This is a horrible case that illustrates the fundamental problem with a society where adults are encouraged to abdicate maturity and spend their time “partying” and never living their lives any differently than they did when they were teens:

CHESNEE, S.C. —  Police in South Carolina say an 8-year-old girl has been shot to death by the estranged husband of her father’s girlfriend.

Spartanburg County Sheriff Chuck Wright says the man grabbed the girl in a headlock Wednesday and shot her twice in the driveway of a home in Chesnee, about 60 miles southwest of Charlotte, N.C.

He then shot himself in the stomach. He was taken to a hospital but his condition and identity weren’t released.

The coroner’s office identified the girl as Heather Brooke Center.

Wright says the shooter was driving his estranged wife and the girl to swim and play. Investigators aren’t sure why he shot the child.

The sheriff says the suspect has a long criminal record and will be charged with murder if he recovers.

So here’s a man who has an eight-year-old daughter and is apparently single for some reason, which is acceptable but means he has to be even more on the ball than a regular father. He finds a girlfriend, who is in the middle of a divorce with a man with a long criminal history and this is where good parenting should come in.

My heart goes out to the father, but why would he expose his daughter to what is by nature a chaotic situation? All divorce is, by nature, acrimonious. Some few and laudable cases exist where people are able to comport themselves as ladies and gentlemen and separate “amicably” if not part as friends but most divorces begin and end in bitterness. Breaking up with thugs is likely to cause it’s share of drama.

This divorce involved a man with a “long criminal history” whose not yet ex-wife was in an intimate relationship with some other guy. Is it too much to assume that the girlfriend would want to keep the little girl away from the criminal she just dumped? Was the father unaware of the potential danger of allowing his child to be cared for by a jealous ex of his new girlfriend?

Obviously they didn’t consider this, and the poor little girl was the one who paid the price. A single father doesn’t need a girlfriend, especially not one who will bring danger into his child’s life. It was selfish of him to not either stay single or keep his relationship with the woman separate from his home life. It is selfish but unfortunately not unusual.

And neither is this result.