[conserv13]

Thanks.

Children under the age of 18 cannot vote, they cannot drink, they cannot smoke. But they can be executed?

[Les_Miserables]

What kind of muddled thinking equates voting, drinking or smoking with premeditated murder? Get a grip.

[Mark Hamilton]

One would like to think they cannot kill without escaping a just punishment either.

By playing loose with the word 'children' you hope to invoke a teary eyed compassion for the 17 year old who mows down a classmates, deals drugs and does drive by uzi assassinations, ties up and wastes convience store clerk, and/or empties bullets in the heads of grandmas and parents - or becomes a sniper team that haunts the Eastern seaboard for months.

But let's assume you are right, children don't deserve adult punishment - they don't deserve prison (adults only), or work farms (adult), or anything but what ? Spanking ? Reform School till 18? A good lecture and off too bed without cookies and milk ? Extra chores around the house ? No TV for six months?

Drop the stupid "children" gambit, its disgusting. Some children deserve adult punishment, and some adult punishment is capital punishment.

[agarrett]

Children under the age of 18 cannot vote, they cannot drink, they cannot smoke. But they can be executed?

  Yes. If you're old enough to murder, you're old enough to be hanged.

Drew Garrett