Cont'd

(For the whole story, read the following blog ("Just for the 'record'") before this one--I'm not very savvy with this blogging thing yet)

Anyway, Thomas was pulled over for speeding. I don't really know the exact series of events following that, but this is what he is charged with; DUI (of marijuana) as well as possession of less that 1 ounce of pot and paraphernalia--apparently neither of these charges are felonies and are in and of themselves no huge deal--but when the police searched his car and found a handgun and a machete in his trunk, they concluded he was a criminal, thus resulting in $10,000 bail (the lawyer actually got them to reduce it from $30,000) and 2 felony charges.

Now, the gun was purchased legally in NH and was found in a locked safe (Thomas doesn't trust banks) unloaded(I don't know where the machete was), but apparently the combination of drugs and weapons is not looked very favorably upon by the state of Utah. While I comfort myself with my heartfelt knowledge that Thomas could never hurt a soul, and know that his fascination with guns has been life long (to my knowledge he had never seen a gun before he made one out of Duplo blocks not long after his first birthday) I also fear that if I, and his Dad, were better parents, Thomas would have grown up and out of his fascination for weapons and video games. Anyway, that's another subject for another time. Let me just say that this experience has humbled and helped me to become less judgemental of parents who have children in trouble. My position USED to be that if a kid turned out to be a criminal, we could always blame the parents, and maybe that is still true to a certain extent. But now I believe that most parents are trying to raise their kids in the best way they know and there is so much out of their control. My heart truly goes out to the parents of children who commit violent crimes against themselves or others. The guilt and pain they could potentially experience is unimaginable to me. Although maybe, as Paul likes to point out, I'm just projecting...