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Just before Covid, a gun store was robbed in my town. I worked in a different gun store, so we got some of the inside scoop. Proprietor of the robbed store used to work on my computer whenever I fucked it up too badly. The shop was the shittiest one in the county, lodged in a former meat market. The robbers just pulled part of the roof off the building to get into the secure room.
Turned out to be the local high school football team. They stole around fifty guns, fifteen of which have been recovered some seven years later. The recovered guns have been used in at least three homicides so far. One was just recovered at a traffic stop this year, one killed a high school senior just after prom not two weeks ago. Perp there hasn't been identified or caught.
The kids who robbed the place were caught within days. It remains unclear exactly how many people were involved, at least two unnamed juveniles were processed, but shield laws prevent the public knowing anything. Three of the older kids were charged for the robbery, one got no time, other two got three and ten months respectively, despite not cooperating with police in the recovery of the firearms or identification of other perpetrators. Everyone involved was put into a youth criminal diversion program that released them without a criminal record.
The ringleader and one who got the most time, one Travontis (Drink!) Miller, was given the ten month sentence, but due to the protective nature of the diversion program, it will never be public knowledge that he plead guilty to multiple firearm felonies or how long he actually served of that jail term. What we do know is that he was out prior to December of 2021, because that's when he was arrested for a series of other crimes we're not entirely sure what happened.
He was charged with assault and battery (strangulation), robbery and domestic violence, but once again was given protected youth status despite being in his twenties by this point (the program runs until age 24). He also picked up charges of resisting arrest and being in possession of one of the stolen firearms from the original gun store case. These charges too were concealed under the diversion program.
So when people tell me that what we really need to cut down on gun violence in this country is to ensure that every state has a different magazine limit, or force used gun sales into stores, or ban AR-15s, or not allow gun companies to advertise, it makes me irrationally angry. This dude, when he hits 25, will have no criminal record and will be able to pass a background check to buy a firearm legally. At least until his next felony, which I don't expect to take long.
Below are two quote sets for those who didn't read the articles, first the prosecution in the original case:
The judge wasn't interested, and had The Science on his side.
But sure, the problem with gun violence in the US is that Billy Bob put a giggle trigger on his PSA.
Edit: added/fixed links
Being extremely violent as a minor is indicative of a deep genetic behavioral problem that will never be fixed, while slipping up once at the age of 27 is indicative of external pressure such as poverty, conflict, or addiction, which could be fixed with a diversion program. So these judges have it turned on its head, high school aged felons should go to prison for life while older first time felons should be given a second chance more often.
Are you talking about committing the same crime, for the first time, at 15 versus 27?
Yes, like beginning to deal drugs or robbing.
It is observed approximately across the entire world that people (especially men) are worse at impulse control and thinking of consequences in their teens than in their late 20s and onwards. That them being more prone to violence (let alone a nonviolent crime like dealing drugs) is indicative of deep genetic unfixable problems is a claim I do not find even remotely substantiated, to put it mildly.
There are crimes that do indicate deep genetic unfixable problems, but that area is closer to "serial killing" than "drug dealing".
It is a confounding factor that most penitentiary systems I know of engender recidivism, either by leniency or by doing little other than locking first-time criminals in the same social circle as other criminals, while depriving them of opportunities to build a legal and dignifying career.
I agree that first-time criminals should not be housed together with recidivists, but what else could be done to support them? Having one full-time counsellor per four-five first-time offenders that serves as a positive male role and helps them turn their lives around?
It's my impression the positive male role models are best introduced before the teens break away from the social fabric and start working as dead droppers. Actually purging the drug dealer rings instead of the cops grazing off the pawns indefinitely would also help. Unfortunately, such things are against entrenched interests.
I'm far from a pedagogy expect, let alone a criminal pedagogy expert. The exact best way to realign the values of young men whose values are already misaligned is beyond my reach. The folk wisdom is that the conscripted army service shapes them up. Perhaps separate the reformative detachments from the regular college-dropout ones. (Not suggesting to send them to fight - fighting a war should be the privilege for the best men, not the punishment for the worst, at least if you want any respect for the purpose and goals of war in the first place).
It is my impression that "alternative service" in Russia is mostly in dead end low level jobs. Couldn't something be done to enroll youths in enforced, but compensated apprenticeship in trades and such? Some part of that already exists in the army, as I understand - you could get a driving license, for example.
That is not how armies worked between about 1600 and 1970. I would say that the British Empire was built by our worst men (led by some of our best - hence the officer-enlisted divide), and Wellington famously did say that at the time, but the counterargument was that it was actually built by the navy, which did enlist the best men it could find. (whether working-class boys as seamen, middle-class boys as warrant officers' mates and future warrant officers, or smart younger sons of the elite as midshipmen and future officers).
What about press-ganging? Wasn't that just wandering around stealing random people?
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