A bunch of teens were together, one was brandishing a gun, suddenly it went off and a boy was dead. Everyone involved agreed it was unintentional.
Of course the parents of these kids and the gun culture they were brought up in has nothing to do with it. And certainly the easy availability of guns in that free State of Louisiana has nothing to do with it, either.
What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.
Mike:
ReplyDeleteHaving grown up in Shreveport (and having been back here for the last year or so, taking care of my dad) I think I can speak with at least some degree of authority regarding Shreveport, guns in Shreveport, and the people here in Shreveport.
News flash: People are pretty much the same all over. That is to say that if you were to give everyone in the country an IQ test (or any other measure you'd care to try), the proverbial bell-shaped curve would kick in and you'd see the same kind of distribution of some smart people, some dumb ones, and a whole bunch in the middle.
Sadly, there seems to be a disproportionately large number of people everywhere that lack common sense. This is not unique to Shreveport or to Louisiana.
A gun is a machine. Just like a gas stove, if you treat it with respect, don't play with it, and use it as the manufacturer intended, then 99.999 times out of 100, nothing bad will happen. On the other hand, if you were to treat a stove with the same casual disregard as these kids treated guns, the Darwin Award people would be busier than usual.
Your anti-gun bias blinds you to the fact that common sense is not as common as we would all like to think. Add in the complete irresponsibility of the parents involved, for failing to secure the guns, and we have a recipe for disaster.
Perhaps you should crusade instead to ban stupidity. Now THERE'S a meme I could get behind.
Brad, Thanks for the personal low down on Shreveport. You know the problem with that Bell Curve deal is that you can get the same curve at the Mensa reunion as you do in the Special Ed class at your local Middle school. That doesn't mean the two groups are comparable.
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