New information on David Light, champion of the second amendment, has been released and places much of what has been written and said in context. Sure, there was the misunderstanding with the shots into the ceiling and not-so-subtle death threats, but Newsday reports that the kid’s really an environmentalist at heart:

The affidavit cites e-mails to friends in which Light allegedly describes throwing pounds of chemicals into New Haven Harbor and the ocean to create explosions.

Eureka! The Harbor area is poised to spontaneously combust at any moment anyways, and Light’s just helping it along, similar to controlled burns for forest fires. But as the charges leveled against the suspended Eli go from amateur gun collector/ceiling artist to bomb developer/raging pyromaniac, we find the kid not so much malicious as just unable to get past that Freudian fascination 13-year-old boys have with explosions:

In an e-mail to a friend in February, Light wrote that he had just received a shipment of a highly explosive chemical.
“I’m very very excited!,” he wrote, according to the affidavit. “So… how soon do you want to do something dangerous??? cause it would be very easy to convince me to go out tonight.”
In another e-mail in February to a Yale student, Light began by writing “Yea, haven’t shot anyone lately,” the affidavit states.

But it’s not just the man trying to dim the Light: Momma is, too. Newsday quotes an e-mail Light sent to a friend: “my mom saw them and was like ‘are those tank shells for the new gun that we’re getting for you?! Can we reverse the order?!’ It was pretty funny… they are very large bullets…”. Haha, silly mom! Tank shells? That’s crazy talk woman! At least until little Davey gets a tank to shoot them from. Meanwhile, the defense is trying to play it off as shenanigans :

“Unfortunately because of the timing and the environment, this is going to be projected on a larger stage than it really merits,” Dow said. “We’re talking about a college student who allegedly made significant errors of judgment.”

Boys will be boys, Your Honor, boys will be boys. Go read the article. It’s worth it.

–MICHAEL MORISY