Looks like a Guns in the News story to me. Nice of you to join us, nicer would be to check out the local customs.
I see that there is an ongoing investigation into the background to the incident you cite, and that there are facts that have been determined in the course of that investigation that have not been disclosed to the public.
As I'm sure you know, this could not have happened in Canada. Not that a child might not come into the possession of a handgun in Canada (although that's rather more unlikely), but the child could not be charged with an offence if it happened:
http://www.canlii.org/ca/sta/c-46/sec13.htmlCriminal Code
PART I
General
Child under twelve
13. No person shall be convicted of an offence in respect of an act or omission on his part while that person was under the age of twelve years.
Canadian children (and children in many other places, I daresay) are not regarded as having the capacity to form the requisite intent to commit criminal offences, largely because of their lack of judgment and deficient ability to assess the consequences of their actions.
The 11-year-old in question here
appears to have formed the intent to hand a firearm over to an appropriate adult. Expecting the child to know which appropriate adult was appropriate, i.e. which choice would not lead to breaking a law, is rather much to expect.
So it looks to me like what was inappropriate here was the law that permitted 11-year-olds to be charged with breaking laws when they aren't capable of figuring out how to both do the right thing and avoid breaking a law. To a child's mind, that law would have created a real catch-22 in this situation.
What were your thoughts?
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