View Single Post
Old December 11, 2005, 11:11 PM   #1
RevJim
Senior Member
 
Join Date: September 2, 2005
Location: Greenville, TX
Posts: 104
New Way of Thinking

I live near Texarkana, a town of about 60,000 people situated on the border of Texas and Arkansas (two police departments, two court systems, etc.). Last Tuesday a salesman at a used car dealership failed to return to work after going out on a test drive. Someone wanted to test drive a BMW 700 series with all the trimmings. The dealership took the driver's information and the salesman left. When he failed to return, the manager called the police, and a search began in both Texas and Arkansas. The next morning the salesman's body was found along a road with at least one bullet wound. That afternoon, two suspects, a male and a female, were arrested and a third was being sought.

Now, here is the horrible part. The male suspect was 17, the female suspect was 16, and the third suspect being sought was 12! Apparently, the 17 year old convinced the company to let him test drive the BMW, then somehow picked up the 12 year old, shot the salesman, and went for a joy ride in the BMW. They drove the car to a park to play some basketball, drove around after the game, and then ditched the car. The female suspect picked the other two up when they ditched the car. She apparently turned the other two in. This was not a gang execution or initiation; this was two youngsters who were willing to kill a man over a joy ride that lasted a couple of hours!

My question is this: had the salesman been carrying a weapon, would he have been been able to bring himself to shoot a 17 year old and a 12 year old? The man in the Tacoma Mall said that he did not shoot the 17 year old. Could you pull the trigger on a 12 year old? How many times would you even dream that a 12 year old would shoot you?

I am afraid that we must change our way of thinking. We cannot approach the criminal with rationality and logic because they do not think rationally or logically. (I.e., surely no one would kill a man over a joy ride!) It sounds so caloused and cruel to say that all people are potential threats to us. So if anyone pulls a gun, male, female, old, young, very young, they are all threats. But could you live with yourself for shooting a 12 year old?

I am not new to the wickedness of people. But this seems to be a new low. And it should cause all of us to stop and think: could you pull the trigger on a 12 year old?

Jim
RevJim is offline  
 
Page generated in 0.02322 seconds with 8 queries