Who Killed LaQuarrie Jefferson?

Technically speaking, we don't know the answer because the media won't give the name of the 7-year-old cousin who shot 8-year-old LaQuarrie in the stomach Sunday night. And in this tragic case, the name of that unfortunate child isn't necessary. He's not responsible. He's seven.

Neither is the "illegal gun" responsible for this crime, despite the knee-jerk nit-wittery of Boston's Mayor (and Chairman of the Hip Hop Roundtable) Tom T-Mizzie Menin-Yo and his City Council pal Michael Flaherty. The mayor, missing the point as usual, immediately insists that "The question is, where'd the gun come from?"

Why not ask a hit-and-run victim where the car came from? Who cares?

The gun didn't sneak into the Dorchester house and slip itself into a little kid's bedroom. It was carried into the home by an adult, almost certainly a criminal (all of the adults residing there are convicts), and most likely by one of the fathers of Lakeisha Gadson's seven children.

LaQuarrie's dad is a murderer and robber. At least one of his siblings' dads is a convicted robber and suspected murderer. His mom, when she's not squirting out kids for various criminal male passers-by, is assaulting cops and getting busted for robbery.

And Mayor Menino is blaming this poor child's death on a GUN?

What an insult to every responsible mom and dad in America who is also a responsible gun owner--they far outnumber these Dorchester idiots, by the way.

Blaming the gun is also unfair to little LaQuarrie's parents. They deserve the "credit" for his death, not the gun. No, they didn't actually shoot him, but making the choices that they did made his violent, tragic death far more likely.

Will his thug of a mother or dirtbag of a "father" or the collection of low-rent criminals around him be held responsible by their community? Will neighbors hiss "shame on you" when they pass LaQuarrie's mom on the street? Will she, or the loser sperm donor currently doing time, feel any shame at all?

Of course not. Why should they? Do you hear anyone blaming them? No, it's the evil gun, or the lack of summer jobs programs, or that bastard George W. Bush, etc., etc.

LaQuarrie deserves better, and so do the thousands of other children just like him across America.