5-year-old shoots 2-year-old sister with gift rifle

[Zipperfish]

The same with kids who drown? To hell with those parents? What about kids who die from poison?

Is it really that difficult? You don't let kids who can't swim play near a pool or a lake unsupervised. You don't keep open poison under the sink. And you don't let your kids play with a loaded gun. That you forgot that the pool had water in it, or that you forgot drain cleaners or toxic, or that you forgot was a bullet in a gun is no excuse.

What? You want ot give them a medal?

 

[EagleSmack]

Is it really that difficult? You don't let kids who can't swim play near a pool or a lake unsupervised. You don't keep open poison under the sink. And you don't let your kids play with a loaded gun. That you forgot that the pool had water in it, or that you forgot drain cleaners or toxic, or that you forgot was a bullet in a gun is no excuse.

What? You want ot give them a medal?

So you think none are deserving of sympathy? Maybe I misunderstood.

So really it is the lack of supervision and carelessness on the part of the parents... as opposed to the means of death... that being a rifle?

What? You want ot give them a medal?

 

[Zipperfish]

Yeah I take that back. That medal bit wasn't nice. My apologies, Eagle Smack.

 

[karrie]

They can go to hell as far as I'm concerned.

They just did.

 

[Retired_Can_Soldier]

I'm sure the parents are model citizens.

 

[WLDB]

Some parents are idiots.

 

[Sal]

What a hard life lesson.

 

[SLM]

I hope that other families out there are taking this horrific lesson to heart. There is no such thing as "think it's safe" when you have young children in the house. You don't "think" you put the bleach on the top shelf, you don't "think" you closed the basement door, and you don't "think" you unloaded the gun and leave it in a corner. You make damn sure you do. Even when you've done the mental checklist of the most dangerous things in the house or yard, kids can still get hurt, accidents can still happen...but when it's preventable like this. This family will never be okay.

 

[Sal]

I hope that other families out there are taking this horrific lesson to heart. There is no such thing as "think it's safe" when you have young children in the house. You don't "think" you put the bleach on the top shelf, you don't "think" you closed the basement door, and you don't "think" you unloaded the gun and leave it in a corner. You make damn sure you do. Even when you've done the mental checklist of the most dangerous things in the house or yard, kids can still get hurt, accidents can still happen...but when it's preventable like this. This family will never be okay.

agreed, they will never be okay again...not only do they as adults have the death of the one baby to live with, they have to know they have sentenced their other baby to a life time of dealing with the knowledge of his accident. As an adult, I can't even go there in my mind...I tried when I read the OP. My mind couldn't handle the contemplation of the big picture. I do not believe I could find peace again in a single day of existence. Moments maybe, but not a whole day, not ever again.

 

[CanIrish]

I wonder if he used the blue gun or the pink gun?

 

[Blackleaf]

Only in America can a five-year-old be given a rifle as a toy. In Britain we give young boys toy rifles, but no way would we ever give them REAL ones.

And then the Yanks they wonder why tragedies like this happen.

The American obsession with the gun still baffles me. To someone from Britain, a country with the world's toughest gun laws, where guns are hardly ever seen by most people and where shootings are much rarer than in most other countries (and the murder rate in England and Wales is the second-lowest in the EU after Germany, although in Scotland where they are all giro-spending drunken thugs, the murder rate is the second-HIGHEST in Europe), this American obsession with owning guns is just completely and utterly alien.

The Americans cling on to the idea that they have some God-given right, thanks to the Second Amendment, to own guns, but it's obvious to most sensible people that the Second Amendment, penned at the end of the 18th Century, is now out of date and was merely to allow people to be armed with weapons to fight the British. There should be no need, however, for such a law now.

Here are some stats:

Annual firearm-related death rates of selected countries per 1,000 people:

UK: 0.25 (Homicides by firearms: 0.04)
Spain: 0.63 (Homicides by firearms: 0.15)
Ireland: 1.03 (Homicides by firearms: 0.36)
Germany: 1.10 (Homicides by firearms: 0.06)
Italy: 1.28 (Homicides by firearms: 0.36)
Sweden: 1.47 (Homicides by firearms: 0.19)
Portugal: 1.77 (Homicides by firearms: 0.48 )
Norway: 1.78 (Homicides by firearms: 0.04)
Canada: 2.13 (Homicides by firearms 0.50)
New Zealand: 2.66 (Homicides by firearms: 0.17)
Austria: 2.94 (Homicides by firearms: 0.18 )
France: 3.00 (Homicides by firearms: 0.22)
Chile: 3.73 (Homicides by firearms: 2.20)
Switzerland: 3.84 (Homicides by firearms: 0.52)
Serbia: 3.90 (Homicides by firearms: 0.62)
United States: 10.20 (Homicides by firearms: 3.20)

List of countries by firearm-related death rate - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[EagleSmack]

The Americans cling on to the idea that they have some God-given right, thanks to the Second Amendment, to own guns, but it's obvious to most sensible people that the Second Amendment, penned at the end of the 18th Century, is now out of date and was merely to allow people to be armed with weapons to fight the British. There should be no need, however, for such a law now.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_firearm-related_death_rate

Which is why you're briddish and over there.

