Elmo's Shocking Death

Gun rights activists? I dunno. But coming down hard on a parent in a situation like this can be incredibly divisive and will cause a significant portion of the public to be outraged.

There is a strong argument that a hellacious criminal sentence for a parent whose child found a loaded weapon and harmed another runs counter to the goals of our criminal justice system. The parent already must live with the grief of the lost child. The remaining children are now to be raised without a parent, in many cases subjecting them to foster care. Hefty punishment rarely acts as a deterrent. The parent's criminal negligence isn't devoid of deserving punishment, but the question is how much is appropriate. All we'd be accomplishing is quenching societal blood lust.

I say that as someone who has worked in a prosecutor's office that chose to file voluntary manslaughter charges against a mother whose gang-affiliated boyfriend left a revolver lying around which one child used to kill another. I also say it as someone who is in favor of harsh punishment for violent crime.

 

I'm agreeing with you. There's nothing that will be done here. Ever.