Sloe Times
A journal of my adventures in learning and growing personally and professionallyThursday, April 21, 2005
Accidental Life
I don't watch the local news for a relatively short list of reasons the top one being that in general they follow the philosophy that if it bleeds, it leads. However, when you're listening to the national news over dinner, sometimes it's a little slow to break from dinner just to switch to the music station or off. Anyway, yesterdays news story was about a 3 year old boy who was killed by a gun he found and played with in his home.
The police are calling it an "accidental shooting" and I'm thinking bullshit. Not because I believe something sinister happened or that the kid didn't find the loaded gun and kill himself while playing with it. No, I call bullshit on "accidental" because if you're going to be a gun owner, you are responsible for your guns. End of story. I probably won't get to own a gun again until I'm around 50. Mostly because the wife and I don't see eye to eye on the subject and since we live in a relatively safe place safety isn't a significant concern and I can always go to a range to cure the itch. However, the reason the wife and I don't see eye to eye on the subject is because of stories like this.
Maybe I'm a hardass but I'm thinking an Involuntary Manslaughter charge against the parents is appropriate here. Sure, they're going through what amounts to the worst time in their life right now, but a message has to be sent. If you're going to own a gun, own it responsibly. You child-proof cabinets and drawers to keep kids out of the drano and the rat poison, where the hell were you on storing your weapons? I've got a kid and at almost a year and a half he's into EVERYTHING and that's ok because that's how you learn about things when you're young. However, the really important stuff is way out of his reach or secured in some way. That doesn't keep him from finding inventive ways to damage himself but I can at least relax knowing that I haven't directly or indirectly created opportunities to put him in harms way.
Stuff like this is just sad, more fuel for the anti-gun zealots and a family destroyed. I think it mostly pisses me off because it's crap like this that give the policy-makers something to pander to while removing my abilities to choose and act responsibly as a citizen. By and large I still think events like these serve an evolutionary purpose, but I'm more aware now than when I was younger about the indrect impact these things have on me personally.
The police are calling it an "accidental shooting" and I'm thinking bullshit. Not because I believe something sinister happened or that the kid didn't find the loaded gun and kill himself while playing with it. No, I call bullshit on "accidental" because if you're going to be a gun owner, you are responsible for your guns. End of story. I probably won't get to own a gun again until I'm around 50. Mostly because the wife and I don't see eye to eye on the subject and since we live in a relatively safe place safety isn't a significant concern and I can always go to a range to cure the itch. However, the reason the wife and I don't see eye to eye on the subject is because of stories like this.
Maybe I'm a hardass but I'm thinking an Involuntary Manslaughter charge against the parents is appropriate here. Sure, they're going through what amounts to the worst time in their life right now, but a message has to be sent. If you're going to own a gun, own it responsibly. You child-proof cabinets and drawers to keep kids out of the drano and the rat poison, where the hell were you on storing your weapons? I've got a kid and at almost a year and a half he's into EVERYTHING and that's ok because that's how you learn about things when you're young. However, the really important stuff is way out of his reach or secured in some way. That doesn't keep him from finding inventive ways to damage himself but I can at least relax knowing that I haven't directly or indirectly created opportunities to put him in harms way.
Stuff like this is just sad, more fuel for the anti-gun zealots and a family destroyed. I think it mostly pisses me off because it's crap like this that give the policy-makers something to pander to while removing my abilities to choose and act responsibly as a citizen. By and large I still think events like these serve an evolutionary purpose, but I'm more aware now than when I was younger about the indrect impact these things have on me personally.
posted by Andres Silva # 4/21/2005 08:11:00 AM 
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