Not sure what to make of the Crumbley sentencings. On the one hand, there apparently were opportunities for these parents to intervene and they did not. On the other hand, they’ve become scapegoats of a sort and now pay the price for the unwillingness of Congress to do anything about the proliferation and easy availability of weapons in this country—enough for more than one per each man, woman, and child living here in America.
Saying that last sentence out loud really drives home the insanity. We’re an armed camp, with enough of us, on any given day, sporting an itchy trigger finger or at least tenaciously embracing a late-to-the-party, ill-conceived interpretation of the Second Amendment that has gotten surprisingly good mileage for its adherents.
Maybe the Crumbleys were afraid of their son, afraid to intervene. Maybe they didn’t pick up on the signs, or just didn’t care. I haven’t followed the trial or sat on the jury. In any event, a precedent has been set, a message sent, for good or ill, right or wrong. The particulars of this case may have warranted the verdict, but we shouldn’t let it cloud another piece of our reality: there are too many guns available in a milieu tainted by paranoia, criminal intent, and a willing, unquestioning, maybe convenient misread.
3 Cents' 