Why do we take gun crimes more seriously than DUI?
Oct 30, 2013, 1:21 PM | Updated: 2:03 pm
Dori Monson says there is a knee-jerk reaction to offer hefty penalties for gun crimes, but not for driving under the influence which can be just as deadly. (AP Photo/file)
(AP Photo/file)
Taken from Wednesday’s edition of The Dori Monson Show.
We had a story a few days about an 11-year-old boy who walked into a school in Vancouver, Wash. with a gun and 400 rounds of ammo.
The kid sounds like he’s just incredibly troubled, as you might imagine. The kid said he heard voices in his head and he was going to kill a kid who was bullying a buddy of his.
The deputy prosecuting attorney on Tuesday in court said they’re really worried this kid just really doesn’t understand the gravity of this situation.
“He’s not taking this seriously,” said Clark County deputy prosecutor Rick Olson.
The kid in court had a profane outburst as well. The boy swore at the commissioner and then said to deputies, “get their (expletive) hands off me.”
This is an 11-year-old kid. He has been charged with attempted murder for bringing a gun to school and 400 rounds of ammo.
I remember when my kids were 11, there was still so much innocence. Can you imagine how messed up his life is that, that language is just routine for him? And that his solution to a buddy getting bullied was to bring a gun to kill the bully? That is a seriously messed up kid.
And I’m not here to argue against the attempted murder charge. But I find it unbelievable to consider that an adult who drinks and drives in our state does not get charged with attempted murder.
Why not? Is a car every bit as deadly as a gun? Absolutely it is. Do adults who drink and drive have the power to reason maybe more than an 11-year-old whose life is so messed up that he’s profane, he has access to a gun, and he has a mind with voices telling him to shoot somebody else?
And we charge this kid with attempted murder, but adults who drink and drive, or adults who crash into somebody, they’re not charged with attempted murder.
We are so messed up in our society with how we treat guns versus how we treat deadly automobiles with a drunk behind the wheel.
It’s a knee-jerk reaction, guns are horrible and evil – attempted murder. Why don’t we do the same thing with automobiles when there’s a drunk behind the wheel?
Oh they have a sickness, it’s alcoholism. Are you telling me this kid is not sick with voices in his head and that kind of language at age 11?
We are messed up in a society that we don’t charge drunks who drive with attempted murder, but we charge an 11-year-old kid who brings a gun to school and doesn’t fire it with attempted murder. That is a disparity of justice that none of us should tolerate.
Taken from Wednesday’s edition of The Dori Monson Show.
Related:
11-year-old’s trouble with authority, violent side on display in courtroom
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