I don’t want to sound like some kind of weeny liberal nag, but I’m having trouble understanding how we’re supposed to use our guns in these cases to act like the good guys who are getting the bad guys with the guns.
This week a 2-year-old in South Carolina found a gun in the back seat of the car he was riding in and accidentally shot his grandmother, who was sitting in the passenger seat. This type of thing happens from time to time: A little kid finds a gun, fires it, and hurts or kills himself or someone else. These cases rarely bubble up to the national level except when someone, like a parent, ends up dead.
But cases like this happen a lot more frequently than you might think. After spending a few hours sifting through news reports, I’ve found at least 43 instances this year of somebody being shot by a toddler 3 or younger. In 31 of those 43 cases, a toddler found a gun and shot himself or herself.
I know, I know. I’m a moron.
Because only a moron believes that a two year old can pull the trigger on a gun, right?
You might as well tell me that we put a man on the moon or that real men eat arugula.
I’m sure you’ve had enough of pantywaist protesters, but I haven’t forgotten how the NRA reacted to the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School.
After a weeklong silence, the National Rifle Association announced Friday that it wants to arm security officers at every school in the country. It pointed the finger at violent video games, the news media and lax law enforcement — not guns — as culprits in the recent rash of mass shootings.
“The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun,” Wayne LaPierre, the N.R.A. vice president, said at a media event that was interrupted by protesters. One held up a banner saying, “N.R.A. Killing Our Kids.”
It’s hard to say that it’s the NRA killing our kids when it’s clearly our kids killing each other and themselves and their grandmothers. And this wouldn’t happen if we just put a good guy with a gun in the backseat of all of our cars to keep a watch on our toddlers and put a quick stop to any gang-related activity.
I’m sure you can go talk to the families who have been impacted by these tragedies and find them suffering from no regrets and no second thoughts about how safe their guns were keeping their families.
Oh, yes, I know the solution. Those stupid parents shouldn’t just leave their loaded guns lying around where any Tommy, Richie or Harry can pick them up and pop off a few quicks shots.
And girls shouldn’t have sex.
And boys shouldn’t horse around.
And say ‘no’ to drugs.
And no one gets hurt.
If grandma was carrying a gun these shootings wouldn’t happen! ;-))
For some reason, I just got an awful flashback to the Eighties – when our prez was called Raygun, and every pickup truck and old beater car had a “shit happens” bumpersticker.
With Jeb’s stuff slogan and leadership, we can take our country right back there.
Never again I say.
May I ask how the new pond progresses?
1- There have always been accidental shootings from poor storage or handling of firearms.
2- The last few years (especially under Obama) there has been a big marketing push (fear as its main motivator) to sell more firearms, particularly anti-personnel handguns and rifles.
3- As part of that marketing, a “totemization” of firearms has been pushed to encourage open carry or concealed carry of handguns. The idea being, the more the non-firearm community is exposed to firearms in the hands of 2nd Amendment enthusiasts during their daily lives, they will magically accept their presence in civil community. The more carry permits issued (or non-permit open carry), the more handguns you sell the more the community will accept or think they need one to defend themselves (though crime is going down), the more you sell.
But like drivers, drinkers and lovers; not everyone practicing their 2nd Ammend. rights are responsible. The more handguns in folk’s pockets, belts, or inside the pants holsters; the more handguns drop from pants in WalMart, get left in bathroom stalls, or slide out of pockets in backseats of cars.
You were surprised a toddler could handle and pull the trigger of a gun found in the back seat. With smaller carry guns, polymer frames and light trigger, such guns are as light and easy to handle as a toy gun. And with kids inundated with shot em ups, the first thing any would do when they find a firearm laying around is pull the trigger. Combine that with poor control (letting it fall out, leaving it on the coffee table, etc…) and that is why you have these incidents.
2 solutions-
Ban guns (ain’t gonna happen)
Hold firearm owner responsible (jail time) for negligent wounding or homicide as in drunk drivers. A couple of years in prison because you couldn’t secure your pistol properly and it led to the injury or death of another would do wonders about this problem.
And it is a problem.
R
With smaller carry guns, polymer frames and light trigger, such guns are as light and easy to handle as a toy gun.
Is there any halfway decent data that demonstrates that such toddler shooting have increased over the past few decades and not simply a matter of better news reporting of such instances? And if such an increase is real that it is mostly explained by gun innovations or is it more attributable to the increased prevalence of guns?
No data that I know of, but if you look at the sales of smaller concealable pistols, they have gone through the roof. Many, many more out there. In the past, such small guns would be been steel or alloy framed with heavy trigger pull or safeties to manipulate. Current polymer framed striker fired guns weigh around 15-17 ounces and the safety is part of the light trigger pull. No problem for a 3 yr old to pick up and use.
Here is an overview of “pocket pistols” of this type and they would be just the thing to fall out of a jacket pocket in the back seat of a car.
http://www.gunsandammo.com/galleries/8-great-9mm-pocket-pistols-for-personal-defense/
R
Oh, wasn’t questioning the logic of pointing to these new lightweight guns to explain toddler/child shootings or that they’re more likely to slip out of pockets/purses and less likely to be noticed as missing when they do. However, when people can overlook the fact that they have an infant/toddler in the backseat and leave the child looked in the car for hours with tragic consequences, is the size and weight of a gun an actual factor?
(btw — I detest guns and would support what Australia did. Short of that, when the anti-gun people push for legislation that isn’t authentically effective in reducing deaths and injuries, it does more harm than good because it causes the gun nuts to double down in their fears that their guns will be taken away.)
I don’t have any direct data on this, either. But I look at it this way.
If over the span of a decade, or so, we equipped every drinking fountain in the country with the option of dispensing your choice of alcohol, in addition to its standard dispensation of water, might we expect to see an increase in alcohol related incidents rolling through our criminal justice system?
Essentially, that seems to be what we have allowed with guns. They are becoming ubiquitous in all areas of our society. But we demand that people responsibly handle their alcohol consumption. And if they don’t, they find themselves in a courtroom. Not so with guns. Almost every shooting like this is an “accident”, most times with no one being held legally responsible. Imagine if we treated the incidents from the alcohol drinking fountains that same way.
Agreed. Leaving a gun accessible to a toddler should be criminal negligence. And you probably should have your child taken away if you’re that careless.
Yeah, sure like we demand authentic accountability for those that lie the nation into wars that kill and maim tens of thousands of innocent people.
Some would say that losing a child or beloved family member due to one’s own gun ownership carelessness is punishment enough.
After Newtown, Louie Gohmert was sad becuase the principal didn’t have access to an M-4, so there’s that.
I must be out of the norm, having several video game power cords cluttering the rear floor of my car but nary a gun to be seen.
It’s very simple. Guns for everyone, body armor for everyone. Everyones safe, everyones happy (especially the gun and body armor manufacturers). Also, tasers for toddlers.
In my reading, I saw a reference to Horace V. Redfield and his 1880 book. I think it still might be relevant.
Here in the state of Washington we are trying to pass legislation that holds gun owners responsible for how their weapons are used by others. Thus this might insight people to store their weapons more safely.
Tom Hilton did a guest column over at No More Mister Nice Blog on this — http://nomoremister.blogspot.com/2015/10/we-dont-have-gun-problem-we-have.html#links — and in the comments, one nonynony made this astute observation: