This Is Not An Accident
Via TPM:
BURKESVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Authorities in southern Kentucky say a 2-year-old girl has been accidentally shot and killed by her 5-year-old brother, who was playing with a .22-caliber rifle he received as a gift.
[…]
White told the newspaper that the boy received the rifle made for youths last year and is used to shooting it. He said the gun was kept in a corner and the family didn’t realize a shell was left inside it.
White said the shooting will be ruled accidental. (Emphasis mine)
Who, in their right mind, gives a 4 year old a gun?
Who, after giving (or accepting) a gun to a flippin’ 4 year old, keeps it in a flippin’ corner?
Who, with a functioning brain cell, would ever call this an accident?
Tell you what… stop calling these shootings “accidents” and start throwing the parents/relatives/neighbors/friends/hunting buddies in jail. If a child finds your gun and kills themselves or someone else – you go to jail. If you’re cleaning your gun/showing it off, etc. and it goes off and shoots someone – you go to jail. If you mistake a person for a deer – you go to jail. Bet that would up the “responsibility” factor.
Tags: guns
In the parents’ defense, the five-year old was drunk at the time.
Another non-accident:
http://www.alaskadispatch.com/article/20130430/5-year-old-shot-killed-8-year-old-brother-remote-alaska
And for even more interesting reading, check this site out every day:
http://accidentalgunshots.tumblr.com/
If a parent leaves liquor unattended and a 5-year-old ends up getting his stomach pumped in a hospital, wouldn’t the parent be able to be charged with a crime? Don’t know why this would be any different.
Of course, getting a second medical opinion, like a responsible adult parent should be able to do, well, we can’t have that. http://www.today.com/moms/parents-police-removed-our-child-after-we-sought-second-medical-6C9708419
Check out this adorable website for the kids!
Just waiting for someone to say that this could have been prevented if they had taken the 5-year-old to an NRA firearms safety class.
Yeah, as long as this guy isn’t your instructor…
http://www.winonadailynews.com/news/article_c36cde4e-b149-11e2-8f65-001a4bcf887a.html
Two key words explain it all: “Burkesville” and “Kentucky.”
Damn right, Geez. This sort of thing never would have happened in Arkansas or West Virginia.
LG: David Waldman at Daily Kos also does a weekly roundup of gun fails, in which he has renamed bullets “liberty projectiles” that have a “Constitutional right to fly at the speed of freedom.”
MW: I looked up Burkesville. It’s closer to an Interstate than anyplace in Alaska, but its boondocks quotient is about equal to most of Arkansas.
I like that the rifle comes in pink so that dangerous behavior can still be enforced under strict gender norms.
I actually have less of a problem that the gun exists (people are always going to teach their kids to hunt and maybe it’s safer to do so with a gun scaled to their size) than I do with the fact that 1. it wasn’t kept locked up in a safe or other place when it wasn’t being used and 2. they weren’t DAMN SURE wasn’t loaded when they left it out in the open like that. We’ll never get rid of the 2nd amendment but can we have some sort of “except for irresponsible idiots” clause tacked onto the end? There’s like 5 places in this story where intervention would have saved this kid’s life.
And it starts with contraception.
Joanne,
Now you may be on to something. Distribute condoms and birth control pills as a premium with every gun and ammo purchase.
Could Planned Parenthood exterminate the NRA?
If gun-owners had to pass a written test to get a gun license, we might weed out a few of those who are too dumb to own one responsibly.
The tree of liberty needs to be watered by the blood of babies shot by toddlers on a weekly basis. Someone said that, right.
“I like that the rifle comes in pink so that dangerous behavior can still be enforced under strict gender norms.”
V wins the internet today.
For the pro gunners amongst you I suggest you chant “shall not be infringed” until reality is but a distant distraction. There, all better.