Teen dies after being shot in face while playing with gun

a reply to: SlapMonkey

Couldn't agree more. Very well articulated!

Growing up there was family, then there was boy scouts, then hunters safety and finally JROTC. All of those had different facets of firearm safety and marksmanship. If were going to weed those out, something needs to take it's place.

I grew up around guns. They were all over our house. Shotguns and rifles in the closet and a few handguns around the house. My father was a policeman. He used to clean his service weapon in the den while watching TV.

I recall when I was about six or seven years old, he unloaded it and basically let me play with the gun. Showed me how it worked and what it did. His logic was that he wanted to get rid of my curiosity so that I wouldn't be tempted to play with it unsupervised. It worked. Never once did I ever have a desire after that to pick up a firearm and "play with it" after that. It was just a tool like a hammer in my mind. Nothing special.

Teaching gun safety to children is paramount in my mind. We shot rifles when I was in the Boy Scouts and how to safely handle firearms.

a reply to: ShadowLink

You don't need education you need responsible parents. My son and daughter know how to handle firearms and they know they are not something to be played with. However I'm not an idiot I know my 12 year old doesn't always think things through. So my guns are in a gun safe and thr only one that isn't has a triget lock and in my room. The kids know never to touch it unless dad is around. In fact one day I was going to take him to the range with me told him to go get it. He stood there not knowing what to do. Then he said dad you said never touch it unless you hand it to me. I said oh right and had to walk upstairs to get it lol.

originally posted by: ShadowLink
Why does a 13 year old have access to his parents guns?

It could have been his, does the 2nd amendment mention any age????

originally posted by: Orionx2
Shadowlink, I absolutely agree with you so please don't think I don't with what I am about to say.
My daughter is now 19 and I had to raise her myself for the last 3 years. (I am a Male, her mother bailed). She graduated High School a year ago. Many of her friends are middle class but her friends parents are BOTH working all the time to stay in that middleclass. They rely on the school system to bring them up right because they do not have time to because they have to work all the time. Yes, I know that is not ok but that is how it is. That is why I believe a basic one hour class on Guns should be mandatory around Jr High (7th-8th grade). If you can get to them that early then maybe they will not get shot in the face at 13.

With that said I totally agree parents should teach their kids about the basics of guns even if they despise them. I grew up in the Pacific North West and guns are just normal. Hardly anyone gets shot by accident. The state I live in is majority democrat/liberal yet many of them are hunters and are ok with semi-autos... Gun education is lacking.

Maybe I'm just used to different terms, but the way I read your post you're speaking of the lack of gun education, yet here you are advocating that a 1 hour talk is supposed to be sufficient to cover gun safety, and that people are supposed to remember it? I really can't think of anything in my life education related that was ever able to be condensed into less than a quarter.

This just stands out to me as an example of the lack of education.

Guess that is the danger of social changes...Darwin failures.

a reply to: Aazadan

not too many details,I wonder if it was the gun owners son that was shot or one of the friends...sad story all around...I didn't grow up with guns nor have I ever owned one......gun ownership is fine....safety is very important...proper storage, never pointing it at someone else...etc what others said....

teaching in school, I don't know someone will end up being shot

a reply to: Orionx2

If we can teach kids about masturbation, gays and condoms surely we can teach them about safe handling of guns, but remember that the education system is controlled by liberals so it will never happen.

I knew how to check for a loaded gun, load a gun, unload a gun, take apart a gun, clean it and put it back together before my seventh birthday.

All has to do with parenting.

Parents who don't teach their kids how to safely use guns and on top of it, leave a loaded gun in the house(my parents always locked the ammo and guns separately, then the keys to the locks in separate places) deserve all the blame.

originally posted by: Metallicus
a reply to: Orionx2

If we can teach kids about masturbation, gays and condoms surely we can teach them about safe handling of guns, but remember that the education system is controlled by liberals so it will never happen.

Well the liberals are electing a lady as president who can't even figure out how email works, so what do you expect?

originally posted by: research100
teaching in school, I don't know someone will end up being shot

I doubt anyone would be shot in a school environment, but then again people don't get pregnant during sex ed class either. I'm all for teaching people about gun safety, I just don't think it will have the effect people are hoping for. Adults who have been taught still wind up getting shot accidentally, kids who are more impulsive will continue to do the same.

originally posted by: Orionx2

I am very disappointed with the education system in the USA. Guns are a major issue yet there is nothing taught in school about them. I seriously do not understand why there is not a basic required class on how to handle a gun?!?!? Kids get shown how to handle a condom, but yet not how to properly handle a gun?

Well, you have to realize that if you are progun, anything and everything you try to argue for or suggest will be twisted against you by the antigunners.

