Their Red-Headed Step Child” A post-Sandy Hook discussion at a liberal online forum, the New Republic, found some sympathy for the Newtown shooting victims’ mother: [J]ust days after a mass murder at a Newtown, Connecticut elementary school left 26 people dead, including 20 children, a reader called into the “Today” show and expressed some sympathy for the mother of the killer’s young victims. “The mother is completely innocent,“ the caller says. “She gave birth to a child who had a mental disorder that was not visible until he was four years old. At four years old, the child became a little, tiny psycho.” When asked what she would say to the mother, the caller replied: “’I can only imagine that you’re in a very difficult place. And I hope you can find a way to get past this. I know that’s very difficult. Because it’s not right to bring a child into this world and then out of the blue just totally leave them and abandon them.'” “I can only imagine that you’re in a very difficult place. And I hope you can find a way to get past this. I know that’s very difficult. Because it’s not right to bring a child into this world and then out of the blue just totally leave them and abandon them.'” “No, I don’t think it’s right to abandon a child,” the caller said, when asked about whether it was okay for someone to leave their child like that. “I think you have a responsibility.” “No, I don’t think it’s right to abandon a child,” the caller said, when asked about whether it was okay for someone to leave their child like that. “I think you have a responsibility.” “No,” the caller said, responding to a question about whether the mom had been unkind to the shooter. “I just feel like she was the product of a pregnancy, like you said, and she raised him up. That’s the part that bothers me.” “I think you have a responsibility,” the caller said, when asked about the mom’s apparent abandonment of her child. As to the shooter himself: “This poor kid, he had a hard life. He had an absentee father and just no hope in life. I’m sorry for him. I’m sorry for his family.” As for the shooter’s father, who has been accused of having threatened to kill the mother: “I don’t condone what he did at all, but I don’t think he deserves to die. … If someone is hurting, if they need help, maybe he needed help. But I’m sorry for what he did. And to take him away like this is too harsh for what he did.” Another call-in to Fox News saw this same caller claim that she was against capital punishment, but added, “What happened in that school was not right. But you know, sometimes parents will treat their children with harshness. They don’t know any better. They don’t know how to love them, they don’t know how to raise them, and at some point they just completely get fed up with their kids.” To “A.C.D.”: The answer to the debate about what is an appropriate punishment for mass murder — life in prison? Death penalty? — is actually very simple, and has nothing to do with the crime. Those who think the penalty should be either capital or life are wrong, since capital punishment isn’t a deterrent to murder. And life in prison can’t really exist as a sentence without being a permanent death sentence in the real world: A murderer could conceivably spend his entire life in prison. Instead, what is the right solution for a crime that is at once so heinous and so common, that is, so often the result of a mental illness or mental defect: A mandatory life sentence? A limited-use lifetime gun ban? A mandatory psychiatric evaluation for the next generation of young shooters, including their relatives and neighbors? A national registry of all gun owners in America, for which the National Instant Check System could be used to determine if they are legally eligible to purchase a firearm? If someone has made a mistake, they are not a monster, they are a human being with a normal psychology. The most important thing for such a person to learn is to learn to accept responsibility. If someone has made a mistake, they are not a monster, they are a human being with a normal psychology. If you hold them accountable for what they have done, but they don’t seem to understand that it’s their fault and they can’t help it, then you have an enormous problem on your hands. Most people with a similar problem respond to encouragement and support. Such treatment can turn the life of a perfectly normal person with a disorder back onto the rails of reality. “Jennifer” is a 19-year-old self-identified lesbian, and she’s been having sex since she was 16. She’s out at school because she wants to be, although her mom says, “It’s pretty obvious.” She calls herself a “slut.” She wants to get married so she can have sex before she is 20. She has had one “relationship,” and the guy she was involved with was 14. She wants to try to have kids, “but I’m still gonna have my fun, as a woman. Because it’s not like it’s always gonna be you or your boyfriend, so you’ve got to take your turn, I guess.” She thinks of herself as a feminist: “I’ve always been in favor of women’s rights and women’s equality, and I like it when people try to help women. Men are better than women, though. I don’t think men can be feminists.” For sex, she goes online. When a man asks her to meet him, “I just turn him down, because I just, like, just know that they’re just gonna be freaks. I don’t know why, but I don’t wanna meet any guys. I don’t wanna have any ‘relations’ with them or whatever you would call them, you know.” She is a self-described “slut,” and the men she does have relationships with are typically younger than her. “I’m just really honest and open. You know, when I meet someone, I tell them right away, like, ‘I want you to be my boyfriend and all that. And you can say no to it or not because I’m not going to be like, ‘I don’t wanna date you.’ I’ll just try to take it. So it would be easier to just be my boyfriend. So they always get the opportunity, but they always say no.” She has no idea where the phrase “no means no” comes from. “I think it’s just girls being prudes. I don’t know how that ever got started. It’s just girls being prudes that make men have sex with them. It shouldn’t be, because if you feel like you don’t wanna have sex with someone, you shouldn’t, because it’s your body. Like, if I didn’t want you to have sex with me, you shouldn’t, because it’s my body. And, like, you wouldn’t say, ‘Go over there and have sex with him.’ Like, what? Like, I don’t understand.” “I just got a new boyfriend and his name’s Sam, but everyone calls him Sammy. Sammy’s my boyfriend. But I just met him a few weeks ago, and he doesn’t have a job. And he’s like pretty much still in high school. He’s 14.” She thinks a boyfriend her age could just be too old for her. “I think I want a guy who’s like 18, because I don’t think I can handle a grown-up relationship. Like, a man my age would probably be so much older than me and stuff. Like, you know, they might not even like me as much as I like him, and I would be like, ‘But I love you!’ and he would be like, ‘You do?’ like, I’d just totally be a different person that he was interested in. So it wouldn’t be fair to him. I’d want to be with him for the right reasons.” “I want my son to go to the best school he can. I want him to be the very best. … One of my dreams for my kid is to play football, and I’m a football mom. I don’t care what position he plays, as long as he’s on the team. I’m really into cheerleading. I love cheerleading. That’s my dream for my son. “I’m hoping that he’ll have a brother or a sister. Maybe one of each. I’m actually really looking forward to having a boy. I’m looking forward to the struggles of becoming a parent, and how much work I’m gonna have to put in. It’s gonna be awesome.” Her boyfriend’s parents are divorced. “You know, it’s not easy with them, and it’s not because they’re bad. It’s just because I know what they go through every day.