|
|
Post by Disgruntled70sHab on Apr 7, 2008 11:59:25 GMT -5
Absolutely no excuse for this to have happened. Terrible story. Detroit girl, 3, shoots herself in the head
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
DETROIT - Detroit police say a three-year-old girl found a gun in a bedroom at her west side home and shot herself in the head.
Her condition wasn't immediately known.
One of the girl's parents apparently owned the gun with which she shot herself. At least one parent was home at the time.
The Detroit Free Press says police questioned the parents and took the gun.
The girl was taken to Sinai Grace Hospital, then transferred to Detroit Children's Hospital. cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/World/2008/04/06/5213556-ap.html |
|
|
|
Post by jkr on Apr 7, 2008 13:01:16 GMT -5
It's bad enough to leave a gun where a toddler can find it but also - why does it have to be loaded.  |
|
|
|
Post by The New Guy on Apr 7, 2008 13:05:10 GMT -5
The question I ask is not "where were the parents" (you can't spend every waking moment with your eyes trained on a 3 year old child) but "why were these people permitted to own a gun without the proper understanding of how to use it". I'm not a big proponent of having handguns to begin with, but if you live in a place where it's legal, and you choose to own one, shouldn't you learn how to use it and care for it. I mean, if I wanted a weapon to defend myself with, you can be damn well sure I'd know how to use it.
Basic weapon care - keep it locked up, keep it unloaded, and keep the ammo separately. For a three year old to do this, the gun would essentially have to be lying around loaded. How dumb do you have to be to allow that to happen?
A tragedy, but one caused by human ignorance. I've little sympathy for people who do stupid, dangerous things.
|
|
|
|
Post by clear observer on Apr 7, 2008 14:16:59 GMT -5
Don't know where they were, but I do know where they should be going.
|
|
|
|
Post by BadCompany on Apr 7, 2008 15:40:05 GMT -5
I mean, if I wanted a weapon to defend myself with, you can be damn well sure I'd know how to use it. Basic weapon care - keep it locked up, keep it unloaded, and keep the ammo separately. For a three year old to do this, the gun would essentially have to be lying around loaded. Aye, and therein lies the problem... People want handguns to "protect" themselves... in other words when the intruder breaks in they want it easily accessible, like in a night table, fully loaded, and ready to go... can't spend time trying to unlock your cabinet doors, find your gun, unlock more cabinets, find ammo, load your gun... Tragic. Both for the death and for the logic that went into it. How many people, how many children die in gun-related accidents every year? How many home invasions are stopped because the homeowner had a gun? In general I do not have any problems with guns, or people owning guns. But I do have problems with the reasons why people think they need guns. It's those reasons that usually lead to these tragic stories. Is it society's fault for perpetuating the myth that crime is rampant, and we're all in danger? The Department of Homeland Security with their increasingly irrelevant "Threat Levels?" Amber alerts, and the mass hysteria they cause? I don't know. |
|
|
|
Post by seventeen on Apr 7, 2008 19:43:01 GMT -5
Red letter day yesterday, Charlton Heston went to meet his maker. I guess we can now claw the gun out of his dead, cold hands.
|
|
|
|
Post by Skilly on Apr 8, 2008 8:04:50 GMT -5
Aye, and therein lies the problem... People want handguns to "protect" themselves... in other words when the intruder breaks in they want it easily accessible, like in a night table, fully loaded, and ready to go... can't spend time trying to unlock your cabinet doors, find your gun, unlock more cabinets, find ammo, load your gun... I don't know much about guns ... although almost everyone I know owns some form of a gun (hunting rifles mostly). I have never even seen a gun (well thats not true I have seen them on police officer's hips), let alone touched one ..... but don't gun's have "safeties"? Are these safety switches (if that is the correct term) that easy to unlock? |
|
|
|
Post by blny on Apr 8, 2008 8:31:41 GMT -5
It's bad enough to leave a gun where a toddler can find it but also - why does it have to be loaded. "What good is an unloaded gun?" I assume that would be the response from an owner. A responsible gun owner has that in a lock box, and the safety on. |
|
|
|
Post by franko on Apr 8, 2008 8:32:27 GMT -5
Aye, and therein lies the problem... People want handguns to "protect" themselves... in other words when the intruder breaks in they want it easily accessible, like in a night table, fully loaded, and ready to go... can't spend time trying to unlock your cabinet doors, find your gun, unlock more cabinets, find ammo, load your gun... I don't know much about guns ... although almost everyone I know owns some form of a gun (hunting rifles mostly). I have never even seen a gun (well thats not true I have seen them on police officer's hips), let alone touched one ..... but don't gun's have "safeties"? Are these safety switches (if that is the correct term) that easy to unlock? A safety only works when it is on. If it is on. Properly. JKR asks the best question, though: why was the gun loaded. TNG makes a great comment: Basic weapon care - keep it locked up, keep it unloaded, and keep the ammo separately. As to Charlton Heston, it's been suggested that Michael Moore ambushed him, and that Heston was in the beginning stages of Alzheimer's. Not an excuse for the [edited] cold dead hand comment, though. |
|
|
|
Post by blny on Apr 8, 2008 8:33:11 GMT -5
Red letter day yesterday, Charlton Heston went to meet his maker. I guess we can now claw the gun out of his dead, cold hands. Hahahaha ... I said that very thing to my father yesterday. ;D |
|
|
|
Post by Disgruntled70sHab on Apr 8, 2008 11:39:27 GMT -5
Well, so much for Heston resting in peace I guess. People are more likely to remember him for his association with the NRA rather than his accomplishments as an actor, civil rights activist and believer that "... "Political correctness is tyranny with manners."
Giving guns to people who have no concept on how to use them is a crime in itself. And it didn't help with a bonafide big-screen movie star promoting the "right to bear arms." But there was more to the man than just that.
If they want to amend the constitution to regulate who is permitted to own a firearm and for what purpose, then fine.
I used to own a CZ 75 automatic handgun while I lived in Germany. The only time I was permitted to have ammunition was if I was on my way to the range. If I deviated from that, and was caught, I would have been charged under German laws.
I sold the weapon before I came back to Canada knowing the laws for such a handgun were much more strict here at home. And, with our European experience behind us, there was no way I was going to have one in the house with a larger family on the way.
Cheers.
|
|
|
|
Post by CrocRob on Apr 8, 2008 20:25:12 GMT -5
Unreal. Guns are so stupid.
Why was I not shocked (and actually a little relieved.. at least that city's insanity isn't spreading) that it happened in Detroit?
|
|
