Just want to point out there is a whole lot more impact than ‘two empty chairs’ at Thanksgiving. Everyone who witnessed this was traumatized, I know families considering pulling their students from Ingraham High, and everyone’s general sense of safety has been rattled. I’m not arguing in favor of trying as a child or adult, but this portrait painted here leaves out half the stakeholders.

@4 that's why they made guns, because they can't kill anyone more quickly or effectively than the blades and clubs people had already been using. Same reason stabbings in countries with stricter gun control result in death at the same scale as shootings here. Right? (Spoiler, UK had 235 deaths by knife in 2021 vs 17,727 gun deaths in the US so far this year not counting suicides)

https://www.gunviolencearchive.org/
https://benkinsella.org.uk/knife-crime-statistics/

These 14 and 17-year olds may be someone's "Babies" but they played a grown-ass man's game when they brought the gun to school. Play a man's game, receive a man's consequences.

There can be that measure of justice while continuing to work on the root causes of these crimes.

It wasn’t a lack of “impulse control” that had this criminal make a premeditated decision to bring a stolen gun (possession of which, anywhere, is Crime #1 here) to school (having a gun on campus is Crime #2).

Before he pulled the trigger he was already a criminal worthy of prosecution. Now he’s a murderer - premeditation or impulse-control be damned.

@6 -- You mentioned "gang" or "gangbanger" four times. I don't see it mentioned it at all in this, or other articles. What makes you so sure that this was gang related? Imagine this took place in a rural town, where guns are more common, and those involved were white. Would you be writing the same thing? Of course not. Yet the same thing could easily happen.

You write about how the statistics don't show a bias, and then turn around and demonstrate bias yourself. You can't help yourself but weaken the very argument you are trying to make. You took the time to carefully write out an argument about a lack of systemic racism, then also wrote a racist statement and then expect us to believe that racism just doesn't exist at a more subtle level. You gotta be fucking kidding me.

@9 Are you saying that a 14-year old should be sent to adult prison for possession of a fire arm? Get real. The only reason they are thinking of treating this kid like an adult is because he pulled the trigger. Someone could have handed him the gun and they would be doing the same thing. It isn't clear at all at this point if he had any intent of actually using it until he was teased. The might have been just trying to show off ("look at me -- I'm bad ass, I have a gun"). This type of thing happens all the time for 14-year olds. Based on what little we know about the situation, lack of impulse control had a lot to do with the shooting.

@11: “Are you saying that a 14-year old should be sent to adult prison for possession of a fire arm?”

No, @9 described two premeditated crimes which had already happened before the trigger was pulled. These two pre-shooting crimes were opportunities to intervene with mandatory counseling before anyone died. Now it’s too late.

@10: “Imagine this took place in a rural town, where guns are more common, and those involved were white. Would you be writing the same thing? Of course not.”

You’re absolutely correct: the Stranger would not be hyping the race angle if everyone involved was white, and therefore readers would not be commenting on it.

@6 Wow. Hard to know where to begin here.

1) OK, black kids are 14% of the population but 35% of the defendants in Juvie? What if black kids are 2.5x more likely to do the shit that gets you in Juvie? Is it still racism, or are they just more prone (for whatever reason) to criminal mischief? We don't know the answer here. Either there isn't enough data or Will is choosing not to share it.

"Black people are more prone to criminal mischief"- That's your way of saying that people of color are different than white people, fundamentally. Straight up white supremacy there.

“Prosecutors Plan to Charge the Child as an Adult”

Why does this worry the Stranger? After a felon sprayed gunfire at 3rd & Pine during rush hour, hitting seven persons and killing one of them, the King County Prosecutor’s Office, supervised by Leesa Manion, bungled the case into acquittal on all counts. Now that Leesa Manion has — with great assistance from the Stranger — failed upward, prosecution of this suspect’s alleged crimes should bring not merely swift acquittals on all counts, but a multi-million dollar settlement against King County for the emotional suffering he and his family endured during prosecution.

Guns absolutely need to be regulated. And a gun turned a adolescent boy fight (which have happened since time immortal) into a death and a whole school traumatized. But this article is trash. Will is so focused in scoring points by using ‘child’ at least once per sentence, he forgot to include the part where school staff repeatedly observed the 14 year old to be in agitated state that morning. Their negligence in not intervening was a factor in this tragedy. Maybe they didn’t want to intervene for fear of getting criticized for “profiling”.

private school or bust it