Sunday, September 25, 2011

Cleveland 8-Year-Old Brings Mom's Gun to School




The newscaster said, "The 8-year-old with a gun, not locked up in this case,but the case is referred to juvenile investigators."

Can someone please explain to me how in the world they can even talk about locking up a kid that young? Isn't that taking the individual responsibility theory a bit too far? The mom may face charges later, of course, but in all likelihood she won't. Remember this is Ohio, where guns and gun ownership is almost as sacred as they are in Arizona or Florida. Didn't we just talk about this the other day? Eight-year-olds like this grow up to be nineteen-year-olds like that, and by that time no one wants to hear about blaming the parents anymore.

What's your  opinion? Should improper storage of a firearm be a crime? Should allowing a young child to have access to a gun be a crime? Could we apply the one-strike-you're-out rule to these crimes? Wouldn't that prevent repeat incidents?

What do you think?  Please leave a comment.

12 comments:

  1. I'd bet she voted for right-wing conservatives. Although, some of my most virulent commenters on DKos claim to be liberal democrats who love their guns and sound just like the conservatives. It's confusing.

    http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/09/25/1020018/-Cleveland-8-Year-Old-Brings-Moms-Gun-to-School?via=user

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  2. The Eddie Eagle program would help but I am sure there would be a bunch of liberal pants shitting hysterics if anyone suggested it in that school.

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  3. FWM, Eddie Eagle can rent space wherever they like.

    But rather it seems more likely that 'mom' should be required to take the course.

    But the program has no business being part of the school curriculm. The 4H organization, for example, has an excellent gun safety program but would be equally opposed to an 8 year old - approximately a 3rd grader - who behaves this way, and the conduct of the mother in keeping her gun being accessible and unsupervised. But 4H isn't a corrupt player in right wing politics.

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  4. Yes, the 4-H program does have a very excellent gun safety program.

    Eddie Eagle is not a gun handling program--exactly the opposite. The Eddie Eagle program teaches children to not handle a firearm but to instead leave it alone and find an adult.

    While I agree that the mother did not store her firearm properly, and rather or not a safe storage law is in place (it is not where she is) does not change the fact that Eddie Eagle is a good program that could save a child's life.

    Again, the 4H Program is very good but it would teach the child (from 3rd grade and higher)how to safely load/unload, fire and handle the gun. Eddie Eagle is a 10 minute cartoon and a workbook that teaches very young children, starting at pre-school level, that they should avoid handling a found gun.

    Liberals hate Eddie Eagle just because it was invented by the NRA. If they actually looked at the materials instead of dismissing it outright, you would see it more in schools.

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  5. Again, Eddie the Eagle isn't a safety program. It's a marketing campaign.

    But the overall point FWM wishes to ignore is how a child got his paws on a gun. That's the issue the NRA and FWM wish to pretend doesn't exist.

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  6. There should be some penalty for putting a child at risk through negligent or careless firearm security.

    I would have thought FWM would want firearm safety, like sex, to be something that individual parents teach their kids at home rather than in school...

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  7. Wrong Jade,

    Obviously you are not familiar wit the Eddie Eagle program. The NRA is not even mentioned at all and the only theme is "do not touch a gun". It is not a safety program, it is a gun avoidance program.

    Gun safety is about the safe handling of firearms. Eddie Eagle is about never touching a gun.

    You guys really should look at the program before you assume that it is bad just because it came from the NRA.

    I also notice all of these liberal groups that want to ban and demonize guns have no such program in place. Of course they love to spend time and money spreading the word when a kid is killed by such a mishap but they do nothing to help prevent it by educating children to never touch a gun. They would much rather waste resources attempting to ban shoulder-things-that-go-up and boxes with springs in them. That's real helpful.

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  8. Nope, FWM, I'm right.

    It doesn't matter if the NRA is mentioned or not--actually, it is, though peripherally. The point that's being imparted to kids is that guns are a normal, everyday part of life. They're not.

    The purpose of Eddie Eagle is to transfer the well-being of children to children. Which is wrong under any circumstance.

    Further, do you know EE was developed only when there was a major push for mandatory trigger locks and safe storage laws? And that it was modeled after the cigarette industry's effort to skirt laws forbidding them to market tobacco to minors? Coincidence?

    But there's no proof EE works. In fact, EE is nothing but a fundraiser for the NRA.

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  9. Today I posted about another dead kid, this one in Charlotte NC. JadeGold had already mentioned it in a post.

    I guess 4-year-olds are completely fucked because they're too young for learning the valuable EE message.

    And in NC, unfortunately, the punishment for the negligent parent is a slap on the wrist.

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  10. Why is it that the Type 2A's aren't screaming about MurKKKin youth's need to exercise THEIR 2nd Amendment Rights? I mean I know ya gotta be 18 to vote but that's 'cuz votin' for the wrong person could have serious repercussions. Givin' kids gunz when they report for kindergarten, where's the harm in that?

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