聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 The other day as I was reading through various news sources I came across a story, 鈥淭wo-year-old child fatally shoots mother in US,鈥� on the Associated Press website.
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 The opening line of the article was literally unbelievable to me, 鈥淎 two-year-old boy has fatally shot his mother from the backseat of the car as she drove along a motorway鈥︹��
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 My first thoughts were of how tragic it is, but my next thoughts were questions. Who carries a loaded gun in the backseat? Wouldn鈥檛 you at least have the safety on? Why is the two-year-old not contained in a car seat? Why would you put your kid unrestrained in the backseat with a loaded weapon?
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 To a kid, a gun is a toy unless they鈥檙e taught the proper handling and the seriousness of it. Otherwise they see plastic toy ones sitting up in a toy store and think nothing of it. A two-year-old simply wouldn鈥檛 know any better.
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 Apparently the gun had slid out from underneath the driver鈥檚 seat, so whether the mother knew it was there or not, the boy saw it and picked it up then fired it. The bullet passed through the front seat striking the mother.
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 This story comes after a four-year-old that shot their mother when a handgun slid out from beneath the front seat. This individual survived, but it seems incredulous to me that essentially two of the exact same shootings occurred within a month of each other.
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 So far, the Gun Violence Archive, has listed for 2016: 17,974 total incidents, 4,568 deaths, 9,276 injuries, 194 children aged 0-11 killed/injured, and 988 teens aged 12-17 killed/injured. A couple of interesting numbers in my opinion are that defensive use of a gun is sitting at 552 instances, while accidental shootings are up to 849. For every time there was a defensive use of a gun there was 1.54 instances of accidental shootings.
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 In 2015 there were a total of 53,229 incidents which resulted in 13,416 deaths and 27,000 injuries, 696 incidents of children aged 0-11, and 2,690 incidents involving teens. Defensive use totalled 1,291 for the year, while again accidental shootings were more at 1,961.
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 Now, the United States gun laws are far too lax for me. Nearly anyone can obtain a handgun or even an automatic machine gun because apparently their right to 鈥渂ear arms鈥� is extremely important to them. I like that in Canada you have to jump through a few hoops in order to obtain a gun, although I鈥檓 sure there are illegal sales in Canada, at least we have something in place to attempt to prevent people from owning a deadly weapon unless they鈥檝e gone through the proper procedures and have been screened.
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 The problem with the States is that they are flooded with guns and there is literally no real solution. Obama has talked about gun laws and tightening them up, but there鈥檚 no possible action plan to really accomplish this. There are too many guns out there per capita that even if a fraction of people chose to abide by any new laws that are created it likely wouldn鈥檛 make a difference.
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 The best bet would be to educate the entire population on gun safety and hope for the best.