Guns are here to stay along with the 2nd Amendment.

 

[Cliffy]

I witnessed the exact same thing in Quebec back in the 60s, only the boy blew his sisters head off with a loaded shot gun in the back seat of their father's car. Nobody blamed the gun. The father, however, was condemned to eternal stupidity by public opinion, not to mention, the hell of knowing his stupidity caused the death of his daughter.
Gun nuts and anti-gun nuts are all nuts. People who own and use guns responsibly are just humans.

 

[Tecumsehsbones]

People who own and use guns responsibly are just humans.

So are people who own and use guns irresponsibly. Just stupider.

 

[Christianna]

Right

... and they also can have swimming pools in the U.S.

Ah yes but in the US pools have to be fenced off because they are a danger to children! Old refrigerators have to either have the doors removed or face a wall because a very few children have suffocated in abandoned fridges. Guns...... well that is a different story, they can be left loaded in a corner and nothing is ever said about that.

 

[karrie]

Ah yes but in the US pools have to be fenced off because they are a danger to children! Old refrigerators have to either have the doors removed or face a wall because a very few children have suffocated in abandoned fridges. Guns...... well that is a different story, they can be left loaded in a corner and nothing is ever said about that.

You'd have to be purposely ignoring that people are condemning the storage of a loaded gun in the corner.

 

[DaSleeper]

Ah yes but in the US pools have to be fenced off because they are a danger to children! Old refrigerators have to either have the doors removed or face a wall because a very few children have suffocated in abandoned fridges. Guns...... well that is a different story, they can be left loaded in a corner and nothing is ever said about that.

Even the much maligned NRA does not support what you said.......took me just a few seconds to find out

The fundamental NRA rules for safe gun handling are:
1. ALWAYS keep the gun pointed in a safe direction.
This is the primary rule of gun safety. A safe direction means that the gun is pointed so that even if it were to go off it would not cause injury or damage. The key to this rule is to control where the muzzle or front end of the barrel is pointed at all times. Common sense dictates the safest direction, depending on different circumstances.

2. ALWAYS keep your finger off the trigger until ready to shoot.
When holding a gun, rest your finger on the trigger guard or along the side of the gun. Until you are actually ready to fire, do not touch the trigger.

3. ALWAYS keep the gun unloaded until ready to use.
Whenever you pick up a gun, immediately engage the safety device if possible, and, if the gun has a magazine, remove it before opening the action and looking into the chamber(s) which should be clear of ammunition. If you do not know how to open the action or inspect the chamber(s), leave the gun alone and get help from someone who does.

 

[Christianna]

You'd have to be purposely ignoring that people are condemning the storage of a loaded gun in the corner.

They can condemn all they want, there is no law that says they can not leave loaded guns in corners, or anywhere that a child might get them, but there are laws about pools and abandoned refrigerators!

In the law of torts, the attractive nuisance doctrine states that a landowner may be held liable for injuries to children trespassing on the land if the injury is caused by a hazardous object or condition on the land that is likely to attract children who are unable to appreciate the risk posed by the object or condition. The doctrine has been applied to hold landowners liable for injuries caused by abandoned cars, piles of lumber or sand, trampolines, and swimming pools. However, it can be applied to virtually anything on the property of the landowner.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attractive_nuisance_doctrine

 

[Blackleaf]

Guns are here to stay along with the 2nd Amendment.

The Second Amendment, drafted in the 18th Century at a time when the Founding Fathers felt that Americans should be able to defend themselves against unfriendly Indians, the British and other threats relevant to the time, has no place in the 21st Century. This is the 21st Century and the time when Americans need to defend themselves from Indians and the British is long gone. It's time the Second Amendment was considned to the dustbin of history. It's an anachronism.

Which is why you're briddish and over there.

And I thank God that I'm British and over here, and not a Yank and over there.

Because here in Britain, a country in which most people have never seen a gun in real life, I have 0.25 in 1,000 chance of being killed by a firearm, and a 0.04 in 1,000 chance of being murdered by one. In Britain you are less likely to be killed by a firearm than almost anywhere else in the world.

However you, being in America, have a 10.2 in 1,000 chance of being killed by a firearm and a 3.2 in 1,000 chance of being murdered by one.

In other words, all thanks to your out-of-date Second Amendment, which is anachronistic in the 21st Century, you over there in Yankeeland are 41 times more likely than me, here in good old Blighty, to be killed by a firearm and you are 80 times more likely to be murdered by a firearm than I am.

I count myself lucky that I live in Britain and not America.

 

[Tecumsehsbones]

That makes two of us.