Gun control

[Zazzy]

This article (Children and Guns: The Hidden Toll) was on the front page of the New York Times today. It left me speechless.

I have barely ever touched a gun (just unloaded antiques) and I don't understand the fixation. Are there any reasonable NRA members here who can help me understand this? It appears that the gun lobby is simply fucking insane. I'd appreciate some insight to help me process this.

[Silver]

Gun fondlers are insane.

http://youtu.be/N0Wn3Eey6dY

[Captain Colostomy]

Boys and their toys, Zazzy. They'll insist other more 'noble' reasons, but it's all about shiny bang sticks.

And fear.

[Minimalist]

“It Was a Horrible, Horrible Accident”

No. It is not an accident. It is the foreseeable result of leaving loaded guns laying around the house.

[Zazzy]

“It Was a Horrible, Horrible Accident”

No. It is not an accident. It is the foreseeable result of leaving loaded guns laying around the house.

Should these people be prosecuted, Min? They have been fucktards of the highest order, but they have also been punished so terribly by their idiocy- the worst punishment I can imagine. Although if you get to the end of the article, there's a touching scene where a father takes his kid (who some years before had shot his younger sibling to death accidentally) hunting as some weird form of expiation- strange and awful.

I just don't know what I think about prosecution of these parents.

[EB-S.canaria]

i really dont understand the obsession with guns but kind of understand why some gun laws first made it into the u.s. constitution. why the same right to bear arms applies to modern day weaponry in modern times i don't know. gun lobby's and money i would guess?

[pineapplebunnybounce]

I hate to say this because of the loss they suffered. But this isn't about the parents, it's about the children who lost their lives. Their parents were irresponsible, no other word for it. You leave a loaded weapon or a weapon lying around, and somehow your kid knows how to operate it and find the bullets for it. And then you tell them not to do it.

They're children! They don't know what responsibility is. They just want to have fun, they don't deserve any of this. Even I, who has always worked hard at reducing my chances of having to babysit kids, know that kids cannot be trusted for anything. You have to watch them. Some of the kids are so young I doubt they understood the concept of death enough to understand why guns are dangerous.

It's common sense, would anyone let a kid play with a knife under supervision? But a gun, let's teach them how to use one.

[Minimalist]

Should these people be prosecuted, Min?

If a parent leaves his kid in a car and goes into the house and his kid dies they are prosecuted.

http://autos.aol.com/article/kids-car-he...revention/

[Zazzy]

I think my favorite quote from the article is from a mother whose husband was prosecuted for leaving the gun UNDER THE SOFA CUSHIONS for their 3-year-old to find, and then the kid shot himself:

Lucas’s father, Joshua Heagren, had tried to teach the 3-year-old to respect firearms. The boy had gotten a .22 rifle for Christmas, and his father showed him how to fire it. But he also warned him to handle it only when an adult was present.

“He never even attempted to touch guns when Josh wasn’t around,” Lucas’s mother, Kaitlin Campbell, testified at Mr. Heagren’s trial, where he was convicted of negligent homicide and endangering children. “He knew.”

He's THREE YEARS OLD, lady. Kids that age don't know it's bad to stick their fingers up their butts and then suck on them, even though you've probably told him a million times not to.

What is UP with this? Are we really that crazy and stupid a people?

[Captain Colostomy]

*removes fingers from mouth, sniffs them, shrugs and put them back*

Never underestimate the power of stupid. It afflicts people from all walks of life.