Six-year-old Shoots Teacher

 Yup. That's the headline for this school shooting in Newport News. A kid had an altercation with his teacher whereupon he pulled out a firearm and shot her. Elementary school. Six years old.

We don't have too few gun laws in this country. We have Federal law prohibiting the possession of a handgun or handgun ammunition by any person under the age of 18. They didn't do anything to prevent this shooting. As I have often said, laws are only for people who honor them and this was not the case here. 

We have a parenting problem. And when we have a 6-year-old kid shooting his teacher in the classroom we have a serious parenting problem.

Homicides by Offender Age Group

During the 70 years between 1940 and 2010, the percentage of homicides committed by teenagers increased threefold and, indeed, the percentages for ages 25-29 also increased over that period. Why? Have the ethical standards of our society as encoded in laws regarding murder in particular and and crime in general eroded? No. I suggest an erosion of parenting is the most significant contribution factor. And it is an erosion of the nuclear family that is at the root of it. More and more parents are abducting the responsibility for parenting of their children to child care centers and schools. Indeed, in 2021 some 62 percent of families with children, both parents were employed. To that add the three-fold increase in percentage of children living with a single parent and you have a formula loss of parental control of their children.