No good comes from this story: nine-year-old Freeman boy kills seven-year-old brother with handgun.
Hutchinson County State's Attorney Glenn Roth says the older boy told investigators he and his brother were playing with a handgun Tuesday when he pulled the trigger, thinking the gun was not loaded ["SD Boy Accidentally Shoots and Kills Brother," AP via KELOLand.com, 2014.03.26].
No law, blog post, or culture shift brings that boy back. No effort erases that horrible moment from the older brother's memory.
We can only lock up our guns, hold our little ones close and make sure they understand guns are designed to do harm and should never be carried casually for show or for play.
Strange: power tools are at least as prevalent in homes as pistols, but how often do we hear news stories about kids breaking into the tool cabinet and accidentally sawing each other in half?
"Strange: power tools are at least as prevalent in homes as pistols, but how often do we hear news stories about kids breaking into the tool cabinet and accidentally sawing each other in half?"
good point Cory. Good point
There needs to be a law to hold owners of firearms accountable for "accidents" that happen when their firearms aren't properly secured.
Parents should be charged with child endangerment and spend some time in jail.
Because when I pull the trigger on my cordless drill, the bit doesn't fly off the end at 1300 ft/s through the forehead of my playmate... It just sort of goes "bbBBBZZZZzzzzzzzhhhh".
Hey, even 9 year olds have 2nd Amendment Rights.
Power tools,when used as designed,don't saw people in half. Guns,otoh,weren't designed to build with,they can literally saw people in half when used as designed.
Guns MUST BE locked up.
There have been studies on children showing that they cannot be trained to be completely safe from playing with guns. Their brains just aren't yet able. This is an experiment they did:
After spending significant time and using appropriate methods, children were very good at identifying a gun, stating what it could do, and walking away from it to tell an adult what they'd seen. It appeared to be a roaring success.
Then the children were allowed to go in a playroom and play as they wished. At the bottom of the toy box was a disabled handgun, almost exactly the same as the weapon used in the teaching exercises.
Not a single child told an adult. In fact, they played with the gun, imitating what they've seen on tv and videos.
Some parents felt that the problem was in the teaching. Those parents were given a week to teach their children themselves. Then the children were brought back and played in the same room, the same toy box, the same gun. Same results.
Guns Must Be Locked Up!