Stopping young guns

For Boston, simple lessons from a mysterious, violent tragedy

Almost as soon as news came of the bizarre tragedy in Jonesboro, Arkansas -- four children and a teacher executed in a military-style assault on a school by two students -- the search for meaning began. The bloodied sidewalk, the martyred teacher: it was impossible not to feel anger, to want vengeance.

Yet many of the questions raised just don't have simple, satisfying answers. What role did pop culture play? What, really, made two boys snap? And now, how to punish the killers?

Almost immediately, the lynch-mob shouts came to try the children as adults. Perhaps these kids do need to be kept from society; there certainly are people who are beyond rehabilitation. But the rush to keep lowering the age at which a child may be tried as an adult -- the Eddie O'Brien effect -- has a distinct air of futility.

We don't think anyone wants to return to the practices of two or three centuries ago, when children were subject to execution for a wide range of crimes. It was one of the great triumphs of the Chicago reformer Jane Addams and the settlement house movement that a century ago, they helped create a separate justice system for juveniles. That system is not perfect, and the woes it must grapple with have changed. Instead of releasing hard-core youth criminals and sociopaths when they reach adulthood, states should consider transferring them into the adult prison system if circumstances warrant. But the simple principle remains the same: children and teenagers should not be treated as adults before the law.

The press and politicians simplify and sensationalize horrendous crimes such as the Arkansas killing spree. But the horrible realities behind these crimes usually turn out to be too complicated to capture in a headline or sound bite. We need a system that seeks justice, which is complex; not vengeance, which is simple.

Boston has been a national leader in proving that there are real solutions to vexing crime problems -- that prevention can work (see " Keeping Kids Alive," News, June 26, 1997). But before the memory of Jonesboro fades, Boston -- and Massachusetts -- would do well to look ahead and ask: What else can be done to prevent kids from becoming killers?

Restrict children's access to guns. Police report that the suspects in Jonesboro, an 11-year-old and a 13-year-old, had 10 weapons, and plenty of ammunition, in their van. Kids in this country have ready access to guns in their homes; NRA propaganda notwithstanding, it would be easy to change that.

Fifteen states have already passed child-access prevention laws that require gun owners to keep their weapons locked away. If a child brandishes a loaded weapon or uses a gun in a crime, the weapon's owner faces fines or even jail time. The year after Florida passed its law, the first in the nation, accidental gun deaths dropped by 50 percent. Massachusetts now has such a bill pending in the House, where, astonishingly, Speaker Tom Finneran has stopped it cold. How many children must die -- or kill -- before he acts?

Ban most guns. Even more disturbing is the nation's bizarre and reckless obsession with gun ownership. Certainly, it makes sense to allow hunters, after careful background checks and mandatory safety training, to own rifles. But, with narrow exceptions, it is hard to justify the dangers of private gun ownership.

Assault weapons, like the one with a 15-bullet clip used in Jonesboro, are clearly designed for killing people, not hunting. They should be banned. Yet a proposal to do just that languishes in the House -- also a victim of Finneran's maddening foot-dragging.

Handguns, too, should largely be banned. The theory that they are useful for self-defense breaks down in practice: handguns are far more likely to cause an accidental death in the home than they are to stop a criminal. But the well-funded NRA propaganda machine has been able to twist the facts beyond recognition.

Help schools intervene. The gun lobby is right on one point: society deserves blame. But that is no reason to stand paralyzed before the enormity of the problem. The schools are the front lines. That is where to find -- and, with luck, help -- troubled youth.

Yet the system isn't working. The collapse of Dorchester High, long anticipated but much in the news this week, is a perfect example. The school had become a dumping ground for violent kids coming out of the Department of Youth Services. Other principals complain that discipline problems are often transferred around instead of being dealt with.

There is a model for making it work: Community Academy, a separate school for teens who've been in trouble, has been proving that it can turn kids around. Schools superintendent Thomas Payzant has pushed to expand the school, which now accommodates fewer than 100 students, but only another 40 seats will be added. The school -- and the city -- needs more.

Boston should further expand programs like Community Academy, programs that reel kids in from the world of violence. The push to try children as adults isn't a solution -- it's an emotional, irrational admission of defeat.

What do you think? Send an e-mail to letters[a]phx.com.