| Does he deserve a life sentence? Probably. Even if it is in no way his fault (something I would dispute), then the possibility of him reoffending (snapping again) would suggest he should not be in public. In any case, the individuals have to accept a share of responsibility for their actions. A lot of kids are bullied at school, not many of them try to kill everyone. There are a lot of reasons why this is the case, one of them falls on the choices that the individuals make.
What I see as the biggest problem is the tendancy to blame him entirely -- without reference to the context in which it happened. While he must accept some responsibility, so must the entire community within which it happened. I noticed that soon after the killings, there were moves to blame Marilon Manson (and other people). There seemed to be a concerted effort by the entire community to blame anyone except themselves. In the aftermath of these killings, I saw a lot of blame-shifting: efforts to blame some- (any-) one else. If the media is to be believed, no-one was responsible for these killings. It is probably closer to the truth to say everyone was responsible to some degree.
This is the real problem and why I expect things like this will happen again. |