This has nothing to do with watching a 3-yr-old. This is about criminal negligence in storing their firearm. The gun should have been locked in an unloaded and inoperable position and stored separately from the ammunition. It also should have been in a gun safe, or the very least, kept where a child couldn't get to it.

 

I agree.

I keep a loaded gun in my night stand for mine and my family's protection at night. Am I criminally negligent for the storing of my gun? I think not, the 2nd Amendment gives me the right to keep and bear arms.

 

Again this is a tragic story but no crime here.

 

I am as staunchly pro-2nd amendment as anyone BUT if you own a gun then when it is not under your direct control it should be safely out of the reach of any child. Storing it loaded in a nightstand may not be illegal but it is unwise IMVHO and yes I would think that you would be guilty of negligence if your child is able to get to that gun and injures themselves or someone else.

What do drugs have to do with this? Nothing. Let's not cloud the issue. We know the facts, and we know that they were horribly wrong. Also, the "knife drawer scenario" isn't relevant to this situation, since these are utilitarian items. But of course, knives should also be kept out of a child's reach.

 

These people left the gun in a place that their child could get to it. So it might just as well have been laying on the floor. Not locking up your weapon is the worst sort of criminal negligence! An accidental shooting, such as this one, should be the most preventable tragedy in the world.

 

The drugs I said because someone had said we all know these people were probably on drugs anyway or something to that effect. The knives scenario was also simply meant to point out that serious accidents can happen with things that are stored safely in most people's eyes. I don't think anyone would call you negligent for your child getting in to your knives in the kitchen drawer.

 

I guess there isn't much more to this debate, I just feel that a child finding a loaded gun is a tragedy just shouldn't involve jail time. It is easy to prevent and probably should have been prevented, but I don't feel society will be any better or it will force someone else to store their handgun in a safer way by sending these parents to jail.

You know, it might bring awareness to the issue though. Maybe there are parent, aunts/uncles, etc, who consciously think about moving their guns to a safer environment at least when there are youngsters around.

You know, it might bring awareness to the issue though. Maybe there are parent, aunts/uncles, etc, who consciously think about moving their guns to a safer environment at least when there are youngsters around.

 

We can only hope. However, there seems to be one or two of these incidents every year and still they keep happening.

Depends on what your definition of negligently laying around is. What if it was in cabinet or night stand or something and the little girl was going through things like children are known to do. I bet you keep sharp knives in your kitchen, what if your child gets in to them and falls and stabs them self, should you go to jail because your child got in to something and got hurt? To hang these people from a tree because of this horrible accident is not they way to go about justice. Again tragic accidents happen, thats what this is a very tragic accident, nothing more nothing less.

 

I guess my defintion of "negligently laying around" would be if the gun was loaded and a 3 year old could get to it. So this fits the bill. When my daughter was younger, and still occasionally, I ask the parents of friends before she goes to their houses, "do you have guns in the house?" In one case, I went over to the house because the father was a Coast Guard Commander who I knew had guns and how to use them. He had his locked in a safe, and I didn't tell him I was coming over. He clearly did it the right way. Whether he took them out at night for protection, I don't know. But they weren't just laying around. People don't need their guns 24/7, even though a good friend of mine (who was insane) wore his nickel plated 45 under his tux when he got married. Why not wear them to church, because there has been violence in churches too?

 

I don't believe you can call it an accident since so much negligence is involved. Accidents are created, they just don't happen. At UPS, if a driver gets hit by a car running a redlight, it's still the drivers fault. It a plane shorthops the runway an clips your truck, it's still the drivers fault. It's this way because people can avoid these incidents if they are alert and use their brain.

 

I don't support the 2nd amendment at all anymore because NRA types don't make any effort to concede in any way. No locks, no fingerprint triggers, no nothing. The technology is out there to make guns 100 times safer, but the NRA won't allow it to happen. Other than showing cartoons in school about gun safety. :creepy:

I don't support the 2nd amendment at all anymore because NRA types don't make any effort to concede in any way. No locks, no fingerprint triggers, no nothing. The technology is out there to make guns 100 times safer, but the NRA won't allow it to happen. Other than showing cartoons in school about gun safety. :creepy:

Totally untrue.

I don't support the 2nd amendment at all anymore because NRA types don't make any effort to concede in any way. No locks, no fingerprint triggers, no nothing. The technology is out there to make guns 100 times safer, but the NRA won't allow it to happen. Other than showing cartoons in school about gun safety. :creepy:

 

The only ones these laws hurt are the gun owners like myself who would follow them regardless of how they feel about them. You think gangsters or drug dealers are going to follow these laws. Same with conceal and carry laws the only ones they hurt are the law abiding citizens.

 

I would also ask, what would you say if I said I don't support the 1st amendment anymore and you can't go to church where you like or say what you like.

 

There wouldn't be a first amendment without the second!

 

Maybe I am just a low minded redneck, but like my former NRA President Mr. Heston "You can take my gun, when you pry it from my cold dead hand."

I think we're starting to drift away from the subject of the thread.

In the end your probably right, its tragic enough that this happend for the family so God be with them during this horrible time.

 

 

Would you feel the same way if you had dropped your 3-year old off at that house for a play date, and he/she were the one who found the gun and shot him/herself in the head?

 

The argument that it's enough that it happened to the family is enough punishment is hogwash, IMO. It smacks of devaluing the life of the child simply because it was the child of the parents who were negligent.

 

If the child had been left neglected, with dirty diapers and no food, unattended while the parents went out, there'd be jail time. This was just as serious, if not moreso, a negligence as that.