[snip] : Piper: Well, i don't think you can ascribe blame to the kid. In a way he's just as much a victim as the kid he shot. I mean his life is gonna be hell and he probably barely realises what he did.
It turns out this 6 year old boy lived in a rundown crackhouse; his father's in jail, his mother is a user and petty thief, and the rest of his extended family is messed up to. It was reported he'd been shuttled from house to house after his father went to jail, and that in the crackhouse, on top of everything else, he didn't even have a bed. Prior to the shooting, he'd been in fights at school and had stabbed another child with a pencil. His father, from jail, had urged the school to get this kid some sort of therapy, but they didn't do anything. Neighbors of the crack house had urged police to investigate both on account of the associated crime, and because children were known to be living in it. Nothing was done. This kid needs massive amounts of help, not punishment.
: If anybody's guilty, it's those who promote the free use and acquisition of firearms. The gun trade is after aLL just money for blood...
Agreed. The day after the school shooting, a man in Pennsylvania took hostages at a Burger King and McDonalds (of all places, eh), shot two to death and critically wounded three others. Thank God for the Second Amendment -- where would we be without it?
