Grand Theft Auto

Two young boys were sentenced for playing out their own little scene from the video game, Grand Theft Auto.

From a wooded area near their home at the Smoky Mountain Country Club, the boys fired a .22-caliber rifle up to 25 times through a break in the trees at cars driving along Interstate 40 about two miles east of Newport. They said they were bored and decided to shoot at tractor-trailer rigs, just like in the video game, ``Grand Theft Auto.''

Aaron Hamel, 45, a registered nurse who had recently moved to Knoxville, was fatally shot in the head as he returned from a day in the mountains. Minutes later, Bede, of Moneta, Va., a passenger on a sightseeing drive, was wounded in the pelvis.

The boys wrote letters to apologize to the victims' families that were read in court Thursday.

``I didn't want to hurt anyone,'' Joshua wrote. ``This will stick with me the rest of my life.''

Bullshit. Joshua is full of shit. If he didn't want to hurt anyone, he wouldn't have been firing a rifle at people randomly. He and his pal are lucky as hell that they weren't tried as adults--the fact is, kids this age know the moral difference between right and wrong. They may not fully understand the consequences or have the capacity to be held to the same standards as an adult for their actions (which is precisely why they also have an abbreviated set of rights, as well), but they do understand killing, violence, pain, and choices.

This isn't like a five year old who accidentally shoots a playmate. These boys knew what they were doing and are lucky that, tried as minors, they can only be held until they are nineteen.

Final notes: GTA truly is a vile game (as much as I've enjoyed playing it). Any game that rewards you for getting blow jobs from hookers, killing her when she's done, and then stealing the money back that you had just given to her (and, no, it's not graphic on the sexual portion, just the violence portion) is a little wrong. If I had a thirteen year old kid, I wouldn't let him play it.

Read the story.