I was on FB today, like the general population of humankind, and I saw this link posted:
5-Year-Old Fatally Shoots Sister
Above it, my FB-friend had written, "This is why kids shouldn't have guns."
I'm just throwing this piece of information out before I get to my opinion. The same exact model of gun that was used in this shooting was given to my two young children (before 1st grade as this article states) just a couple of months ago.
Here are the problems I see with this case:
1) The gun was left in the corner of the living room. If you are going to have guns in a home with children, please invest in either safety locks or a gun safe. While you can teach "this isn't a toy" until you're blue in the face, well let's just say if you have a child that young that listens 100% of the time I would like to adopt them.
2) The parents state they didn't know there was a bullet left in the gun. If this isn't breaking one of the main rules of gun safety, I don't know what is. ALWAYS check to make sure guns are unloaded and cleared after each and every use. This also means don't trust your 5-year-old with that job. Why? See the last line of #1 above.
3) I live in a neighborhood full of kids, and we did in our last place as well. I can't count the number of times I've seen children pointing toy guns at other children. This makes that motion and thought process something that seems second nature. From the days when we first taught our children not to throw in the house, not to hit, not to bite each other, we have also taught that we do NOT point guns at people. EVER. Not even guns we make with our own two fingers. There is NO exception. That way if #1 and #2 are broken, they would know how unsafe it is to point it at someone.
While this story is very unfortunate and heartbreaking with the loss of a little girl, I don't see how this case can stand up to the argument that no children should have guns. I think that all adults should practice gun safety. If this 5-year-old took a kitchen knife and stabbed his sister (not that I want to even think about that), we would not be screaming about how we should ban all steak knives from homes with children. No, we would say that the parents should have had a child-safety lock on the drawer, or that the parents should have just taught that kid to know better. Just because this is a different weapon does not mean we get to change where our blame is put.
Back to my kids' rifle. It is currently locked in the gun safe. It is unloaded. It is a model that only houses one bullet at a time. Our children do not touch it until it is time for them to shoot at the range. They don't even carry it to the range from the car. They are taught the rules each and every time we go out to shoot. They are taught that the gun always points down range, unless someone is walking in that direction, in which we point it straight to the ground. We also teach that your finger should never touch the trigger until your scope is on the exact spot that you want that bullet to go. And when they get home, their toy guns are not to be pointed at people as well. EVER. We personally also teach that they should not touch bullets as well as the gun. So, before we start rattling at the mouth that children shouldn't have guns, we should look at how and if gun safety is taught.
Want to own a gun but don't know all of the rules to gun safety? Try these links:
Gun Safety Rules
Parents Guide to Gun Safety
