What's your opinion? Is the fact that the gun had no safety of any significance? Doesn't that pale when compared to the negligence of leaving a gun available to toddlers?A 3-year-old Port Arthur boy is recovering at Texas Children's Hospital in Houston from serious wounds he received during an accidental shooting on Tuesday."It looks like it's just a tragic accident," said Shari Pulliam with Child Protective Services. The state agency is investigating the shooting alongside Port Arthur police officers.Major Raymond Clark with the Port Arthur Police Department said the gun did not have a safety to keep it from firing.Clark said the boys' father left the gun in the seat of a truck while the boys were playing in the front yard. Clark added that when the boys' father went back inside the house to get something, the younger brother got the gun from the truck.
How much you want to bet this gun-owning dad had already instructed his boys to not touch daddy's gun? On pro-gun blogs they can't get enough of the idea of teaching kids gun safety at a very young age, they call it gun-proofing the kids.
I say it doesn't work.
What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.
Every Glock pistol ever made has three safeties, genius. Learn about the things you want to ban.
ReplyDelete"Port Arthur Police Department said the gun did not have a safety to keep it from firing"
DeleteThat's from the story I quoted. Did someone say it was a Glock? Did I say I want to ban something?
Mikey,
ReplyDeleteThe story said it was a Glock autopistol. Did you even read the story?
So, you don't have the expertise to know that the statement from the PD was horsesh*t, yet you suggest that the "lack of a safety" contributed to the accident? That's some nice FUD there.
If you have no basic mechanical understanding of the things you want to ban, then you can't really contribute much to a discussion of guns.
I did not suggest the lack of a safety contributed. I said exactly the opposite. The problem is leaving the gun where kids can get at it.
DeleteEvery Glock pistol ever made has a trigger safety, a drop safety and a firing pin safety. Now you know.
ReplyDeleteAt the same time, a Glock is particularly easy to operate. I'd have kept it in my holster, but the father could have locked the truck's doors.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that leaving a loaded firearm where a toddler can access it is gross neglegence. I don't see the safety as relevant, the safest thing for that firearm is to be where children can't get ahold of it. I have to disagree with you about training though. A father is responsible for teaching his children, why would he not teach them about safety regarding firearms? But I doubt he was teaching them about safety as he left his loaded gun where they could get it! And 3 is definitely too young to expect a child to be safe no matter what you've taught them.
ReplyDeleteTeaching them is fine, but too many guys like this one do the teaching and fail to do the parental supervision part.
DeleteAgreed, there are a lot of irresponsible individuals out there.
DeleteYou guys are hung up on the statement that the gun had no safety. Even if it did, does that excuse the father? Hell no. The guy's a moron for leaving a loaded, unsecured gun where his small children could get hold of it. He deserves to be held up as a parenting failure and have his guns and gun rights removed. One strike and you're out.
ReplyDeletehttp://kidshootings.blogspot.com/2012/04/3-year-old-boy-shot-by-2-year-old.html
Sadly, teaching kids about gun safety isn't enough. I've seen lots of cases, and known two at an intimate level, where children got hold of guns and people were injured or killed, despite the child having extensive training in gun usage and safety. In this particular case, the children were 2 and 3, so no amount of "safety training" would be enough to overcome the natural curiosity and lack of critical thinking typical of that age.