I’m all for due process and fair treatment of the accused. However, I suppose there are multiple eyewitnesses to this crime. Two innocent people are dead, others injured. The pain, suffering and losses will radiate outward to include dozens or hundreds of others. Is there a compelling reason this person shouldn’t be strung up in fairly short order, a matter of days at the maximum?
In some countries, adolescents experiencing identity crises can get access to mental health professionals who can help them work out their issues. Here in 'Merica, we send them to church, let them date the pastor’s daughter, and give them easy access to handguns.
Yep. That works.
Yup. It’s called The United States Constitution.
Does the Constitution mandate the specific time frame for a trial to be conducted, evidence to be heard and a jury to render its verdict?
Nathaniel Jouett, 16, started attending Living Word Church of God three months ago … “His mind had to snap."
Makes sense. Religion does that to people.
So now we can add public libraries to the roster of places where you can risk life and limb at the hands of some whacked-out kid with a gun:
Churches - Check
Schools - Check
Restaurants - Check
Movie Theaters - Check
Nightclubs - Check
Political Gatherings - Check
Hospitals - Yep
Funeral Parlours - Not that I know of. That’s clearly the place to be! Climb in that fancy box and you’ll be safe as houses. Just make sure they don’t close the lid on you.
As a trustee of a public library, this makes me shiver. Although as demyankee points out, we should not really be surprised.
Sounds like this kid decided to find inner peace by committing suicide-by-cop. And then either failed or found he could not carry through. In any case, TOO MANY GUNS OUT THERE!
How difficult it must have been for this 16 year old to obtain two handguns!
I imagine a resourceful person could arrange the purchase of a Stinger missile in this country.
Thoughts and prayers. ™ But those thoughts never are about mental health care access or gun control. And prayers without action are meaningless too.
I was just going to say, “I’m sure the Pastor has a background in clinical psychology and has a thorough, uninterrupted, unbiased view of the youth’s psyche.”
Either the kid had severe undiagnosed mental health issues or someone isn’t saying something.
It’s really hard not to myopically jump to conclusions, between the current slant of churches as “dedicated defenders of epistemological ignorance” in America and the fact that the attack was carried out at a library (the solid metaphors for our abandoned foundations of democracy through knowledge) but who knows.
… I got a phone call mid-sentence and totally forget where I was going with this. 
You were going to tell us how those pretzel nuggets filled with peanut butter are inspired decadence. Just a guess. I know I was thinking it.
“It’s just more than we can comprehend. I don’t know what happened,” Stevens said.
Yeah, terrorists are hard to figure out that way.
Funny when an upstanding young Christian boy is a terrorist, all the gymnastic mental contortions people go through to excuse it.
All that distracting nougat!
Oh, God. Now I’m thinking of these steamers I had at this place in Salem, MA earlier this summer… so good.
What’s your hurry if he’s going to be dead forever?
US Capitol
I think there is a value to society in witnessing punitive consequences for criminal behavior by others. If in your youth your brother stole a candy bar at the grocery and your parents grounded him 7 years later for the deed I doubt the event would have served as an example to you of the perils of shoplifting. Our justice system has separated the criminal act from the resulting sanctions due to the extreme time between the two. An entire generation of the family survivors of a murder victim can die and be buried before the perp pays the ultimate penalty.
God works in mysterious ways. And since nobody can solve the mystery, let’s cut Him out of the process.
“It’s such a senseless tragedy, and there really isn’t a reason for it,” Lansford told reporters Tuesday. “I think when it’s all said and done, you can come up with a lot of explanations. But I don’t think anyone will ever be able to put a reason on why these kinds of things happen.”
Actually, I feel pretty confident that I can. Our fascination with unfettered access to guns.