Sunday, December 23, 2012

How Will Wayne LaPierre Explain This?

From PoliticUSA (emphasis mine):
More tragic news. In Tennessee, a toddler accidentally shot and killed himself with his grandfather’s gun.

WBIR reports, “Police say 2-year-old Brennan Nowell died after he picked up the .40 caliber gun and shot himself in the side.”

We don’t know the brand of the gun, but as an example, the .40 caliber Smith and Wesson “was developed as a law enforcement cartridge designed to duplicate performance of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s reduced-velocity 10mm Auto cartridge, which could be retrofitted into medium-frame (9mm size) automatic handguns.”

Where is Wayne LaPierre to tell us that video games are to blame for this tragedy, or that guns don’t kill people, people do? Blaming the mental health of the shooter is also not applicable here, nor is the “bad apple” theory. There is no “bad guy” in this scenario.

America has a gun problem. A study from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine found “… on average, guns did not protect those who possessed them from being shot in an assault. The study estimated that people with a gun were 4.5 times more likely to be shot in an assault than those not possessing a gun.” So owning a gun for self-defense may cause an unreasonable sense of safety.

We also have a gun owner problem. Based on the recent gun violence alone, it’s beyond reasonable to conclude that we need to educate gun owners about proper gun safety, and enact gun laws that require compliance with gun safety as a part of gun ownership. With freedom comes responsibility.

5 comments:

  1. http://www.classwarfareexists.com/nate-silver-gun-ownership-rates-are-inversely-correlated-with-educational-attainment/

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  2. Meg, very interesting stats. Thanks for sharing them.

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  3. I had a patient who witnessed his 4 year-old brother shoot himself in the head after parents left a loaded gun on their bed. Needless to say he suffers from PTSD and it is 4 years after the event. He will likely suffer for the rest of his life. Parents are also no good and obviously screwed up. Dad is a EMT and mom hopped up on opiates. Had there not been a loaded weapon in their reach perhaps this family wouldn't be broken. The effects of gun ownership when these accidents happen are far reaching. It is sick and disgusting how people feel having a gun will protect them because it usually ends up in tragedy like this.

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  4. Capper you said "There is no “bad guy” in this scenario" but that is not true.

    First "bad guy" is the owner of the loaded gun which was not secured but left where a two year old could find it. Second "bad guy" the person who left a two year old unsupervised. In my opinion both are criminally negligent acts.

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    Replies
    1. I didn't write that. You'd have to ask the author I cited.

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