Latest update April 18th, 2024 12:59 AM
Nov 23, 2020 Letters
Dear Editor,
A recent story involving the slaying of a young man in the prime of his youth caught my attention and for salient reasons I have decided to write on this matter. The story is reported that the two teenagers were friends and one was called for a sleepover at his friend’s house. While there, it is alleged that one of them breached the lock of his parent’s safe and took out the gun and “accidentally” shot the other to his head where he later died of his wound. I immediately began to grieve with the sorrowful mother of the dead teen knowing that a young promising life has been lost, cut down in such a senseless way. But as much as I was sorrowful, my sorrow quickly turned to anger as I questioningly started to put together the pieces of this story.
Now there are many troubling aspects to this episode and the first thing that comes to mind is why would two teenage friends who ought to be down in their books battling with their SBAs be taken up with such a dangerous weapon, why? Instead of devoting their time and energy to study these two were fiddling around with a dangerous weapon, again why? It just boggles the mind to think that this was their preoccupation.
Secondly, where were the seniors in that house, what about the “responsible” adult members of the household? I am talking about the owner of the weapon how responsible was he or she knowing fully well that there are teenage boys present in the home, leaving them unsupervised is simply asking for trouble?
As reported, was this gun properly secured, if at all and could we get the authenticated report of the investigating officers to corroborate that claim? Further, was this gun a legally acquired weapon and was it currently registered? These are pointed questions that deserve sensible answers. Was this gun ever in any illegal activity prior to this incident? Is there a report of these teens ever in possession of this weapon, if so why and for what purpose were they in possession of the weapon? I am more inclined to treat this story with a lot of suspicion. If believable answers to my questions are not forthcoming then that owner should cease being the owner of a firearm. We need licensed firearm holders to be careful and responsible people at all times.
Turning to the accused, I would ask were the teens ever at loggerheads with each other and mention of settling the score with the use of a weapon in this case a gun? I am talking about a dispute over a girlfriend was there ever trouble brewing over a girlfriend, because the shooter friend went straight for his head which is an indication that some malice or some level of hate was involved?
This was not a scene where teenagers were experimenting at a weapon’s find or playing around with a parent’s gun, this was a situation where his aim was directed at a specific target. He did not aim for his friend’s hand or feet he went straight for his head which tells that he wanted to maim or permanently disable him. I would grill the daylight out of him to get down to the bottom of it, a life has been lost and this is in no way a joke. Too many lives have been lost in our country due to the cavalier actions of some gun toting fool and no significant action done to the perpetrator. In fact gun crimes are at an all time high and something has to be done about it; government, opposition, civil society as well as the respective authorities have to wake up to the call and put measures in place to arrest the upsurge.
I have posed these questions to you because gun crimes have been a bugbear for too long now. Too many lives have been lost as a result of this scourge and immediate severe solutions needs to be put in place to deal with it.
Respectfully Submitted,
Neil Adams
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