Children and Guns

It seems like every time I turn on the news there is another insident of school children shooting other children. We are also faced with siblings playing with guns in their homes and killing a brother or sister with it.

I was saddened when I read of a five year old boy who shot his two year old sister. He will carry that pain with him for the rest of his life. The real shock came when I read that he shot her with his own gun, a 22 made for a five year old and painted blue. They make a pink one for girls. What is wrong here?

Right away the pro gun people were posting that it was just a tragic accident that could happen to anyone. In a sense it was a tragic accident from the point of view of the five year old who did not mean to kill his little sister. Many times my brother and I played cowboys with our cap pistols aiming and shooting at each other. They were toys and did not damage. A five year old has no comprehension of lethal weapons; he was playing with a new toy.

The anti gun group began a rant about firearms companies that produce lethal weapons made for such young children. There is also some truth to their concerns but that is not the real problem. Children shoot other children with guns left available by parents. In this case a gun made available as a gift by a parent.

My problem is with the parents who are guilty of negligent homicide by providing a loaded weapon to a child with out supervision. If you have guns in the house with children the said children need to be trained to know that guns can kill and assume that a gun is always loaded. It is OK to train a child to shoot on a target range and respect a gun but not to be left alone with the gun. In a home with a child all weapons need to be unloaded, the trigger locked and the gun locked up.

Where was the adult supervision in that home?