With all the things going on today like suicide bombings, the apparent return of the West Nile Virus and of course our good buddy Saddam, we got the chance last week to revisit a story that hasn’t gripped national headlines for a little while: kids with guns.
Anyone who has paid attention to the news lately has certainly heard about the three teenagers in New Jersey who gathered a small arsenal and allegedly planned a carjacking and murder spree. Police have confiscated the teens’ computers to look for more information that may provide a motive. But I think Chris Rock said it best: “Can’t they just be crazy?”
The first thing people are going to ask is whether or not they had violent video games or music with vulgar lyrics on their computers. Who cares? The American people need to realize that sometimes people just have problems. After the Columbine shootings all we heard were questions about video games and what the kids were listening to that would make them do such a thing. They, just like the teens in New Jersey, made a decision for themselves. Maybe, just maybe, they had serious emotional or psychological problems and it wasn’t Marilyn Manson who made them do it.
Millions of kids have played video games with violence in them, but not every one of those kids goes on a killing spree. I don’t mean to come across as insensitive to the families of these people or of the victims’ families in any school yard shooting in the world. The alleged “ringmaster” of the failed carjacking and murder plan in New Jersey was said to have been tormented by his peers and always had to defend his younger brother from bullies and was a very different person after his mother passed away. I cannot pretend to imagine what that must be like and I do sympathize, but these still are not excuses.
The bottom line is that, though I am sure people will focus on music lyrics and violent video games, these are niether reasons for nor causes of people killing each other. The argument that people are a product of their environment and upbringing is about as safe as George W. eating a pretzel. There comes a time in every person’s life when they have to take responsibility for their own actions. If your parents are members of the KKK, that doesn’t mean it is OK for you to join and subscribe to those beliefs because that is how you were raised. Everyone is born with a brain … use it. You can’t blame your actions on your parents, peers, TV, music, etc.
I know that there are still people who don’t agree with me and that is fine. If you think these things cause children to do depraved things, do something. Don’t let your children play those games or watch those movies. Block certain TV channels and Web sites in your house. The excuse that you can’t always be home watching what the kids are doing is pathetic. There are parental controls on computers’ Internet access, cable boxes, etc.
All three of these teenagers in New Jersey, according to CNN.com, each had rifles and shotguns strapped to their backs, handguns, 3-foot-long swords, knives and more than 2,000 rounds of ammunition. These weapons were said to belong to the “ringmaster’s” father. Someone please tell me why a father would have all those weapons in a house with his two children. Why 2,000 rounds of ammunition? Never mind that they were so accessible in the house that these kids could get to them with ease. Why were they there in the first place? Was the Jersey Shore being invaded? Are these not more important questions than how many swear words there were in the songs they listened to?
Let’s all be a little more intelligent this time and focus on the fact that there are people with serious problems that need more attention than the entertainment industry. Talk to your kids rather than yelling at musicians. Maybe then we might have fewer of these tragedies.
– Brendan Reily is a middler journalism major and a member of The News staff. Send comments to Brendan Reilly at [email protected]
