![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Guns in the news again
May. 2nd, 2013 08:22 am This time because a five year old boy shot and killed his two year old sister. Accidentally, though at that age whether he *could* kill on purpose is kind of a philosophical question.
What there is no doubt about is that he did it using a rifle made and marketed for kids his age. What kind of person gives a five year old a gun? Well, whatever kind of person it is, they seem to be common enough to support a specialty market.
Also according to the article the community is rallying around the family and appears to believe that this was just a horrible accident that could happen to anyone. I beg to differ. It could not happen to people who don't have guns. It also could not happen to responsible gun owners, because responsible gun owners would have come back from target shooting with their child, and immediately removed the firing pin from the rifle (presumably discovering it was loaded in the process), locked the rifle up in one place, and locked the firing pin up in a different place, preferably offsite.
It's just that there are people who want to own guns, but think safe storage practices are too much trouble. They call themselves "responsible" but what they mean is "I haven't had a serious accident yet."
I think it's a lot of trouble to be responsible with a gun too. It's one of the reasons I don't own one, in spite of having used them on occasion.
If only there was some way to get guns out of the hands of irresponsible people, you know? Before we have one kid dead and one kid growing up with the knowledge that either he was to blame, or his parents were.
What there is no doubt about is that he did it using a rifle made and marketed for kids his age. What kind of person gives a five year old a gun? Well, whatever kind of person it is, they seem to be common enough to support a specialty market.
Also according to the article the community is rallying around the family and appears to believe that this was just a horrible accident that could happen to anyone. I beg to differ. It could not happen to people who don't have guns. It also could not happen to responsible gun owners, because responsible gun owners would have come back from target shooting with their child, and immediately removed the firing pin from the rifle (presumably discovering it was loaded in the process), locked the rifle up in one place, and locked the firing pin up in a different place, preferably offsite.
It's just that there are people who want to own guns, but think safe storage practices are too much trouble. They call themselves "responsible" but what they mean is "I haven't had a serious accident yet."
I think it's a lot of trouble to be responsible with a gun too. It's one of the reasons I don't own one, in spite of having used them on occasion.
If only there was some way to get guns out of the hands of irresponsible people, you know? Before we have one kid dead and one kid growing up with the knowledge that either he was to blame, or his parents were.
