ECTOR COUNTY, Texas — There has recently been a concerning amount of shootings involving teenagers all across the Permian Basin.
In both Ector and Midland counties, teens have been getting into more and more shootings.
Ector County Sheriff Mike Griffis has an idea as to how these shootings can be curbed.
“Consequences. Good, hard, stiff consequences," Griffis said. "That's what makes people think twice about committing crime.”
Griffis was resolute in his belief that hard consequences — or a lack thereof — are why we've seen more teen shootings.
He believes that the lack of respect for the law turns people into daredevils who don't fear consequences.
“The rise in the crime of juveniles and adults is the lack of consequences," Griffis said. "The juvenile justice system is a joke to me, as is the justice system for adults. Really, truly, if there are no consequences then that's why nothing's gonna happen. These people know there's nothing gonna happen.”
But there’s more to this than just a lack of respect.
A lot of kids have been falling into the wrong crowd and may not know they are walking down a dangerous path.
“A lot of this is the people that they're hanging out with," Griffis said. "The people they are aligning themself with away from the house, and they need to change that.”
A big question, however, is this: where do teenagers get the guns to commit the crime?
“Some of them get it from home, because folks are not securing their firearms at home, but there have been a whole bunch of vehicle burglaries in the past year," Griffis said. "They're targets to young people getting these cars, people from coming out of town, young kids, juveniles coming from out of town burglarizing vehicles.”
Griffis is hoping that reforms and overhauls can come to the justice system not just at the local level, but statewide as well. He hopes for stricter penalties for gun-related crimes that will help make people think twice before firing them.