National Parents push for safe gun storage law after son's death

[Ralgha]

What exactly do they think this law will achieve? Same thing happens with the law in place, the owner just says it was locked and the witnesses are lying because they don't want to look like idiots or thieves. Prove him wrong.

 

[Alexx1401]

I disagree. If hes never been taught what a gun can do or how to safely handle it and make it clear its unreasonable for them to know what to do. It just another reason we should teach gun safety and how to unload a firearm in school. Even if someone anti gun can agree with that.

LOL, you disagree and then say the same thing you disagree with? So you disagree with yourself?

 

[Alexx1401]

I don't know about that. I never received any formal firearms training as a kid, yet way before I was 15 I knew that being on the receiving end of a bullet would be detrimental to my health.

"No formal" training but I take it you had fired or at least seen one fired in person? You have to remember that the gun has been so demonized now that many teens have never handled one or ever seen one used except on some show. Many who grew up around guns seem to not really fathom people who have never actually touched one until something like this happens.
Now that more has come out though it sounds more like a suicide anyway. I had not at first read that the gun was locked and unloaded. That the kid unlocked it, loaded it, then shot himself. So he sure knew enough to unlock and load it. Does not sound like and accident at all. The initial story made it sound like the kid found a loaded gun, picked it up and pulled the trigger. Now that I know he actually had to unlock it and load it? No way this is an accident.

 

[American123]

I'm fine with the concept of natural selection.

 

[Alexx1401]

When you put it that way, how do we know it wasn't suicide? I wonder how many accidents are actually suicides?

Anyway, we don't have kids, so these laws annoy me, can we get a waver? Also for the other gun control, I'd like a waver from that too. . .

Wait, we already have a waver it's called the second amendment.

Never mind.

The media of course is NOT going to make well known that the kid found an empty, locked gun, then unlocked and loaded it. Then call it an accident. If the kid had found the keys to the parents car, got in and drove it stolen, then died, I wonder if his parents would have been crying for the camera's saying they needed more laws?

 

[Caveman Jim]

I cant help but wonder if the gun control players and/or complicit Media dosnt jump in the ambulance and race to the scene to get their little sound bite after coaching the anti gun rant a little so that they can further the anti message quickly to the masses, the old never let a good tragedy go to waste deal!

And I agree with every one here, a locked gun should have been safe enough, and the fact that kid unlocked it and loaded it first amd then shot his self in the head screams suicide to me! And yes, teaching kids fun safety should be required in school, and the home wether there are guns in the home or not! Sure, blame the parents, but in this case, i don't as they did take the reasonable step in locking the guns up! Yea, the keys and ammo should not have been accessible, but..........
What if those guns were meant for home protection?

I was just going to post this.
Anti gun activists have all the tricks of the trade and use many tactics to corral these incidents. Never let a tragedy go to waste, sound familiar?

 

[Nosferatu]

"No formal" training but I take it you had fired or at least seen one fired in person? .

Nope. Didn't get into firearms until my 20's.

Sorry, It doesn't take a future rocket surgeon to understand the side effects of being shot, even in todays society.

 

[Alexx1401]

Nope. Didn't get into firearms until my 20's.

Sorry, It doesn't take a future rocket surgeon to understand the side effects of being shot, even in todays society.

Should not but, I knew better than to try to eat laundry detergent long before my teen years too. An amazing large number of the kids seem to think stuff like that is going to be fun
Now that I read the kid found the gun locked and empty, had to unlock and load it, sure sounds like he knew exactly what he was doing anyway. I had at first read of this assumed he picked up a loaded gun and pulled the trigger. Now I know that is far from what actually happened.

 

[surevaliance]

Most, including myself, call this Natural Selection.

 

[bbbass]

all others must bare.

When I'm bare at my age it's either some kind of anatomical emergency or I'm in the shower.

When my daughter was about 15 I was surprised by how many of her friends were incredibly oblivious to life in general.

Girls... just sayin'. My grand-daughter was a clueless mess at 15 and still is at 30.

I don't know about that. I never received any formal firearms training as a kid, yet way before I was 15 I knew that being on the receiving end of a bullet would be detrimental to my health.

Nope. Didn't get into firearms until my 20's.

Sorry, It doesn't take a future rocket surgeon to understand the side effects of being shot, even in todays society.

