In 2002 Joshua Geier shot and killed his mother while she was on the telephone to a friend. Prosecutors claimed Joshua retrieved a rifle from a case in the shed, locked his sister’s in the shed, and then in “an intentional act of murder” shot his mother at close range. After murdering his mother Geier was said by neighbours to have shown “no emotion”.
As the investigation got under way it was discovered that Joshua had committed similar acts, once shooting a girl in the stomach with an air rifle. He had also produced a gun at Bible school and threatened to shoot another boy. The gun was confiscated, but the incident was never reported.
In 1998, according to federal health authorities, 1,200 American children ages 10 to 19 committed suicide with a firearm. There have also been other reported cases of children, accidently or otherwise, killing with firearms. But what leads 12 year old boys like Joshua to commit such terrible acts?
In their book “Children Who Murder: A Psychological Perspective” David Shumaker and Robert Heckel discuss several factors. These include the breakdown of the extended family network, more single parent families, higher divorce rates and the decline in support systems for young children. They believe these factors disrupt the support systems’ ability to instill positive social and moral values in the young.
How do you feel about this explanation? How do you feel about families keeping guns in the home, locked up or otherwise?
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