On Friday, August 20th, three Oklahoma teens murdered an Australian baseball player. Two of the teens were charged with his murder, and the third was named an accessory.
22 year old Christopher Lane, who was visiting the United States on a baseball scholarship, was going for a jog in Duncan, Oklahoma, right after visiting his American girlfriend, when three teens allegedly drove past him and shot him in the back.
16 year-old Chancey Allen Luna and 15 year-old James Francis Edwards Jr were both charged as adults with first degree murder, and are both being held without bond. 17 year-old Michael Jones, who was driving the vehicle carrying the other two boys during the shooting was charged as an accessory to murder and is being held at $1 million bail.
According to Prosecutor Jason Hicks, Edwards was in the passenger seat of the car and Luna was in the backseat when he pulled the trigger of a .22 caliber revolver. Lane was fatally wounded, shot through the back.
When asked why they did it, 17 year old Michael Jones told authorities that they followed and killed Lane ‘for the fun of it’ and that he and the other boys were bored.
“He was a kid on the cusp of making his life,” said the victim’s father, Peter.
Infuriated at the murder of an Australian citizen, Australia’s former deputy prime minister Tim Fischer said the day of the shooting that “The U.S. has chosen the pathway of illogical policy with regard to guns. They cannot expect not to have any criticism of it worldwide. I am angry because it is corrupting the world, this gun culture of the U.S.”
He continued to say Australians should “think twice” before visiting the U.S.
He can make this bold statement because Australia does, in fact, walk the walk. Since the country completely revamped its gun control laws in 1996, there has not been a single massacre “down under.”
The 1996 Port Arthur massacre transformed gun legislation in Australia. Within only twelve weeks of the mass shooting, the government passed sweeping gun reform that mandated background checks and firearms licenses for gun buyers and restricted the availability of self-loading shotguns and rifles. The legislation was enforced by conservatives against their constituents’ wishes. And 17 years later, those gun policies are now hugely popular- even with those who were against it in 1996.
U.S. politicians constantly give excuses for their inability to change gun legislation, saying it is “complex” and would take a very long time. But with horrible massacres and homicides taking place every year, some gun reform has to take place.
While the murder of Christopher Lane was not carried out by an AK-47, mandatory background checks may have prevented the .22 revolver from ever reaching the hands of these three boys.
Lane’s baseball teammate, Michael Veal, set up a fund Monday the 19th to raise money for Lane’s funeral and so his friend’s family could fly from Australia to pick up his body. By Friday, it skyrocketed past its $15,000 goal to over $123,000.