Yup, we grew up on Vic Morrow in the TV series Combat... most of our play was either Combat where we racked up amazing numbers of dead Jerries, or cops and robbers, or Western shootem-ups. There wasn't any doubt in my 5-8 year old mind that guns kill. My dad didn't even allow me to have a bb gun because he didn't want me killing songbirds. I didn't get my first firearm, a shotgun, until I was 18. However, it was bloody unlikely I would be pointing it at myself or others if I didn't want it shoved up my keister. Pull the trigger... no way!!!!

In this day of violent movies and Grand Theft Auto, every schoolchild knows guns kill. What most don't know is safety rules if they haven't been taught, but not pulling the trigger while looking down the barrel is something even Joe Biden could figure out! Nah, I'm also one that is thinkin it was sue ee side.

 

[nammac]

The media of course is NOT going to make well known that the kid found an empty, locked gun, then unlocked and loaded it. Then call it an accident. If the kid had found the keys to the parents car, got in and drove it stolen, then died, I wonder if his parents would have been crying for the camera's saying they needed more laws?

And this is pet of the problem, demonizing an inanimate object when the root cause of the problem was user error and/or ignorance! Parents should be charged with first degree manslaughter. Case closed.

 

[2A2Dend]

Regretfully, I bow down my head. A very sad outcome is now a reality. Someone died?

I am sorry.
Your loss, is not my reality. Or any others.
Mourn in private.
Stop crying to the world.

 

[808hondacrguy]

A different country may have been different if they were not raised around firearms, I just came back from Hawaii, and was watching a Japanese detective show where a guy was holding a bunch of people hostage. The detectives went to his house, and found another rifle in his room, and were all asking each other, "is it a real gun"? Fast Forward, they tackled the guy and were passing the rifle around, sweeping each other and the other people in the room, and all said that they never held a real gun before. Sorry for the drift.

 

[Hawaiian]

I can see how this could happen. When I was that age, my brothers and I would get my Dad's revolver out of the closet where he thought he hid it when he wasn't home. It was loaded. We played with it. We held it with our finger on the trigger as that is how we held our cap guns when we were younger. We swept each other with it. We knew better than to pull the trigger, Duh. Good thing it was a revolver and not a auto with a light trigger.

This is why when my son was 12 I bought him a 10/22 and myself a G19. I taught him safe gun handling. I also took him shooting a lot. Curiosity killed the cat, I killed his curiosity about guns.

 

[JRuby]

Teach your kids about guns like you should about sex and drugs - they can all be bad for your health.[/QUOTE]
I agree - it is one of the jobs of a parent to teach the young what they need to know to survive. An individual doesnt have to like guns but should at least know enough how to handle them safely. Pretending or ignoring something doesn't prevent it from existing. What you dont know can kill you.

 

[bbbass]

This is why when my son was 12 I bought him a 10/22 and myself a G19. I taught him safe gun handling. I also took him shooting a lot. Curiosity killed the cat, I killed his curiosity about guns.

When my kids were little, I took them out and had them shoot watermelons. Then told them the explosion could be their heads "these are not for playing"! Kids have good imagination, worked every time...

 

[Martini_Up]

When growing up we had firearms in the house without a safe nor a lock. I knew where they were. I knew where the ammunition was. I have 4 brothers and two sisters, they all knew as well.

Nobody ever played with them. Our friends never played with them.

What has changed?

 

[MannyGlocks]

So all gun owners should pay for their guilt?

No, just no...

 

[RVTECH]

it is one of the jobs of a parent to teach the young what they need to know to survive.

This is providing they themselves know what it takes to survive - and the average parent these days is pretty naive.

 

[NW Backpacker]

From the article: ""They were stored in a cardboard box, along with the ammo. There was a gun lock in there but the keys were in there," Mike Song said."

It does not say the gun was loaded or if the lock was on it. Based on the OP article we don't really know what happened. It would be interesting to hear the gun owner's side of the story about what was in the box as well as the story from the second boy about what happened but at least initially he wasn't talking.

This 2018 article insinuates that the gun was loaded and has a few other interesting details about the investigation:
Six Months Later Shooting Death of Guilford Teen Still Cloaked in Mystery

This 2018 article says no charges against the gun owner because it could not be proven that he stored it loaded. It was a .357 and this was not the first time the boys had played with it, and it wasn't the only gun.
Guilford teen Ethan Song fatally shot himself by accident; no charges to be filed

As others have said, teach kids what to do when a gun is present. If kids can access your guns, keep 'em locked up - deadbolt lock on a closet door should work, eh? Maybe in this case the owners kid had been told where the guns were in case he needed to defend himself - the gun owner was a private investigator so he could have enemies.

5 years in prison seems excessive for unsafe storage - but I don't know what punishment would be reasonable. Thoughts?