The first time someone gets injured or killed in a firearms safety class, it'll be all over the news for weeks. You'll never hear the end of it. You'll probably never hear about it if a student driver screws up and kills self and others but you'll hear all about it (over and over) if the same thing happens with a firearm.

Also, the more "survival of the fittest" part of my mind has some commentary here.

See. When I was a young boy, I knew where my mother kept her handgun. She never told me where it was but I was a smart and nosy kid so I knew where it was.

I used to get it out and sort of just look at it and so forth. My mind is naturally kind of intuitive when it comes to mechanical things so I didn't need to be told that guns were dangerous. I had seen guns on TV and I knew what they were and (generally) what they did. I knew how the mechanisms worked (in a general way). So I knew how to unload it. And I knew that it being unloaded was desirable and good for my safety because (like I said) I was a smart kid.

So the first thing I would always do was to unload it. Now I don't want to say I "played with it" because that gives the impression that I didn't respect it and that's obviously not true (I did this many times and I'm still here today so I obviously had the appropriate respect for it).

What is this story about? Survival of the fittest. No. I'm not the smartest human being on the planet. And frankly, in a world that fully embraced the concept of "survival of the fittest" I probably wouldn't last a month. But in that particular way, I was not weak. I was not destined to die from a stupid accident with a handgun as a child.

Whatever does eventually do me in will be my personal fatal flaw. And honestly, sometimes I think us humans would ultimately be better off if we at least tried to somewhat respect the way nature is supposed to work. Bad luck sucks but it's natural.

Then, if you are an adult, especially with children in the house, do you have guns in places where they are not secured?
I am sure there are many. Gun case, high on a wall, with trigger locks in every piece, and the keys hidden good, so only you know where they are.

That is what it takes. Many would say that because of that, you would not be able to get at a gun fast enough in an emergency, and you would be right. So, you have to seriously validate why you really have a gun in the first place. If you do, the above is the only solution to keep your kids or any one else in your house, safe.

originally posted by: Aazadan

originally posted by: research100
teaching in school, I don't know someone will end up being shot

I doubt anyone would be shot in a school environment, but then again people don't get pregnant during sex ed class either. I'm all for teaching people about gun safety, I just don't think it will have the effect people are hoping for. Adults who have been taught still wind up getting shot accidentally, kids who are more impulsive will continue to do the same.

well I was thinking about that story, think it was last week..guy was teaching a gun safety class, accidently got shot and killed, now muliply one class by many in schools all over the country....

no doubt everyone, expecially children who handle a gun needs to be taught gun safety , for sure

the oldest memories i have with my dad were in the reloading room

a reply to: research100

I could do a better JOB that that DEA agent...THAT is who the left regards as their "Army" that is as well armed as the military ...funny how I 'm not impressed.
GET A VET to do it ,it matters to us more.

a reply to: mysterioustranger

My post was sarcasm laced.

I have a degree in History.

originally posted by: mysterioustranger
a reply to: Orionx2

Its very simple to understand...you buy your kids video games from 8 years old and up. Kill bad and good guys, monsters, warriors, aliens. Shoot em, laser em, demolish them, explode them...and they get back up: new game-over and over.

We have been responsible for orienting our kids by forms of "entertainment". Until we teach them in the real world we live in, we dont pick up guns or bombs, lasers, stunning weapons like in the games...because they really do KILL and people DO NOT GET BACK UP.

Its the double standard...if its ok in movies and games, then why doesnt little Joanie get right back up and we start the game over if I take daddy's gun and shoot her in the face?

You my friend...are so right with point made. Thanks....

MS
CPL/CCW Holder

That stuff about video games is about 20 years old and so 20th century DEM thinking. Times and research on that subject has reversed the outlook . Not even the Dems are spouting that rhetoric line anymore .
Modernize
And this from an old man

What a tragedy .... the reason children are not allowed to drive until they are old enough and need a license to do so is because they are dangerous if an immature person is using them, same reason guns should only be people that are old enough to understand consequences...same goes with alcohol and any other item that requires a mature mind to be able to handle the tool properly and as members have pointed out even adults mess up from time to time.....

I'm all for educating a child on how to properly and safely use a weapon just ffs do not leave them alone with them until they are ready for it....i learned how to shoot in school in England when i was young, under very controlled circumstances no way would we be left alone with a loaded weapon ...

Real guns go against everything TPTB want your kids to be. They want your kids to be couch potatoes. The only guy I ever heard of who routinely used a gun from his couch was Elvis.

God ... do I miss being a kid!! There were no rules 'to speak of' back then. You knew right from wrong ... and there were consequences for bad choices.

What happened here? You've got a kid (those come in all ages BTW) ... with a hand?gun ... outside ... showing off. What could go wrong?