RESPONSIBILITY FOR DECISIONS

I read that in Montana several days ago a fellow was arrested for murdering a 69-year-old and 62-year-old couple when they surprised him in the act of burgling their home. It was gruesome - throats cut, multiple stab wounds, etc. (Is there a knife-control faction among the legislators? Perhaps there should be background checks and waiting periods for purchasing kitchen knives and corkscrews.)

While this is an everyday event in violence-riddled America, it struck me even more tragic that just ONE WEEK before, the murderer had been freed on $50,000 bail after being charged with intent to commit homicide by bludgeoning a man on the head! (See parenthetical expression above as regarding rocks and heavy objects.)

My direction here is not weapons control; no, not by a long shot. I believe judges, physicians, and others, on whose authority dangerous criminals are released among us, must bear criminal responsibility for the subsequent acts of those they liberate. The Constitution affords us the right to bail, and I do not oppose the concept, but how many rapes, murders, and other crimes are perpetrated upon us by maniacs that are foraging the streets while awaiting trial or who have been pronounced harmless by psychiatrists? These should be charged the same as the criminals they set loose, and bearing the responsibility for one's actions would make him immensely more circumspect.