Fixing Stupid in Book Four: Ichi-no-Tani 2017

I know you can’t fix stupid. I know it is frustrating to try. I know that the very attempt of fixing stupid can be a futile exercise in failure.

One of the things I didn’t mind about being a prosecutor was punishing stupid.

If we have to live with it in our daily lives; than the most egregious examples should be punished as a way to try to discourage the epidemic of stupidity and bad decision making.

These thoughts swirl in my head as a work on a current case. Interesting facts.
(1) A non-immigrant Foreign Student is barred from owning, purchasing, or possessing a firearm while they are in STUDENT status in the United States of America.
(2) Almost every school in the state of Iowa (from Preschools to Colleges) have policies that expressly prohibit students from carrying firearms on campus.
(3) There is a law in the Iowa Code that states it is a FELONY for any one (with express exceptions) to carry a weapon on any school grounds. (The issue is the code isn’t great at explaining exactly what a school is, but that seems like a Lawyer Argument rather than an Intelligence argument.)

SO… a Chinese Student with a 9 mm handgun in his waist band sitting in class… STUPID.
The handgun in his waist band being fully loaded with the safety off? STUPID. His first question upon being arrested was “What was your response time? STUPID. Am I paranoid or does that question scream “potential school shooter”?!

EVEN knowing, understanding, being able to sympathize with this dumbass… stupid.

The Chinese see American Movies all the time. Hollywood loves shouting about their China Box Office Numbers. It is the New Hope for Massive Blockbuster Earnings. So… these Chinese kids see America as the land of Drugs and Guns. So they come here and get a gun… either because (1) they are afraid that they will need to protect themselves; or (more often) (2) GuNz l00k kewl! I’m not joking. The Chinese males come here and have to get a handgun because then they are so “badass” and “American Gangsta!”
Stupid. Stop it. Grow the fuck up. Too harsh?

This isn’t isolated. Other countries deal with it and they hate it. Thailand experiences a massive influx of sex tourism that the government officially tries to stop but the local authorities usually allow because bribes and money. The Netherlands experiences a massive influx of Vice Tourism that their citizens have become really pissed off about. People that visit just for weed and hookers were making them regret allowing those things (according to many interviews). Stupid people are everywhere and incurable.

I just… wish humans were expected (and able) to live up to a higher standard.