Wednesday, August 21, 2013

Unthinkably tragic consequences flow from teens' boredom in nonmetro Oklahoma

This tragic story out of Duncan, Oklahoma got a lot of media attention yesterday.  Apparently, the shooting death of a 22-year-old Australian by teenagers in the central Oklahoma town has been front-and-center of Australian news since it happened last Friday.  Here's the lede from NPR's report:
The killing of an Australian man who was in the U.S. on a baseball scholarship has brought grief to his hometown and to the small Oklahoma town where he was shot to death. Three teens have been arrested for the crime; one suspect says they simply had nothing better to do, the police report. 
Christopher Lane, 22, was reportedly shot in the back as he jogged down a road in Duncan, Okla., in the middle of the afternoon last Friday. He was a victim of random violence, police say, after three teens — ages 15, 16 and 17 — saw him pass a house they were in. They allegedly got in a car, followed Lane and shot him.  
The Duncan newspaper quotes the city's police chief as saying that the boys were bored and "just wanted to see [someone] die, or kill someone." Wow, that's some response to "boredom." NPR notes that the teenagers have led tragic lives.  

In Australia, former Deputy Prime Minister Tim Fischer made this statement:
Tourists thinking of going to the USA should think twice. ... This is the bitter harvest and legacy of the policies of the NRA that even blocked background checks for people buying guns at gunshows. 
People should take this into account before going to the United States. 
I am deeply angry about this because of the callous attitude of the three teenagers [but] it's a sign of the proliferation of guns on the ground in the USA. 
There is a gun for almost every American.
Meanwhile, a correspondent for an Australian broadcast station, in Duncan to report the story, stated:
In Australia it's waking up and finding that a nice young man with a lovely American girlfriend is gunned down and his body was found on the side of the street.  In the Bushland that's frightening.
I find interesting his labeling of Australia--apparently in its entirety--"Bushland."

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