Arizona 11 -Year-old Girl Dead - No Charges

 Local news reports

Authorities say an 11-year-old girl is dead after an accidental shooting at her family's home in Casa Grande.

Pinal County sheriff's officials say Joan Plumb died late Thursday at Phoenix Children's Hospital after being flown from Casa Grande Medical Center.

They say Joan was at her home with a friend, and the two girls were in the family room doing scrapbooking.

Joan's 15-year-old brother was showing his new rifle to an 11-year-old friend. Authorities say the teen removed the clip from the gun, set it on the table and left the room.

The 11-year-old friend picked up the rifle and was handling it when it accidentally discharged, striking Joan in the head.

Gun-loving dad should be in jail. Any time a kid gets a hold of a gun and someone gets hurt, an adult should be held responsible.

But the gun-rights fanatics don't want that.

What's your opinion?  Please leave a comment.

The Meaning of "Immutable" in the Starbucks Discussion.

The Brady Blog posted a wonderful article about the Starbucks controversy.

Which of the following hypothetical statements to prospective customers make sense, and which are to be rejected as wrong and discriminatory?

1. “You can come in, but you have to leave your skin color outside.”
2. “You can come in, but you have to leave your sexual orientation outside.”
3. “You can come in, but you have to leave your religious affiliation outside.”
4. “You can come in, but you have to leave your gender outside.”
5. To the paraplegic: “You can come in, but you have to leave your wheelchair outside.”

Versus

6. “You can come in, but you have to leave your gun outside unless you’re a police officer.”

Clearly, the first five statements are racist, homophobic, religiously discriminatory, sexist and discriminatory against the physically challenged and are unacceptable.

Why? Among other reasons, they are all impossible to comply with. All of those traits are immutable characteristics of individuals and cannot be separated from the person. It is impossible to comply with those statements because if you exclude one, you exclude both.

The sixth and last statement, however, obviously does not fall into that category, because guns can be separated from people. A gun is a thing outside human identity.

What's your opinion? Does that clarify the meaning of "immutable" as it's being used in this discussion?

Please leave a comment.