Today, the jury in the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Fla., decided that the shooter be sentenced to life imprison without the possibility of parole, instead of the death penalty.

To be honest, I would have been okay with either verdict.

If you’re going to have a death penalty — and I’m personally opposed to the death penalty — this is the kind of case you should have it for. Seventeen people gunned down. Without mercy.

This isn’t a case of beyond a reasonable doubt. This is a case of absolute certainty. The shooter, Nikolas Cruz, even pled guilty.

The defense was making the argument that Cruz is a “a brain-damaged, broken, mentally-ill person” through no fault of his own, and that is why he should be spared the death penalty.

Of course he is.

He is a complete waste of a human person.

A lot of the family members of the victims were upset. One said that this verdict valued the life of the shooter more than the life of her dead husband.

I don’t think so.

If Cruz really does spend the rest of his life in prison without the possibility of parole, this brain-damaged kid’s life is already over, for all practical purposes. His “death” may drag out for another 70 or 80 years, for all we know. But he’ll be like a walking corpse.

Also, for all the people upset that he didn’t get the death penalty, how about we prohibit the sale and ownership of assault rifles? That might actually do some good.