5 y.o. shot's 2 y.o.

[marcp]

Did you all see this story on CNN today?5-year-old Kentucky boy fatally shoots 2-year-old sister - CNN.com
I have several issue's with this,
1.I don't think a 5 year old is old enough for a firearm.
2.The parent left the 5 year old alone with access to the firearm.
3.The fire arm was left loaded.
Just my but people like this give the gun grabber's more excuses to bash the responsible one's more.


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The world is full of zombie's,some not so dead yet....

 

[CitiusFortius]

Yeah, I saw it. LOCK 'em up!!!

The gun owner is probably the same person who says "when I was a kid, we all knew where the gun was, but we never touched them because dad told us not to" blah blah blah, get a safe and use the dang thing...

 

[terrehautian]

I happened upon the "Occupy the NRA" facebook page for a random look and they want to get people to get on the Kricket rifle page to punish them for the parents negligence.

 

[terrythegamer]

i agree a 5 year old should not have gotten a real gun for his birthday and he should not have access to it especially being loaded.

 

[terrehautian]

While I agree they should not get access to it without an adult holding it and everything, I honestly think the sooner they see that guns are not toys, the better. Now if I was to buy one for a future five year old I will hopefully have, not tell them it is theirs and just shoot with me right behind them, I might. Just depends on how I feel at the time. I honestly didn't know much about the case and only know it involves a single shot 22.

 

[jerryv]

Yeah .. this was awful. Wrong on so many levels ..

I don't think ANY 5 yr old should be owning, or shooting any real guns. I don't think a kid that age can understand what it means to kill something .. I don't think they have any way to understand the notion of death .. and without those concepts there's no way to trust their behavior with a weapon. To be responsible with a weapon, you have to be able to understand and respect its purpose ..

But blame has to fall squarely on the parents here .. they should not have allowed their kid to get a weapon as a gift. And beyond that, if they were stupid enough to allow it, they should have checked to see if it was loaded. And beyond that, they should have been monitoring his every move.

I mean .. would you even give a kid that age a piece of metal 3 feet long? Even unloaded, a little kid could do a lot of damage with a rifle ...

 

[PGRChaplain]

What JerryV Said! ^^^^ Epic FAIL on parents part!

 

[us_agent]

Terrible.. I don't necessarily think mom and dad should be imprisoned. They will have to live with their lack of vigil for the rest of their lives. Locking them up at this point to me is more waste.

Guns are not toys.

 

[cmamath13]

I read this story this morning in the paper. I'm sickened by it. Terrible. Unsecured loaded gun in home with 2 and 5 year old with parent outside... THINK PEOPLE!

 

[saberstar]

For me personally I don't think a child that age should have a rifle. It should never be "given as a bday present" because something like that he sees as his changes things. You can say that not all 5yro are the same but they all have a short attention span and for get things. A child that age can not handle responsibility. Especially something as dangerous as a rifle in the wrong hands.

 

[LarryC]

I withhold judgement! I do feel the parents were negligent in not making DAMM SURE any firearm in their home was either unloaded or unavailable to a young child. However, no one here knows all the circumstances.

Is it possible someone loaded the rifle without their knowledge? Possibly an older child etc.? I understand where everyone is coming from, this is tragic.

But in my era, almost every home in the area I am from (northern Indiana - 1940's & 50's) had firearms displayed in their home. No they were not normally loaded. By the time a child could actually load the firearm, he had been "trained" in firearm safety and use. As far as I can recall, I never heard of any "accidental" discharge, injury or death.

 

[Jordan]

I was shooting very early. My first assisted shoot I was 4. I had guns that were considered mine as early as 8. However I was not allowed to keep them in my possession until I was a teen. They stayed locked away. I could get to Dad's guns if I needed to.

This is definitely a parenting fail. If you are going to "give" a young child a gun then by no means do they need to be in possession of it. Especially not with ammo openly available to them. If they have any access to a loaded firearm they must prove they are trustworthy and a lot of parental judgement needs to be exercised. Any kid that would point a gun at his baby sister was obviously not mature enough or trained well enough to have any business with a firearm.

I have a BB gun I am preparing for my oldest son who is 4. I wanted to give it to him this summer but thus far I do not feel confident he is ready so I will be with-holding it until next year or whenever I feel he is ready. He already has a .22LR revolver his grandpa has squirreled away for him when the time is right as well. I will take my son to a range this summer and let him fire his first gun assisted.

I think perhaps these parents got in a rush to give the boy his gun and did not take into account whether he was ready for it. I understand that excitement, that want, but they are the adults and should have made the right decision instead of the fun one.

Can you imagine living the rest of your life knowing you accidentally killed your baby sister as a young boy because your parents were fools? This kid is going to have a hell of a complex.