Young Guns

From my Weblog: http://icymarch.blogspot.com/?/2001_03_01_icymarch_archive.html

Young Guns

Another school shooting in the news today, a sad story that it seems is all to common these days. It appears the warning signs were there, the kid was telling his friends he was going to do it but nobody wanted to believe it. When pressed he said he was only joking, so they let it slide. They didn't want to get the kid in trouble for a joke, but now he's in the worst trouble of his life and a couple innocent kids are dead.


It's hard to say for sure what goes through a kid's head, what makes him want to show up in school one day and start blowing his classmates away. Here's my speculation, for what it's worth, my guess at the "pieces to the puzzle" that could lead to a tragedy like Santana High's.


Teenage years can be a difficult time, especially if you're a skinny dorky kid that the other kids pick on. Kids can be very cruel, and really torment other kids that don't fit in. Other students said Andy was routinely taunted by the kids, but appeared to laugh it off. My guess is the taunting bothered him a lot more than he let on.


Andy recently moved here with his dad, coming from a small town. Kids love to pick on the "new kid" in school, especially if you appear small or weak. And if the kids know they're getting to you, they'll harass you even more. Trying to fight back is useless if you're smaller and outnumbered, you'll just get your ass kicked and get harassed twice as much the next day.


You learn that you have to "laugh it off", pretend it doesn't bother you, when you're really boiling inside. Maybe you can go home and get some sympathy from your mom, a shoulder to cry on. But what if your parents are divorced and you're living with your dad, like Andy? Most dads aren't much good for sympathy in these situations, they tend to be "old school". They'll just give you advice like "You gotta learn to stick up for yourself", or "ignore them and they'll get tired of it and stop" or some other such bullshit. (I know, I've said those things to my son, not much help, really.)


So, what can you do if you're not happy with your life and you don't have a shoulder to cry on or anyone to talk to? Drugs and alcohol might seem like a good way to escape reality, lots of kids and adults seem to think so, and Andy was known to do his share of both. The thing is if you're really unhappy about things, once you come down from your high your problems are all still there waiting for you, and they might seem even worse. Still, lots of kids drink and do drugs and don't turn into campus killers, so why did he?


Another piece to the puzzle: Teenage boys tend to do stupid things, I think because they aren't fully mature and don't seem to grasp the potential consequences of their actions. I put this under the category of "It seemed like a good idea at the time, but what the hell was I thinking?", as in that would have been my only defense if some of the things I did as a teenager had resulted in serious injury or death. Here's some of my examples of dumb things I did back then: Making homemade bombs and molotov cocktails to blow things up for fun. Taking my mom's car to go joyriding before I had a license and really knew how to drive. Driving my first car (a beat up old Chevy with half bald retread tires) 110 miles an hour down a big hill on the highway because I wanted to see how fast it could go. Driving under the influence of alcohol and drugs, one time to the point of falling asleep at the wheel and waking up just barely in time to avoid slamming into the side of a cliff at 60 miles an hour. I have a few others, but you get the idea. Fortunately for me, none of these things caused any death or destruction. (Just lucky, I guess.)


Something else to consider: When you're a teenager you tend to naturally have a lot of severe emotional ups and downs, probably influenced by surges of hormones, part of the changes from child to adult. I remember when I was about 14 or 15 this kid that was the class bully who used to pick on me threw a broom handle through the front spokes on my bike when I was riding down the street, causing me to crash and get banged up pretty bad while he ran away laughing. At the time I was so mad I wanted to kill him. I had fantasies of pushing him into the ravine behind the school and throwing rocks at him until he was dead, and then throwing more rocks at his body. (Pretty warped, huh?)


In that state of mind, I wonder what I would've done if somebody had handed me a loaded gun? (I like to think I wouldn't have been able to shoot him, but can I really be sure?) The thing is, Andy's dad had guns, lots of them. And one thing that teenage boys are good at is getting their hands on things they aren't supposed to have. I'm not oppsed to people owning guns, but if you choose to do so, you must keep them locked away securely, and make damn sure not to leave the keys out where the kids could get ahold of them.


Since Andy was able to get his hands on the gun and ammo, I think his dad is largely responsible for the death and injury Andy caused. And since Andy is a minor, his father should be held liable for the damages, as I think all parents should be liable for the actions of their children until they are of legal age. I think that parents need to be much more involved with their children's lives in general, I believe that doing so would prevent a lot of these types of tragedies. So, do I think Andy is blameless? No, I think he must face the consequences of his actions. What about punishment? Should he get the death penalty? Considering his age I would say no, but his life is pretty much ruined now no matter what penalty they give him.


They said that he was grinning as he gunned the kids down. In my mind I can picture him in that mode, still acting out his fantasy, shooting those kids and thinking "That'll teach you, you're not laughing at me now, are you!" But I saw a clip on the news last night of Andy being driven away in the police car and from the expression on his face he seemed shocked, as if he were starting to realize the reality of his actions. As if to say "My God, what have I done? It seemed like a good idea at the time, but what the hell was I thinking?" I've seen it on the news before. A teenage kid smashed his car while driving drunk, killing one of his buddies. He had that same look on his face as he was being led away by the police. His life is ruined now too.

posted by cy at 12:04 AM 3/30/01