Local news reports
A Fairmont man accidentally shot and killed his 10-year-old son while cleaning his shotgun on Sunday, according to the Robeson County Sheriff’s Department.I'm so sick and tired of gun-rights activists telling us that everyone has a right to own guns with as few qualifications and restrictions as possible. The result is daily stories like this one. Irresponsible, unfit but LAWFUL gun owners doing stuff like this, preventable stuff like this.
Christopher Stanlane Jr., of 818 Gaddy Road, died from a gunshot wound to the head, according to sheriff’s Capt. Anthony Thompson. Thompson said officials responded to a call at 3:24 p.m. and pronounced Stanlane Jr. dead.
Thompson said that the boy’s father, Christopher Stanlane Sr., 34, was sitting on the couch and cleaning his 12-gauge shotgun while Stanlane Jr. sat on the floor in front of him and watched television. Stanlane Sr. had the butt of the gun on the floor and was wiping the side of his gun when a shot was accidentally fired, according to Thompson.
What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.
MikeB,
ReplyDeleteI also hate reading about stories like this.
Sadly, your solution -- treating all people as toddlers and telling them what they can and cannot do with their lives and property -- is horrific as well. Further, your solution would leave millions of people defenseless against violent attacks and cause untold thousands of injuries and deaths as well. Are those injuries and deaths not equally tragic?
If you really want to make a difference, you would spend your energy on a massive firearms safety EDUCATION campaign.
And to keep everything in perspective, we know that the 80 to 100 million armed citizens will accidentally kill about 600 people this year with a firearm. That is an incredibly low "error" rate ... much lower than the additional number of people who would be killed annually if very few citizens had firearms.
Like all biased gun-rights fanatics you use the 600 figure. Those are only the deaths. Thousands are seriously injured and tens-of-thousands mildly so.
DeletePart of "my solution" that you're talking about is to hold negligent gun owners accountable for their actions. Do you oppose this too?
My solution would not disarm one single person who is qualified and responsible. Do you really want the others to have guns? They're the ones we keep reading about, like this North Carolina dad. Was the world a better and safer place because he had a gun?
None of your proposals would have any effect on this. Your "one strike" notion would take guns away from this man after the fact, but nothing short of cameras continually monitored on every gun owner would detect what you call risky behavior before something happened.
ReplyDeleteJust admit it. You don't want anyone to have a gun. Quit dancing and whining and weaseling. You'll feel better.
What you're conveniently overlooking is that many of the serious gun "accidents" are not the first offense. A strict policy of one-strike would disarm many of these irresponsible idiots before they make the big fuck-up.
DeleteWhat you're conveniently overlooking is your lack of evidence to support that statement. You also lack a sense of proportionality, but we've discussed that before.
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