Children murdering children

The news is, by now, familiar. A child’s life ended by another child with a gun. Compounding the tragedy is the fact that the dead boy’s parents had taken in the boy who would end up killing their son because he was otherwise alone in this world. They tried to do something good, and it cost them dearly. How will they ever overcome the grief of their loss?

Condolences. Everyone is quick to offer a passing remark. Maybe a few shed some tears for this tragedy. Lots of armchair quarterbacks on social media. Politicians lining up to a podium, reeking of hypocrisy. An outpouring of community support in the days after a child dies in such a preventable way.

But then the weeks pass. The flowers wilt. A couple months later, those politicians will forget their son’s name. And yet their private grief will remain, deafening in the silence of their community abandoning them.

The trial will resurrect some of the public interest. The tragedy is fresh again, but the communal grief for the family is gone. Hoping that their son’s death will not be in vain, that it will prevent a similar tragedy, is now proven to be a false hope.

Society’s guilt at the failures leading up to this tragedy, all the things that could have been done long before a 13-year-old brought a firearm into his friend’s loving home, means that we all collectively can’t look a grieving mother in the eye.

We have failed. As a community, we failed to intervene years ago when the boy first misbehaved. We failed when he became effectively homeless. We failed when he was able to access a firearm from an irresponsible adult, or another child. We failed to pass laws that would have held him accountable for multiple previous instances of possession of a dangerous weapon by a minor.

We will fail both of those boys when he is charged with a lesser crime and serves little (or no) time for robbing a loving family of their son, his friend. And we will continue to fail all of our children when we ignore that laws must change to alter the violent path that too many of our youth find themselves on.

Restorative justice looks great as a platform. Family reunification sounds like a compassionate solution. Serious youthful offender status for a 13-year-old seems excessively punitive.

But when children have to escape homes with uncaring parents, find themselves repeatedly causing trouble without consequence, and escalate their crimes all the way to murder, our compassion must be replaced with action.

Our outrage cannot wilt with the flowers on a grave. Our insistence at effecting real change for the youth in our community cannot wane with time. How many times will we collectively cry alongside a sobbing mother before we actually do something about it?

If this tragedy fades into quiet ignominy, like so many before it, how can we face another grieving family next time? How can we face ourselves?

Shawna Pfeiffer is a life-long Dona Ana County Resident, graduate of NMSU, small business owner, hobby farmer, dog-lover, outdoor enthusiast and mother to two young children. She can be reached at srpfeiffer1@gmail.com.