The shocking news that a father methodically planned the execution of his two teenage children has reignited the gun debate. The fact that he carried out the killing with two legally owned hand guns will throw attention on the licensing process that allowed this to happen. Unfortunately, it seems that this father was both a cunning and vengeful man and he took the best part of a year to bring his plan to fruition. The motive seems to be a custody battle.
Love and hate are separated by a thin line in the human psyche. When attachments sour the dividing of assets causes friction and children of that relationship are often central to claims of dispossession. In this instance, the family sought to keep their home address from their estranged father and they lived with an element of fear. This is a situation all too common in our society.
The outcome of this murder will be a tightening of the law on hand gun licensing. That will be welcome but if it prevents law abiding people having access to shooting clubs it will not stop future murders of this kind. The underworld is rife with smuggled hand guns and anyone with money will always be able to access such a firearm, and those who experience difficulty will simply use a different type of weapon.
The creation of the family court was supposed to bring in " no fault " divorce and remove the friction of ending relationships. The aim of the court was a fair division of assets and to safeguard the best interests of any children of that union. Unfortunately, that depended on the people involved being sane and fair minded. Many are far from rational and in some mindsets a spouse if regarded as " property " with a consequent lack of freewill. If the matrimonial breach lacks the agreement of the other party stalking and violence are common.
We have AVO's to separate the combatants, and they are rarely worth the paper they are written on. A big part of the work inflicted on police revolves around domestic disputes and the courts can deliver incarceration for persistent offenders, but fortunately murder is an uncommon extremity. No doubt the coroner's enquiry will uncover aspects of these child murders where this outcome should have been apparent to trained eyes but it is also evident that the perpetrator was a respected executive and the family kept to themselves. Too often tragedy is hidden away well out of sight and only becomes public when it bursts onto media headlines.
A thoughtful re-examination of gun licensing laws would be welcome, but help in settling dangerous situations would be more practical. Where a vengeful person is deemed a continuing danger the removal of those in danger to another state and with a new identity would be a necessity. It would take the coordination of government agencies to make that happen.
Harsher gun laws would be a knee jerk reaction. It would be unlikely to prevent this type of crime.
No comments:
Post a Comment