That's my point as well. I definitely knew right from wrong and I think I was pretty empathetic towards my fellow man. I would not intentionally hurt anyone. However, I'm not sure that I truly grasped the reality of the 'finality' of death until I was over 18. Probably closer to my early 20s. I think it takes living some life for a few years as a young adult to comprehend that. I mean 'feeling' and comprehending the finality of death and the true pain felt by family members of a lost one and comprehending the whole effect on life in general and those a death effects. Also, thinking about 10 years in prison and truly understanding 10 years in prison is not the same. I think a lot of things are just concepts to teens but not something they can imagine and truly realize what the effect would be. I knew the pain my family and I felt when my father died when I was younger than a teen, but that is not the same I don't think. Not all teens have experienced the loss of a loved one either and they still see the world as revolving around them.

By the time I was 18, I lost a friend to a drunk driving incident (he was an innocent victim), had a teammate shot and killed, and had a childhood friend die of leukemia. So these were far more than just concepts for me...

Kevin