As predictable as the sun rising in the east, whenever a tragedy occurs, such as the recent school shooting in Florida, entirely too many people trot out their favorite whipping posts and put on a public show. One of those whipping posts is violent media, with video games for some reason taking on a particularly large portion of the backlash. We’ve already seen grandstanding politicians jump into this fray, all the way up to America’s current Dear Leader, but it isn’t only at the highest levels that this occurs. In the suburbs of Chicago, a 16 year old recently made a dumb comment in the wake of local threats of a school shooting that was essentially him being exasperated about all the commentary on his preferred social media channels.

A 16-year-old sophomore at Lake Park High School in west suburban Roselle has been arrested and charged after making “specific threats” against the school, authorities said Tuesday. According to DuPage County prosecutors, the youth had become “annoyed” by ongoing social media chatter regarding a Friday threat that had closed the school’s two campuses but ultimately was deemed not credible.

In response to the talk about the closing, the youth posted a clip on Snapchat of himself playing a violent video game and wrote, “Y’all need to shut up about school shootings or I’ll do one.”

To be clear, this was a stupid thing to do. It would have been stupid in any climate, but it was particularly dumb given the recent shooting in Florida. That said, when police searched the boy’s home, he did not have any weapons, his parents did not have any weapons, and he was released the next day. In other words, this was a 16 year old saying something stupid, which is practically the official profession of 16 year olds everywhere.

That didn’t stop a judge from charging him with a felony and ordering him to not play violent video games.

The judge also ordered him to turn over his phone to his parents and banned him from playing violent video games.

“You can play all the Mario Kart you want,” [Judge] Anderson told the teen.

While this certainly doesn’t rise to the level of inhumane treatment of a child, it’s nonetheless obviously dumb. This smacks of a judge that has his preconceived ideas about what is to blame for all these misfit kids taking up space on his jurisdictional lawn.

Why those in positions of authority choose to use that authority against entertainment mediums is beyond me.

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