Chicago boy, 6, accidentally shoots, kills brother, 3

But, that's not why this guy had a gun.

I highly doubt he was a Republican voting, NRA member.

 

I understand that. But that's why many gun owners think it's worth the risk, and it is why the Second Amendment exists.

 

We're accepting the narrative that this was an accident??

 

Yup. Good thing I didn't compare myself to this guy. Just stated the reasons I won't own a gun.

 

Did you go with Starman to a meeting recently, where gun owners talked openly about this?

 

Is this inaccurate?

The second front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination the other day, in so many words, said that this is why gun rights should be protected. He said that gun ownership would have prevented the Holocaust. I'm not making a value judgment. As I understand it, this is why many people believe that the Second Amendment is important.

 

That reminds me of a Law and Order episode where two reenactors were doing the Hamilton-Burr duel. Only there was a sniper who fired the live round from a distance to kill the reenactor while trying to pin it on the Burr actor because of whatever money/affair problem that slips my mind.

 

As a Criminal Intent buff, that's a favorite episode. The sniper actually shot the wrong reenactor, because they switched roles from rehearsal and thus were wearing different jackets, which the sniper was unaware of. He'd been hired by the wife of the one guy. She was a politician, hubby was a sleazebag, and she wanted him dead for a myriad of reasons. Was based on the relationship between Jeanine Pirro and her husband.

 

Criminal Intent was at once the best Law & Order series and the most criminally underrated.

 

Yes, if he did not have the gun the 6-year-old couldn't have used it. But if he didn't have it loaded and had it locked the 6-year-old couldn't have used it.

 

But how many people with guns are actually smart about it, cjericho. Not enough.

 

A University of North Carolina study in 2001 showed 43 percent of of people reporting gun ownership and younger children in the home say they don't store their guns in a locked compartment where the children can't access them. Forty five percent say they don't use trigger locks and 36 percent say they keep their firearms loaded in the home.

Further, a study published in the American Journal of Public Health shows about a third of American children live in homes with firearms, and of these households, 43 percent contain at least one unlocked firearm. Thirteen percent of households with guns contain at least one firearm that is unlocked and loaded or stored with ammunition (Mark A. Schuster et al., “Firearm storage patterns in US homes with children,” American Journal of Public Health). In all, more than two million American children live in homes with unsecured guns — and 1.7 million live in homes with guns that are both loaded and unlocked (Okoro et al., Prevalence of Household Firearms and Firearm-Storage Practice In the 50 States and the District of Columbia: Findings From The Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, 2002, Pediatrics).

So I guess it should come as no surprise that toddlers are shooting someone on a weekly basis in the U.S. Yes, toddlers.
People are getting shot by toddlers on a weekly basis this year

Guns don't kill people. Toddlers kill people.