US boy, 11, held for shooting dead eight-year-old neighbour

[Syt]

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-34450841

US boy, 11, held for shooting dead eight-year-old neighbour

An 11-year-old boy in the US state of Tennessee has been held on suspicion of shooting dead an eight-year-old girl in a row over a puppy.

The boy has been charged with first-degree murder as a juvenile.

According to police, he shot neighbour McKayla Dyer on Saturday evening after she refused to let him see her puppy.

Her mother Latasha said that the two children went to the same school in White Pine, about 200 miles (315km) east of Nashville.

She said the family had had trouble with the boy when they first moved to the area.

"He was making fun of her, calling her names, just being mean to her. I had to go to the principal about him and he quit for a while and then all of a sudden yesterday he shot her," Ms Dyer told WATE-TV.

"She was a precious little girl. She was mommy's girl. No matter how bad of a mood you were in, she could always make you smile."

"I want her back in my arms," she said.

The Gun Violence Archive, a not-for-profit organisation that compiles data on gun violence in the US, says 559 children aged 11 or under have been killed or injured in the United States in gun violence so far this year.

The boy shot the girl from inside his home with his father's 12-gauge shotgun, Jefferson County Sheriff Bud McCoig said.

McKayla was taken to a nearby hospital where she later died.

Neighbour Chastity Arwood told WBIR News that she heard the shot ring out and saw McKayla lying on the grass.

"Trying to comfort her mama and her aunt and her grandma and her grandpa and her sister and her brother was the hardest thing I ever had to do," Ms Arwood said.

The boy, whose identity has not been released due to his status as a juvenile, is scheduled to appear in court again on 28 October.

The shooting took place only two days after a mass shooting at a small town college in Oregon in which nine people were killed.

[Valmy]

Here I would list some statistics covering gun deaths in the United States but unfortunately the NRA has decided information is anti-freedom.

This is why I will never own a gun. For every time one is used to protect against a criminal there are a dozen stories like this. Also I do not really want to kill a criminal. When the revolution starts to overthrow the autocratic government I will borrow one from a neighbor.

[DGuller]

[Yi] These kinds of deaths shouldn't count in our discussion of gun control. [/Yi]

[HisMajestyBOB]

If she had a gun instead of a puppy she could have defended herself.
NRA sponsored gun classes for all Kindergarteners!

[jimmy olsen]

I read somewhere that the US has something like 2.8 times as many firearms per 100,000 people as France, but 49 times as many homicides. Assuming I remember those numbers correctly, why are Americans 17.5 times more murderous than the French?

[Ideologue]

What's the handgun differential?

[Malthus]

What's the handgun differential?

That's a good question: I suspect people are much less likely to use long guns to commit murder. In Canada, of course, there are plenty of long guns (my family own several), but handguns are rare and highly restricted.

[Ideologue]

Yeah, you can't conceal carry a rifle, despite all those scenes in gangster movies where the guy hides a tommygun under his trenchcoat.

[Barrister]

Here I would list some statistics covering gun deaths in the United States but unfortunately the NRA has decided information is anti-freedom.

This is why I will never own a gun. For every time one is used to protect against a criminal there are a dozen stories like this. Also I do not really want to kill a criminal. When the revolution starts to overthrow the autocratic government I will borrow one from a neighbor.

Okay, so I wouldn't go that far.  This involved a shotgun, not a handgun, and thus has lots of non-murderous uses

Instead what this story is about is FOR FUCK SAKES PEOPLE KEEP YOUR FIREARMS LOCKED UP!  How does an 11 year old get their hands on a shotgun and ammunition?  Has no one heard of a gun cabinet, or a trigger lock (or even better - both)?


There's also a side question of whether 11 year olds should be criminally charged or not (I tend to think so, but in Canada you can't be charged until you're 12), but that's a different matter.

[Malthus]

Yeah, you can't conceal carry a rifle, despite all those scenes in gangster movies where the guy hides a tommygun under his trenchcoat.

The "solution" is to saw off the stock and barrel - which is quite illegal here.

[merithyn]

There's also a side question of whether 11 year olds should be criminally charged or not (I tend to think so, but in Canada you can't be charged until you're 12), but that's a different matter.

You have boys close to that age. You know how they think - or rather don't. How can you believe that this kid had any idea what he was doing??

[Ideologue]

Indeed.  I don't even see this necessarily as any evidence of the kid having a particularly evil streak.  The ability to conceive of and understand the consequences of an impulse action like firing a gun are not high in an 11 year old.

Of course, he'd be luckier if were a sociopath: if he's not, fucker will be wasted psychologically forever.

[Valmy]

Okay, so I wouldn't go that far.  This involved a shotgun, not a handgun, and thus has lots of non-murderous uses

Yes...and?

Instead what this story is about is FOR FUCK SAKES PEOPLE KEEP YOUR FIREARMS LOCKED UP!  How does an 11 year old get their hands on a shotgun and ammunition?  Has no one heard of a gun cabinet, or a trigger lock (or even better - both)?

Yes...I am ADD, very absentminded, with have a poor mind for details. And if I have the thing locked up how am I supposed to get to it in the case of self defense anyway? Why would I bring something into my house that could ruin or end the lives of my family without any appreciable advantage to offset it? Insanity? Stupidity?

[Ideologue]

Wait, what's the non-murderous use of a shotgun?  Meat is murder, btw.

[Barrister]

There's also a side question of whether 11 year olds should be criminally charged or not (I tend to think so, but in Canada you can't be charged until you're 12), but that's a different matter.

You have boys close to that age. You know how they think - or rather don't. How can you believe that this kid had any idea what he was doing??

Well no, by oldest is 5 and just started kindergarten.  His level of maturity is miles different from a 10 or 11 year old.

And I see from the original article the kid is being charged in youth court, which has far, far different punishments than adult court does.