In article , Cathy Weeks
says...

AlexT wrote in message
...

I'd say that boy lost his life due to the actions of a 44 year old adult
who was so angry about something, that he did not stop and think before
taking action. Had he paused a moment before pulling the trigger, he
might have thought "what I'm about to do could end someone's life, ****
I better not do it, I'll call the cops, or get their rego number instead".

What planet are you living on? I'm not saying that he should have
killed the kid, or used his gun, but calling the cops or "asking"
nicely often backfires when the ones who got their rists slapped by
the cops escalate, and start doing it at 3am, and running before the
cops can get there.

We don't know the whole story. Maybe this had been going on for
months, at all hours of the day, and they were doing it to torment
him.


Oh, pulllleeze.

The best you can argue is that this isn't murder one. This is a good-old
fashioned case of stupidly killing someone in anger. The man who shoots his
wife caught en-flagrante is still a murderer, the gang member who shoots another
banger because 'he was in my face' is still a murderer. Bernie Getz was a
murderer. There really aren't that many murders which are truly cold and
unprovoked. This is like blaming road rage on traffic.

We're responsible for our actions, including reactions - there's little
difference in practice between the two anyway. If it were a problem - he should
have taken it to the authorities. And it's completely possible that, if you're
anxious to blame things on who has irritated whom, the man had irritated the
teens by previously registering trivial complaints and yelling at them for more
normal car activities. Which doesn't excuse the teens either, but I put
disturbing the peace and murder on whole different planes of evil. I'm
wondering if certain respondants here really find them comparable. Do you??

Although I'm with you that we needn't be blaming this on guns, though it suits
some folk's agenda nicely to do that.

Banty