Toddler Shot.... No Charges Being Filed !!!

My great uncle shot his little brother in much the same way back in the 1930's.

It isn't anything new. Putting parents in jail and breaking up families, that's what's new.

The fact that it happened burdened the whole family with guilt and loss.

I think it is punishment enough. They were no threat to society. In fact, my uncle, the one that did it, served in WWII with honors, and all the children lived good, honorable lives.

reply to post by hadriana

I think it is punishment enough. They were no threat to society.

As of this moment, this minute, the people are of no threat to society, that we know of. But at that moment they made that "mistake" they CREATED the threat to society where a loaded firearm was in the possession their child without their supervision. That right there is criminal negligence.
Right here is an illegal act. If that happened and an officer saw that child, unsupervised, CARRYING A LOADED FIREARM, the parents of that child would most definitely be charged with child endangerment.

Now seeing as the child went and shot and killed his sibling, as terrible as the event was, the parents are at fault for the unlawful killing through their negligence of allowing the child to possess the gun unsupervised. Through these actions, they broke a law and committed involuntary manslaughter.

Should they be charged with involuntary manslaughter? Yes.
Should it be that nothing at all should happen to them (in the sense that "happen" would be to charging them with a crime) just because the victim of the crime was their child? No.

You wouldn't not charge someone with a crime if the crime was done because of that person's stupidity, would you?

Half the people in this country are more of a threat to society the minute they get behind a wheel.

Gah, some people would just want to lock EVERYONE up that ever did ANYTHING wrong - ever. So what if it was an accident, it was wrong, lock em up! Somebody HAS to be to blame! Lock em up.


And then some people just hate guns, and get nervous if they just see a gun.
The mere sight of a gun just freaks them.

And then we wonder why we are living in a police state.

You ever wonder why for thousands of years children didn't have the rights and status that they have today? Sometimes I think it might just be because people back then were smart enough to know that people would throw away every vestige of freedom they ever had, and start wars galore, because of people wringing their hands worrying about the children.

Let the parents worry about the children. You WILL lose a few here and there, but society would be a lot more free. Course it seems no one wants to pay that price...

reply to post by hadriana


And both types of people you just described I myself am completely against. I would never agree to the locking up of somebody and violating their due process, nor would I agree that in this situation locking up and tearing apart the family should be the answer (personally I would recommend mandated parenting and firearms classes while serving a half year electronic monitoring sentence). Also, I completely don't agree with the logic of people who have some irrational fear of guns.

As my dad taught me, or rather let me learn by experience:

Sometimes the mistake is punishment enough.

My sympathies to ALL the family members.

Originally posted by mistafaz
The fact you rush in to say that I'm of the mentality that would take part in the punishment before they've been investigated and tried shows that you're of the mentality that thinks anyone who calls for the investigation and trying of people who break the law only wants to act out some primal form of blood lust.

The fact you rush in to say that I accused you of anything when my post was obviously in response to the OP shows that you're of the mentality that thinks you're always right and everyone is out to get you.

Sure, you can't base a criminal investigation on perceived emotions. However, this thread is titled "Toddler Shot.... No Charges Being Filed !!!". The topic is the punishment, not the investigation.