Quote:
Originally Posted by Snell41
Plenty, and they were all mistakes of mine. Thankfully none of them were life threatening to me or anyone else. But those mistakes were mine. And if I owned guns and they ended up in the wrong hands it's my fault. Period. If they ended up in the hands of a mentally ill person who lives in my home it's doubly my fault! She owned those guns, she is responsible for those guns. Period. I don't care the circumstance that put them in her son's hands. They were hers to care for and safeguard. Period.
You can not say that laws should be written for those who are responsible and turn around and defend an adult who was irresponsible.
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I agree at least in part. I guess Warfish is thinking that maybe the guns were locked up safely and the kid stole the combination to his mom's safe. I think you can make a pretty good argument that it was irresponsible for most of those guns to have been in the house in the first place. These points have been reported on again and again:
1. The kid had issues. Serious ones, of social maladjustment, of which the mom was well aware. He was unable to make eye contact. He had public "episodes" and had been shunted from school to school. His mother was considering having him institutionalized (although this last bit I'd like to see more evidence of).
2. He had no friends, no social life. Whatever.
3. He lived in the darkened basement of the house, playing hour after hour of violent video games. Alone.
4. He had a dysfunctional obsession with weaponry.
And it was in this situation that the mom decided it was an OK idea to start collecting guns? Including assault rifles? And she took this son (whom she told baby sitters to never turn their backs on) to shooting ranges?
I'm a dad and I know often parents, especially moms, have a hard time seeing things they don't want to see in their kids. But this is also post-Columbine. It's not like parents haven't been warned. And clearly the kid's mom was very aware that he had severe issues, even if she did not understand their exact nature and the extent of what he was capable of.
I will grant that no parent could ever envision their kid doing what Adam Lanza did. But at the very least given his behavior she should have considered him a candidate for suicide. And considered that proximity to guns was not in her son's best interest. She showed horrific judgment in that respect.
If it turns out she left the weapons unsecured, or poorly secured, then in addition to horrific judgment many will argue, with justification, that she has the blood of 20 children on her hands. But that part I agree with Warfish we just don't know yet.