relatives and neighbors, who described the Brownings as a "picture perfect" family

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/bal-browning0204,0,2114574.story

15-year-old ordered held without bail

Cockeysville boy charged in shooting deaths of parents, brothers

Nicholas W. Browning, 15, charged in the deaths of his parents and two brothers, was ordered held without bail today by Baltimore County District Judge Barbara R. Jung.

Browning, a Dulaney High School honor student and Boy Scout, was charged yesterday with shooting and killing his parents and two younger brothers, a crime that police said he confessed to more than 24 hours after the killings -- time he allegedly spent hanging out with friends. snip

"He was better behaved than your typical teenager, unfailingly polite," said Trautwein. "I didn't find him tightly wound or anything. These were very nice people."

Nicholas Browning, who will turn 16 on Saturday, was described as a class clown who took upper-level classes and had recently completed a prayer garden at Epworth United Methodist Church -- a service project that put him one step away from becoming an Eagle Scout, the highest rank in Scouting.

Reached in Ohio, John Browning's brother, Lee Browning, said Nicholas was "a good kid. There were no issues with him whatsoever.

[blondeatlast]

1. So tragic. I've no sympathy for what he did, but how tragic is it that he found no other outlet? nt

[NNN0LHI]

3. Its our violent society

We are teaching our kids violence is the answer to everything.

Don

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

4. I wish we wouldn't look for scapegoats every time this happens.

[blondeatlast]

5. There's so many factors that play into this and so much we don't know.

One thing I can say--a solitary thing didn't make a young man look into his family's faces and shoot them. That has to take enormous perverted inner strength and likely several "tools"--a gun is just one of them.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

6. Really?

What else did he use? A weedwhacker? Hedge-trimmers?

[distantearlywarning]

9. Well, this particular kid used a gun.

But in high school I knew a kid who did the same thing, except he used a kitchen knife while his parents were sleeping in their beds at 3 am. He probably used a knife because he didn't have access to a gun. However, the end result was pretty much the same, and it probably didn't take him much more time or energy than it did this kid to murder his family. And he's probably still in prison today.

People who are determined to commit homicide will find a way. Remove their access to a gun, and they'll use a butcher knife. Remove their access to knives, and they'll go out to the garage and get a shovel. Or a piece of rope, or a stick, or an icepick or their fists.

[blondeatlast]

11. Of course, this would have had another ending if he hadn't been able to get a gun.

I farking despise guns--but watch what happens. We'll hear about the video games he played, the books he read, the games he played--and likely--NO talk about the weapon he used or how he managed to obtain it.

What will be ignored is that he obviously was in need of some counseling, that it pretty much takes a seriously ill person to look at one's mother and father and then kill them.

Sure these things just "happen"--but they really don't and we all know it but it isn't sexy to talk about.

[shraby]

2. There must have been issues someplace if

he killed his family.

[SoCalDem]

7. Exactly.. No one knows family secrets, except the family itself

So-called "perfect" families are often NOT.

[Annces]

8. Agree

He was just exceptional at hiding his problems.

[onethatcares]

10. I agree with that,

the something happened to make him snap. It's a fine line we all walk between holding it all in and letting it all out. The hate required to kill your family is not something we're born with.

[WinkyDink]

12. "Picture perfect". Like this?

[Prefer]

13. Happened to a friend of mine...

he shot both of his parents with a shot gun.

[hedgehog]

14. So, the trial was held when?........... It wouldn't be the first time a kid

was maneuvered into confessing to something he didn't do.......

[malaise]

15. Look at those beautiful children

Another heart breaking waste of lives.

[blondeatlast]

16. And the young man who allegedly did it--his life was just unfolding.

It literally sickens me.

[AlCzervik]

17. just because something looks perfect on the outside it doesn't mean it's perfect on the inside.

Something went terribly wrong somewhere or maybe it was always wrong. This story is just beyond sad.