When I was bored during my teenage years, I did one of two things: either found something to do or simply dealt with being bored. I wouldn't say that I was bored a lot of the time -- there were high school and college, as well as get-togethers with friends -- but I was bored more than a few times. As a loner by nature, dealing with boredom from time to time was part of my maturation process. I can say with absolute confidence that never, not once, did killing someone seem like a great idea to cure my boredom. It wasn't even a bad idea. It just wasn't an idea.
Georgia teens James Francis Edwards Jr., Chancey Allen Luna, and Michael Dewayne Jones did have the idea ... and a gun ... and they acted out their boredom-ending idea. Last Friday, as he was out for a jog, Christopher Lane, a 22-year-old Australian college baseball player who was studying here, was gunned down by the youths. (Edwards and Luna are being charged with murder; Jones is being charged with accessory to murder after the fact. All three are being charged as adults.)
Had Lane done something terrible to any one or all of the youths? No. Did the youths mistake him for someone else? No. Then what was the reason for the shooting of Lane?
Boredom.
Yes, that was the reason, boredom. According to police chief Danny Ford, "They saw Christopher go by, and one of them said: ‘We were bored and didn’t have anything to do, so we decided to kill
somebody’.” Christopher Lane was shot at random . . . and in the back.
Even if my parents had a gun in the house, which they didn't, I still wouldn't consider shooting someone as a viable option. What we have here are not simply under-engaged teens who were ill-equipped to deal with their boredom. What we have here are psychopathic cowards.
The youths are also reported saying that they did it for "the fun of it". I wonder if it still seems like fun to them now.
Terry
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