"Darrien" <Darrien_Lambert@NA.COM@hotmail.com> wrote in message news:<E1cQa.113580$fC.899685@news.easynews.com>...
> >> TOKYO, July 11 (AFP) - Japan's minister in charge of policy toward
> >> juveniles said Friday that the parents of a 12-year-old who admitted killing
>  a
> >> four-year-old boy should be beheaded, according to media reports.
> >
> > While I disagree with the severity, I do agree that parents should be
> > held more accontable than they are. For example, in the US there have
> > been several notable cases of teens caught stockpiling weapons for use
> > against their friends, and, of course, many cases of teens actually
> > using such weapons. I feel that if you're a parent and you have no
> > idea that your child has a cache of weapons in his/her room, then
> > you're an idiot and should be held accountable.
> >
> 
> You underestimate the ability of teenagers to hide things from their parents.
> 
> How many teenagers do you think have "dirty" magazines under their mattress?
> 
I didn't. I hid mine in an old car in the back field, buried.

> It isn't anymore difficult to hide some handguns or ammo. 

You a gun person? It isn't easy to *get* a gun, regardless of what
some might say. Guns cost money, usually a lot, and most of the
weapons used in the standard high school violence cases are not tiny
25 cal. pistols. So there is very little correlation between sticking
a Hustler between the mattresses and hiding a gun. Besides, if the kid
doesn't view his/her room as some sort of sovereign territory (a
concept I neither agree with nor understand) then they know that at
any time their mom/dad can enter their room and see what's going on.
Of course, I grew up in a tiny house where there was considerable
sharing of the living space, and it was very hard to have such
secrets.

> Some of these cases
> were in areas where it was legal to own rifles, and the parents *knew* about
> this
> but didn't stop them.
> 
> Why? Because the guns were used for hunting and it was perfectly normal for
> a teenager to have a rifle in his closet.
> 
Are you perchance from a hunting family? I am. I never had a rifle or
other weapon in my closet. I wasn't allowed. If a parent allows a
child to keep a weapon in their room, then for certain that parent
should be held accountable for that child's actions with that weapon
(and though many might agree, I consider teenagers children in many
respects).

> I don't believe that you can hold one person resposible for the actions of
> another
> except in extreme circumstances. This, not being one of them.

Parents are responsible for their kid's actions regardless of prior
knowledge. That's part of being a parent. At some point society forgot
this and that's about the time we started having some serious issues
involving teens.

John W.