Quote:
Originally Posted by Trayderjoe
I was listening to a discussion that indicated that juvenile records are sealed and/or expunged and thus the current background checks for firearms purchases would not include juvenile records. A juvenile could have committed a crime (or crimes) which would prohibit owning or purchasing a firearm when similar crimes committed by an adult would be flagged.
Should this be true, then all rules that block access to these records should be evaluated, so that firearm purchase background checks can access these records. Perhaps a "first pass" compromise for those who want to keep all juvenile records sealed would be to access personal versus property crimes.
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There should be a lot of due process in these kind of matters and not broad bumper sticker like policies. Some kids get in with the wrong crowd and then turn over a new leaf. That certainly happened with me and my older brother in Reno, Nevada. I got away from my teen friends because they were too violent for my taste and surrounded myself with books. Then met an English teacher who challenged me to read the classics and the like and gave me a small Memorial Scholarship in her murdered daughter's name-- the Michelle Mitchell Memorial Scholarship. Some of my classmates in her English class and others at Earl Wooster HS were suspects in her murder which was not solved until 1979. It happened on my birthday of 2-24 in 1976. The police were interested in part with Earl Wooster HS students because a Earl Wooster HS student had committed a heinous murder in 1963 of a British skiing instructor Olympic athlete. I guess they thought history might be repeating itself. At least, some of us saw it that way. Both of these killings were with knives.
And it turned out that they got the wrong person in 1979 because of her false confession and the Reno, Nevada community's need to get this case closed. They did identify the most probable culprit in 2014. After the mentally ill woman was behind bars in a mental ward for 35 years.
Context is important and not painting with a too broad a brush. But mistakes are still made but fortunately not that often.