadcasted the Shooter was well liked, not bullied, a member of the wrestling team; in other words not the usual profile of a young shooter.  According to his friends, that day he was in good spirits, laughing and socializing with his friends, nothing out of the ordinary.  He evidentially mentioned to a few people that he was carrying a gun.  The next mystery of course, is why didn’t someone say something?  

Around Noon he walked into the school cafeteria, waited for the security guard to leave the room and then pulled out the gun and shot two students.  Two others were wounded in the chaos that followed.  He immediately ran out of the school, dropped the gun and headed for the woods.  The police found him very quickly with a K-9 unit.

My heart bleeds for this young man and everyone in the community, but especially for the Shooter.  Because unlike most of those caught in this violent web, this young man was not estranged, not bullied, not psychologically damaged, not ostracized, not an outsider.  He was a normal kid.

‘Kid’ is the operative word here.  New research indicates that the human brain is not fully mature until 30-40 years of age.  Prior research indicated that by the mid-20’s the brain is mature.  Whichever it is, this kid was nowhere near either age.  So, given that he was a ‘normal’ 14-year old, what led up to this tragedy?  Too many violent video games?  Too many cop shows on TV?  No education regarding gun use in a home that owns guns?  Extreme immaturity?  Because for sure he is old enough to understand the consequences of using a gun.  Any of the above, all of the above and probably many more.

What I think may be overlooked is that there is a big difference between intellectually understanding the purpose of a gun.  The ONLY purpose is to kill.  No one can argue with that.  But does a 14-year old have the emotional maturity to comprehend the consequences to his life, his victims’ lives, the impact on his family, etc.?  I suspect not.  Because until you hold a gun in your hand, pull the trigger and KILL something/someone all the rhetoric is hypothetical, especially for a child.  

So now this young man is waiting in jail to learn if he will be tried as an adult or a juvenile.  The system will no doubt fail him as surely as we all failed him in the first place; because when he made the decision to take a gun to school, we all failed him.  He will either spend the next 7 years sitting in a juvenile center or the next 10-20 years in an adult prison, no place for a child.

In my opinion the resolution to this case is not a juvenile center or a prison.  It is 7 years of court arranged psychological counseling, gun use training, and community service in a hospital, especially the trauma unit.  It will serve no purpose to lock this young man up for 7+ years.  Let’s step up to the plate and make sure all the resources possible are available to him so that he never makes this kind of decision again.