No arrests have been made in the case.
Of course this has nothing to do with the lawful gun owners who don't do stupid things with their guns, except for the fact that the parents of this boy were among you right up until the moment this happened. In fact, lawful gun owners are frequently doing stupid things with their guns and getting away with it. Then when something bad happens the rest of you say, "Well he was stupid," or "he was a criminal," or "that has nothing to do with me."
You're wrong. This has everything to do with you.
What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.
Of course, if the gun belongs to the boy's 15-year old gang-member brother, then parental responsibility has nothing to do with it.
ReplyDeleteIf only california had a safe storage law, (pdf) this wouldn't have happened.
Oh, wait.
Gun safety education could have prevented a tragedy such as this. The abstinence only solution pushed by MikeB and others always fails. Education is the key. For the foreseeable future guns are going to be part of life. It is better to give our children the knowledge of how to be safe around them instead of just sticking our heads in the sand.
ReplyDelete"In fact, lawful gun owners are frequently doing stupid things with their guns and getting away with it."
ReplyDelete"Frequently" isn't even close to the right word. Infrequently, on occassion, sometimes, rarely.
It is sad that this happened, and I dislike it happening as much as you, but unless it happens with a lot more frequency than one or two incidents a day, nationwide, you'll never approach "frequent."
Do the math, or show hundreds more examples each day.
If I may get a little picky with numbers...
ReplyDeletecomparing the amount of legal gunowners (~100 million) to your famous 10%, wouldn't there be many more gunshot injuries? The Brady Campain always points to their 100k. Assuming these were all Formerly law-abiding, your guess appears to be rather high.
Also, wouldn't firearms education have done more for this child? Gun control aside, wasn't it simple curiosity that this happened?
Education about gun handling cannot work on kids. Their curiosity and mischievousness is too great to be overcome by any amount of training.
ReplyDeleteThink of it this way. All kids are taught practically continually by their parents to be careful, not to run wild in the house, to be careful handling kitchen knives, etc. Yet, most of them do not reach adulthood without having made a trip or two to the emergency room for stitches or for x-rays. Mainly the boys do this, but not only.
The reason this happens is not because the teaching was not enough or not good enough. It's simply the nature of kids. The same happens with gun curiosity.
Here's another angle on it. If so many adults "forget" there's a round in the chamber, how can you expects kids to learn this?
MikeB: “Education about gun handling cannot work on kids.”
ReplyDeleteHow about teaching them the dangers of traffic? Can that work? What are you advocating anyway? I think what you are missing is that no one is advocating teaching gun safety then handing the child a loaded gun and saying “now go outside and play”. We teach our children safety with knives, safety with traffic, and yes safety with guns. At a young age, this is combined with supervision and things like locks. At some point at the parent’s discretion, they feel the child understands the safety rules enough to do things like cross the street on their own, let them start using knives, or have a self-defense gun available in the house. Likewise, parents can make the decision to not own guns, or not live on a busy street, but safety education is ALWAYS a good thing Mike.
MikeB: “Here's another angle on it. If so many adults "forget" there's a round in the chamber, how can you expects kids to learn this?”
The message to children is “don’t touch”- not “make sure the chamber is clear”.
Education about gun handling cannot work on kids. Their curiosity and mischievousness is too great to be overcome by any amount of training.
ReplyDeleteHuh, worked just fine for me, my kids, and thousands upon thousands of other kids raised the same way. Maybe be you are projecting your own inabilities to control yourself onto others.
Sure RuffRidr, it worked on thousand and thousands and failed on hundreds and hundreds.
ReplyDelete