Dox47 wrote:
The prosecutor has set up a bit of a contradiction here, as they're charging the kid as an adult, which assumes he's rational and fully culpable for his actions, but then charging the parents, implying that they were negligent in not securing the firearm, which isn't really compatible with the "the kid is fully responsible for his own actions" rationale for charging him as an adult. I don't think they can make those charges stick to the parents, this strikes me as showboating by the prosecutor (unless there's something big I don't know).
It has been an increasing trend to go after parents for the errors of their teens. I'm not sure how often it's been successful, but parents get charged quite often.
I don't like charging a 15 year old as an adult, but I think the stark difference between the criminal process for underage offenders and those over 18 pushes prosecutors to cross the age line when a crime has been truly devastating to a community. The better answer would probably be to change the youth process to allow a more natural progression of consequences, but that would require the law to define a lot of gray areas, which is complicated and ripe for its own issues.
The mental health of our youth is a whole other can of worms ... As a society, we are not doing well by our kids.
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Mom to an amazing young adult AS son, plus an also amazing non-AS daughter. Most likely part of the "Broader Autism Phenotype" (some traits).