Baby Killers

There is a disturbing trend in the last several years. Children who kill.

It seemed to explode onto the scene with the horrific school shootings that started back in the mid-1990's. Since 1996, there have been at least 27 shootings in schools in the US alone by students of thpse schools. The average age of the shooters was about 14 1/2. The oldest was 18-year-old Eric Harris (Columbine) and the youngest a mere 6 years old. The killings left 43 dead students (including many of the shooters), 11 dead teachers/school personel, 5 dead family members (shot before the school killings), 1 student brain dead and 100 others (students and teachers/school personel) injured. That doesn't count those traumatized by the events. The killings occurred in 21 different states from Alaska to Florida, Mississippi to Minnesota, New Mexico to Oklahoma to Pennsylvania. About the only area that doesn't seem to have been touched by school shootings (that are not gang related) is the New England area.

But now the shootings by teens are moving out of the schools and into the homes. In 1999, Nathaniel Abraham became the (then) youngest person ever tried as an adult for murder. In just the first three months of 2010, there have been several stories (linked below) about children who murder or attempt to kill. And what really saddens me is that rather than try to figure out where kids are getting the idea that the best way to settle life's problems is to kill, we're focusing on putting these kids in adult prisons for the rest of their lives. With vengeance and retribution. Rather than trying to rehabilitate or treat these kids, we seek only to lock them up and throw away the key. It's easier that way.

Personally, I think part of the problem is that we live in a society that glorifies violence. Violence is glorified in movies, in music, on video games and on television. Many parents teach their children to hit another child who is picking on them or taunting them, thinking that if the bully is stood up to early enough, their kid won't be bullied anymore. Kids hear their parents say things like "I'm gonna kill you if you get juice on my clean carpet!" or "I'll kill any mother-****** who tries to break into my house and steal my things." Or "I'll kill you if you tell anyone I told you that." And, sadly, far too many children grow up in homes where violence is a common everyday occurrence.They see their mother or father or siblings being beaten or otherwise abused or they themselves are victims of abuse.

The two biggest money-making professional sports in the US— football and hockey— are both full of violence. Many fans of hockey go to the games simply to see the fist fights. Game strategies are built around which players can get into fights and last longest or which have the shortest fuse and are most likely to start a fight. And while football players where pads and other protective gear, the object is still to hit as hard as you can and if the other player gets hurt, well, that's just part of the game. We have professional sports figures being arrested and charged with gun violations. We have professional sports figures involved in other forms of violence: sexual assault, dog fighting, murder, drunk driving accidents where they were the driver. And while some of them do go on to serve jail time, most of them pick up their million dollar a year careers when they get out of jail IF they ever go to jail.

They see "professional wrestlers" beat each other over the head with chairs and there are no real consequences. Five minutes later, the "wrestler" that was being beaten is the one doing the beating.

Far too many of these kids are permitted to play video games that are not age appropriate. They're allowed to play games where they can shoot people with guns and the person they shot always gets up and goes on to play again. And the more realistic the game, the more the line between fantasy and reality remains blurred, even into the kids teens.

Psychological studies have shown that the brain does not develop all of its connections until about the age of 23. Until then, some of the most critical areas of the brain— impulse control, rational thinking, ability to think of long term consequences among them— are not fully developed and therefore the brain as a whole is not properly functioning. We have to get past the idea that these kids know what they're doing and know what their actions are going to cause. Because I don't believe they do. I don't believe they have the capacity to understand the long term consequences of their actions or to appreciate the magnitude of the crimes they commit. These kids are in need of treatment and help, not condemnation and revenge.