VICTOR JOECKS: How to keep kids from killing kids

What once would have shocked the conscience is now forgotten by the end of the article. Consider these recent stories on juvenile homicides.

In October, 17-year-old Keanu Enright left his home to play video games. Police said a group of friends ended up “handling a gun.” A 15-year-old boy shot and killed Enright. Police arrested the boy. Enright’s family wanted the shooter tried as an adult. Prosecutors said they couldn’t prove the shooting was intentional. The boy pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter and entered a youth prison.

“The juvenile system, in theory, is designed to rehabilitate kids,” said Brigid Duffy, director of the Juvenile Division at the Clark County district attorney’s office.

That doesn’t appear to have happened. The killer is already out of custody. Thomas Enright, the victim’s father, showed the Review-Journal screenshots of an Instagram story from the teenager who had killed his son. It appeared to show a teenager with a handgun. The caption read, “We beat murder charges whos next?”

That is sociopathic behavior.

Yet, it’s hard to be outraged because shocking criminal behavior is increasingly common. North Las Vegas police recently arrested a 17-year-old suspected of shooting another teen outside a convenience store this summer. This month, a 12-year-old girl in North Las Vegas was sent to juvenile detention for stabbing her father to death. Last month, prosecutors said they were considering the death penalty for a 19-year-old accused of shooting and killing someone in the Aliante hotel-casino this year.

“Unfortunately, we have seen a huge rise in kids committing offenses with guns,” Duffy said.

This reflects a national trend. Homicides by children jumped 65 percent from 2016 to 2022. “Juvenile crime surges,” The Wall Street Journal wrote in 2023.

The crisis is obvious, but pointing out its causes isn’t politically correct.

First, kids who grow up in broken homes are more likely to commit crimes. Consider the 12-year-old who killed her father. Her mom said Child Protective Services took the girl out of her home because she, the mother, used drugs. CPS placed the girl with her father.

“Cities with high levels of single parenthood have 118 percent higher rates of violence and 255 percent higher rates of homicide,” a 2023 report from the Institute of Family studies found.

Discussing this obvious reality is largely taboo on the left because the rate of single motherhood is disproportionately high among African Americans. Unsurprisingly, Black males commit a disproportionate number of murders.

Promoting marriage would disproportionately benefit Black Americans, but the left isn’t interested.

Next, many children learn little about virtue. Many boys don’t have a father in the home to model what it means to be a man. Schools kicked out God, replacing moral instruction with nihilism. Rather than personal responsibility, kids wrap their identities around their diagnoses. The former is something you control. The latter is a doctor’s job to fix. Even atheists can find purpose in patriotism, but students learn America is evil, not the greatest country in human history.

Finally, as the building blocks of self-governance crumble, laws remain to keep the peace. Swift and strict punishment can hide the fruit of this societal rot, although it won’t cure it. But leniency abounds both in schools and for juvenile offenders. And teenagers know it.

Police have since arrested the boy who killed Enright for violating his probation. Police visited his house and found a gun. Because he received around only eight months for killing a teen, however, the killer likely believes he’ll receive only another slap on the wrist. He’s probably right.

Until one of these factors changes, kids will keep killing kids.

Contact him at vjoecks@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4698. Follow @victorjoecks on X.