There are guns in approximately 40% of U.S. homes. Approximately 34% of American children live in homes with at least one gun. But this week in Colorado, those numbers sound way too low.
Two 5-year-olds have died here this week in gun accidents. In one case, a 3-year-old shot an older brother. In the other, a little girl was playing with a loaded .45 and fatally shot herself.
These deaths were tragic and needless. They were the result of stupid, irresponsible adults being grossly negligent. In one case, an adult is being charged with felony child abuse, but it’s a little late now.
People whose guns are more important to them than their children’s safety need to have their heads examined. Are your Second Amendment rights more important to you than your kids? If you have children in your house, don’t have guns. Period. If you must own them, store them somewhere off the premises. Put them in the bank or leave them at the gun club or lodge. Anyplace but in your house with your kids.
Children get into things. They are ingenious that way. Put things away, lock them up, hide them — kids will still find them. Warn them to leave things alone and sure enough, those are the things they’ll be curious about. Teach them to be responsible with guns; they’ll still be children — and children are innately irresponsible. And don’t forget peer pressure. “My dad’s got a gun.” “Really? Can I see it?” “Well, I’m not supposed to … ” Maybe your kids will leave your guns alone, but maybe their friends won’t.
Am I being overly emotional about this? You bet I am. Am I enraged? Beyond words. There’s no excuse for accidents like this. None. If there hadn’t been guns in those homes, those two children would be alive today playing with their Christmas presents. So don’t talk to me about your precious “rights.”
Every state and city in the country should have laws making the parents criminally liable for accidental shooting deaths like these. As far as I’m concerned, it should be a crime to have guns in any home where children live.
Kids will be kids. So adults must be adults.
Couldn’t agree more, PT. But then, I’m from a country where we don’t have them as standard. I hadn’t heard about these cases. How utterly awful.
I often wonder where we went wrong. Why couldn’t we have developed into a modern nation without guns, just like England did?
News like that enrages me too Pied! Sometimes I wonder if it’s time to start requiring a license to bear children too…
If only there were a way …
Have you ever seen the movie Serenity? If you haven’t then I highly recommend it, as to me it’s the ultimate statement about government attempts to “make people better” while only making matters worse. I never miss it when it comes on the tube and I’ve been meaning to do a post on it for some time. Here’s what a couple of others thought about it: Serenity: Love, Belief, and a World Without Sin and A World Without Sin: Short review of Serenity
“Firefly” and Serenity were long gone before I became aware of them. When I came across the movie on TV one afternoon, I watched it because I like Nathan Fillion in “Castle.” I’ll have to pay more attention next time it’s on, because I don’t remember anything about it now.
I’d actually never heard of the TV show until after I saw the movie, but watch it now that it comes on the Science Channel. In fact, they just ran every episode in a Christmas Day marathon! 😀
Izaak indirectly raises a point I have often thought about, i.e. that “freedom” is something of an illusion. One person’s freedom often restricts the rights or freedoms of others, and Susan’s post is just one example. Take motorcycle helmets for example. Many riders demand the freedom of riding without such protection, but when they wind up with serious head injuries it is usually the taxpayers who pick up the bill to keep them on life support and/or pay for their self-imposed disabilities. Seat belts, same thing. Cell phone use by drivers. How about a woman’s freedom of choice to abort a fetus that has zero chance of a normal life?
Look there, you guys got me going.
That’s okay. It’s a topic that ought to get people going. I was bouncing off the walls when I wrote this, in case you couldn’t tell.
gun education. end of discussion.
Gun education doesn’t help without the ability to exercise mature judgment, which doesn’t come until the brain matures at about age 25.