One sad element of this story is the difficulty in teaching young kids about guns. Some gun advocates say you can gun-proof the kid; I don't believe it works. It certainly didn't work in this case.A 2-year-old Milwaukee boy died Sunday after accidentally shooting himself in the face after finding his mother’s handgun in a dresser drawer.
Officials say Zaire Cameron was in a bedroom with two other children watching a movie Sunday before the incident occurred.
His mother and father had been in a separate room and rushed in when they heard the gunshot.
Zaire was slumped over the end of the bed with the gun lying next to him.
According to the medical examiner’s report, the boy’s mother had caught him playing with the gun a day before, punished the boy and then placed the gun back in the same drawer.
Both the mother and father own a handgun for protection.
Another idea is one frequently mentioned by the pro-gun crowd. They say these are anecdotal and extremely rare incidents that don't prove anything. Do you think that's true?
Please leave a comment.
http://old.nationalreview.com/kopel/kopel101800.shtml
ReplyDeleteIt seems more children under the age of five drown in a 5-gallon bucket then are killed in firearm accidents.
First, support safe storage laws of buckets and liquids. They must be locked separately, and have locking lids.
When Dishonest Dave Kopel speaks, people should check.
ReplyDeletePer the USCPSC:
http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/pubs/5006.html
"The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) has received reports of over 275 young children who have drowned in buckets since 1984. "
This was written in 2008, so we're talking about 275 children over 24 years. IOW, about 12 per year.
Per WISQARS:
2007, United States
Firearm Deaths and Rates per 100,000
All Races, Both Sexes, Ages 0 to 5
ICD-10 Codes: W32-W34,X72-X74,X93-X95,Y22-Y24,
Y35.0,*U01.4
Number of Deaths Population Crude
Rate
*96* 24,761,587 0.39
--JadeGold
"According to the medical examiner’s report, the boy’s mother had caught him playing with the gun a day before, punished the boy and then placed the gun back in the same drawer."
ReplyDeleteSounds like a case of Darwin to me. If the mother is that dumb, it's probably best she not have any kids. She sounds like the type of parent whose kids would end up dead one way or the other. If it wasn't a gun, she'd leave them in a hot car, in the bathtub unattended, or somewhere near a busy street.
Jade--You're comparing an annual count to per-capita. You also erroneously assume the drownings reported to the CPSC are inclusive, not to mention the publication date of your link.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.cpsc.gov/businfo/frnotices/fr94/94-35058.html
I seriously doubt 250 of those deaths occurred from 1984-1994, and the remaining 25 occurred from 1994-2008. Obviously those 25 who drowned didn't know how to read the warning labels now printed on the side of the buckets.
http://www.plasticsinfo.org/s_plasticsinfo/sec_level4_wrap.asp?cid=523&did=2676
This site claims 30-50 children drown in buckets yearly. That is about equal to the number of unintentional firearms deaths for children for ages 0-9.
http://www.bradycenter.org/xshare/pdf/facts/firearm-deaths-age-intent.pdf
You're comparing apples and oranges, Jade.
ReplyDeleteBy the same rationale that is so often expressed by the pro-gun crown, that these incidents are too rare to worry about, you could say the BP Gulf Oil Leak is small potatoes. We shouldn't worry about it.
ReplyDeleteI say restrict guns so severely that we see a proportionate decrease in these terrible incidents. I don't care how small the percentage is now, it's too high. We're talking about real live and innocent kids, not that idiotic Darwin crap posed by AztecRed.
If you really care about the children (most gun controllers only pretend to) there are about a dozen other things you need to restrict before guns. All those things I mentioned (hot car, bathtub, busy street) are more likely to kill a child than a gun.
ReplyDeleteLess than 2% of child deaths are caused by firearms, so restrict away. It only proves that the gun controllers are more interested in guns than saving the lives of children.
Less than 2% of child deaths are caused by firearms, so restrict away. It only proves that the gun controllers are more interested in guns than saving the lives of children.
ReplyDeleteGood point AztecRed. I'd also like to point to the opposition to teaching gun safety in schools as more evidence that anti-gun advocates aren't really all that interested in the safety of the children. They seem much more interested in the banning of the gun.