Local news reports
Lydell Hartford, Jr., freshman linebacker for the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff football team died yesterday in a fatal accident in Waggaman, Louisiana. Coaches and administrators at UAPB are saddened by the details of the accident released by the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office (JPSO).
According to authorities, a 16-year-old boy identified as Hartford's friend was playing with a gun and accidentally shot and killed him early Tuesday morning. Hartford, 20, was pronounced dead after suffering a gunshot wound to the neck, according to Glen T. Boyd, spokesman for the JPSO.
Hartford and the teen were in his mother's 2012 Chevrolet Camaro, parked in the driveway of Hartford's home, Boyd said. The teen discovered a .38-caiber pistol that also belonged to Hartford's mother inside the car and began to remove the bullets. Hartford warned him to stop, but the teen ignored Hartford and kept unloading bullets until he thought the gun was empty. The boy squeezed the trigger three or four times until the pistol fired a bullet that hit Hartford in the neck. The teen pulled him out of the vehicle and laid him on the driveway. Hartford died about an hour later, Boyd said.
The 16-year-old boy was arrested and booked with negligent homicide. The Sheriff's Office is not identifying the teen because he is a juvenile.
The gun owner should have been arrested along with the young shooter. Is leaving an unsecured gun in a car allowed in the State of Arkansas?
What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.
Mike B,
ReplyDeleteAn irresponsible person could misuse almost anything and kill someone. If the 16 year old had commandeered his mother's car and then drove over a pedestrian, should the prosecutor charge the mother with a crime for not locking her car keys in a safe? What if the 16 year old took a knife from the kitchen and murdered someone with it? Should the prosecutor charge the mother for failing to secure her kitchen knives? What if the 16 year old took the mother's bowling ball and then dropped it from an overpass causing the death of the motorist that drove into it? Should the prosecutor charge the mother for failing to secure her bowling ball?
The obvious answer to all those questions is NO. And neither should a prosecutor charge the mother for failing to secure her firearm from her 16 year old son. He is old enough to know better and be responsible for his actions.
- TruthBeTold
Bullshit. Gun owners need to be responsible for their property. It's the same failure on her part that leads to 3-year-olds shooting themselves. It's morally irresponsible to leave a gun accessible like that. It should be criminal.
DeleteYOU say it should be. But in the free states of this country, we get to decide what to do with our property.
DeleteWe know your thoughts on guns, but to Truth Be Told's point, do you feel the same about kitchen knives, cars, etc. should the owner of the chef's knife be immediately arrested if someone gets a hold of it and stabs someone?
DeleteIn some cases, yes. But safe storage of weapons should be mandatory.
DeleteMike B,
ReplyDeleteDo you really want to stop these events? Then lets face facts. Firearms are fascinating to many people. Children and teenagers are curious -- they like to explore and try new things.
And let's face the answer: expose children and teenagers to firearms in a safe and controlled environment. Give children and teenagers a chance to handle them and even shoot them. That will do two things. First, it will demystify firearms. Second, the punishing recoil and deafening boom will instill a massive level of respect into the children that words and pictures cannot accomplish.
I hope you would agree that teen pregnancy out of wedlock is a tragedy. Would you advocate banning premarital sex as the only measure to eliminate teen pregnancy out of wedlock? Or would you advocate education to reduce or eliminate teen pregnancy out of wedlock? The obvious (and correct) answer is education. The same applies to the tragedies that happen when people -- who are ignorant of the dangers and have no training -- mishandle firearms. You don't stop the tragedies with bans. You stop them with education and training.
- TruthBeTold
That's more bullshit. Do you think the kids we read about every day were not exposed to firearms enough and not taught gun safety?
DeleteGun owners need to be held responsible for what happens with their guns. Why would you argue against that? Do you leave your guns around for someone to pick up if they want?
Because we don't want someone like you being able to make laws about how we should handle our property, Mikeb.
DeleteMike B,
DeleteWe cannot expect children below some age (varies from one child to the next, maybe somewhere between 5 and 7 years old) to not harm themselves with firearms. They are too young. If a child below that age harmed themselves with a gun laying around, I believe the caregiver of that child is directly responsible for the well being of that child and would be responsible for the child accidentally harming themselves. Assuming someone else owned the firearm and it wasn't in a safe, I believe the owner should be just as responsible as anyone who left anything else accessible to children. For example: an adult leaves out a bucket of water and a toddler drowns in it. If we are going to prosecute the adult who owned the bucket of water, then I am all in favor of prosecuting adults who own the firearms that children use to accidentally harm themselves.
If you tell me that we should not prosecute the adults who own buckets but we should prosecute the adults who own firearms, please explain why we should prosecute ownership of certain types of property and not others.
- TruthBeTold