Gun Wrongs

This week in Cumberland County, Kentucky, a five year old boy shot his two year old sister to death with a rifle. It was his rifle.

There is a company called Keystone Sporting Arms that specifically makes guns for children. I guess kids have 2A rights too. I mean- who doesn't? What part of "...shall not be infringed..." are you not getting here? The 2A is pretty specific about this. Why our nations prisoners are denied their 2A rights is a fucking disgrace and a story for another day.

This is about the children...

I'm not going to say anything horrifically flippant like: "The only thing that stops a bad baby with a gun, is a good baby with a gun" because that would just be wrong.

Instead I'll quote this hillperson, speaking of guns in Kentucky: "Down in Kentucky where we're from, you know, guns are passed down from generation to generation," White said. "You start at a young age with guns for hunting and everything."

What is more unusual than a child having a gun, he said, is "that a kid would get shot with it."

What an unusual thing to say! I understand it and understand that it's really rare that children shoot each other but, it does happen. It's just completely bizarre that a child would use his own weapon...

Typically, a five year old might get his hands on daddy's pistol which he found in a drawer. An average child of that age would not be able to differentiate between a real gun and a toy. My little brother was about five when he found a pistol in a neighbors yard. We didn't know the people- they were hill-persons renting for a short time. I saw my little brother walking down the street, pointing the gun and say "Bang! Bang!" I didn't recognize it as a toy from the family arsenal and something told me to check it out. 

Thankfully, it wasn't loaded. I turned the pistol into the police and they made a perfunctory investigation. This was decades ago but, as I recall, the hill-persons had been drinking on the porch the night before and it fell out of somebodies pocket. It was a total accident. They were taking a break from playing pool in the living room and Joe Buck musta been showing it around and maybe Cletus dropped it? Who knew? Well, no one got hurt. I believe the gun was returned to it's wrongful owners.

But, in Kentucky, the child used his own rifle which had been given to him as a birthday gift. His little five year old self had probably received some instruction/training about firearms because, in that part of the world, that is the whole idea. Learn 'em young.

Careless adults. Dad or mom set the rifle in a corner of the trailer without clearing the weapon. How are you going to teach them young when you don't know yourself? The rifle was not only not cleared, it was not put up where the five year old could not get it. It might as well have been been a toy gun to him the way his parents treated it. It's a damn shame. A two year old died for her brother's second amendment rights.