Fifteen year old New Mexico teenager murders entire family. Gee do you think guns were involved?

Nehemiah Griego

Courtesy of Eyewitness News 4 out of Albuquerque, New Mexico:  

A statement of probable cause filed in connection with the murder of five people Saturday in the South Valley says the 15-year-old suspect initially told people at his church that his family had been killed in a car crash and were laying dead inside the home. 

Bernalillo County deputies say instead that Nehemiah Griego had shot and killed his father, mother and three young siblings inside their home with weapons he found in his parent's closet. 

They say it appears the younger Griego killed his family, then drove to Calvary Church. 

After hearing his stories, church officials didn't believe him and instead called police. 

Griego later led officers to the home where the victims Greg Griego, 51; his wife Sarah Griego, 40; and three of their children, Zephania Griego, 9; Jael Griego, 5; and Angelina Griego, 2 were found shot to death. 

The elder Griego had been a pastor there and the family worshipped there. 

According to court documents, Nehemiah Griego told deputies the shootings happened because he had "anger issues" and "was annoyed with'' his mother. 

Griego said he had been having homicidal and suicidal thoughts, and so around midnight on Saturday, he got a .22 caliber rifle from his parents closet and shot his mother in the head, killing her. 

His nine year old brother was sleeping next to her. His brother became upset when he woke up, so Griego shot him in the head, killing him. 

He said his sisters were crying and he shot both of them in the head, killing them. 

Griego said he then got an AR-15 rifle from his parent's closet and waited in a bathroom until his father arrived home at about 5 a.m. He then shot his father multiple times, killing him. 

Officers said Griego told them he then reloaded the weapons so he could drive to a populated area to murder more people. 

Griego said he wanted to shoot people at random and eventually be killed while exchanging fire with law enforcement. 

Instead, Griego put some of the guns in the family's van and drove it to Calvary, where his story of what happened to his family was questioned. 

He also told police he took a picture of his dead mother and sent it to his girlfriend.

I would like to point out that his boy had NO criminal history, does not seem to have any diagnosed mental health issues, and used guns that belonged to his father to kill his family, and I would be willing to bet that they were all purchased legally.

His father was a pastor so the idea that a lack of religion is the cause of this will not be a ready made red herring for the Right Wing, and I doubt very seriously that it will be easy to simply link to violent movies or video games.

The simple fact, as much as EVERYBODY will want to dismiss it, is that this young man was able to slaughter his entire family ONLY because he had access to weapons which gave him the power to do so.

The problem is guns.

Not lack of religion.

Not video games.

Not movies.

Not even mental illness.

The teenager could have been a Satan worshiping, video game playing, R rated movie watching, sociopath. But without access to those guns he would have been a relatively harmless Satan worshiping, video game playing, R rated movie watching, sociopath.

I don't know about all of you but I am sick and tired of reading about these unnecessary deaths, and even MORE sick and tired of hearing the same old excuses for why we can't do something to greatly reduce them of put a stop to them altogether.