If you can’t tell the difference between fantasy and reality by the time you’re 10, I’d say that’s a form of mental deficiency.
I wonder if the judge’s agenda isn’t anti-video game, but instead is against trying kids as adults. I have a slightly different perspective on this due to my job (and even still, most of the kids I deal with know that death = permanent from a very young age), but the adolescent brain is still very different from the adult brain, and studies have shown that people don’t really have a fully adult grasp of the long-term consequences of actions until about age 25 or so. Looking back at your own life, do any of you think that’s particularly untrue?
Well, in Ohio, since the offense was committed with a firearm and the kid was 17, they wouldn’t have that mental examination in the first place.
It doesn’t have to come down to consequences, just good or bad. Little kids know good from bad, even if they don’t understand why something is one of those things. Consequences don’t come into it–in a normal person’s head, shooting someone is something you simply don’t do. Not because they stay dead. Not because you’ll go to jail. Just because you don’t.
That’s actually a horrible way to look at it. ‘Just because’, isn’t a valid reason for anything.
I’m talking about the thought process. Honestly, if it were me the idea of shooting my parents would never have entered my mind. Just like I know the sky is blue–I know why, but I don’t think about it because all I need to know on the subject for my daily life is “The sky is blue”. You don’t need to reason this stuff out every single time you think about it.
Heh, when I was 17 I wanted to shoot my parents a few times. I reasoned it out.