if these limits may, at any time, be passed by those intended to be restrained?"
-- Chief Justice John Marshall, Marbury v. Madison, 1803
When Holidays Go Bad
by Lee
Oh my God, this is one of the most tragic things I’ve ever read.
A 4-year-old boy was shot and killed Sunday afternoon after he slipped undetected behind a paper target that family members and friends were using for gun practice.
The group had gathered for the long holiday weekend at a trailer on Lake Vermilion in northeastern Minnesota when the accident happened shortly before 1:45 p.m., authorities said.
There’d been light rain on and off all day, but the group decided to get in a little target practice.
They didn’t see the boy standing behind one of the paper targets.
The target didn’t completely obscure the child, but he was wearing camouflage pants, making him difficult to see against the foliage, said Sgt. James McKenzie of the St. Louis County Sheriff’s Office.
A 40-year-old man was shooting a 45-caliber handgun. The bullet flew about 30 feet, through the paper target and into the 4-year-old, killing him, McKenzie said.
A .45 at 30 feet? The poor kid didn’t stand a chance. This just goes to show the importance of gun safety, especially around kids. You can’t take your eyes off them for a second.
Comments
I feel sorry for the guy who shot the kid…
I just hope he’s gonna be ok.
I feel sorry for the guy who shot the kid…
I feel sorry for the kid…
I feel sorry for the whole family.
I just got to say this.
“ One tragic ending to a game of hide and seek.”
I’m so sorry.
God… stupid parents....
I can remember a time when I thought that gun control actually worked. This sort of story is frequently repeated by those who defend gun control legislation. I began to change my mind about gun control when I saw a news report (I am from Canada) about a kid who was injured by a bee bee gun. People up here immediately called for a ban on bee bee guns (no sh_t). I began to think they would have to ban base ball bats, hockey sticks, and golf clubs before we would all be safe. The fact is that as sad as this tragic death is more children are killed by careless drivers than are killed by stray bullets. (I think that in the US there are about 200million guns (its a statistic I here all the time in Canada), but there are also about 200million cars so I think this is a valid comparison.)
You know, if you aren’t prepared to build a proper target capable of stopping your ammunition, you simply don’t have an acceptable shooting range and need to go hang out with someone who does.
This is sad, but blaming the gun isn’t the answer. Parents this errant in judgement and irresponsible could lose their child as he walked off a cliff, got hit by a car, or cut his fingers off with a miter saw. Shall we outlaw cliffs, cars and power tools?
This goes back to my argument from the article about the Brits possibly banning kitchen knives. We would literally have to make EVERYTHING out of Nerf if we banned things after accidents happened with them. Things that cant be made from nerf, like car engines, would just have to be banned altogether. That would resolve global warming while we’re at it!
Who in the hell is blaming the gun? Do you actually bother to READ any of the posts - or the replies thereto - before shooting off your mouth?
This bears repeating:
Saying guns kill people is like saying spoons made Rosie O’Donnell fat.
Even gun control advocates are fine with the idea of controlled hunting/recreational use of certain types of guns. This was a horrendous accident, not a political point for either side of the gun control debate.
Saying guns kill people is like saying spoons made Rosie O’Donnell fat.
Would the same apply to rocket launchers or tanks? Using your logic we wouldn’t have restrictions on any type of weapon.
Not recreational, padders, not anymore. They would prefer paint balls for the adventurous ones or ‘Laser tag’ for the younger crowd. Not bullets.
(However, if you freeze the paint balls.....)
Even gun control advocates are fine with the idea of controlled hunting/recreational use of certain types of guns.
Wow, how much attention have you actually been paying?
This was a horrendous accident, not a political point for either side of the gun control debate.
Are you suggesting that the (extremely small number of) accidental deaths of children due to parental irresponsibility *aren’t* a prime point pimped by the gun control movement?
Using your logic we wouldn’t have restrictions on any type of weapon.
His logic simply states that the weapon is a tool for the person wielding it. If they cannot be trusted not to shoot up their neighborhood just because the people aren’t buying enough of their drugs, that’s a BAD THING and so what does it matter what kind of weapon they would use?
Why would you deliberately limit the ability of the citizen to defend themselves when time or circumstances will not permit calling the authorities? It has been estimated that for every tragedy like this, there are between 80 and 100 instances where the mere display of a weapon prevents a serious crime from happening, Hollywood and television notwithstanding.
Drum
I was only anticipating the response of gun control freaks. I did not think anyone was blaming the gun. I just get pissed because this sort of stuff is only news in the minds of the liberal media because it is a form of “I told you so” for them. As if to say see if there were no guns this child would be alive. For us the real issue is how Fu-ked these parents are.
Who in the hell is blaming the gun? Do you actually bother to READ any of the posts - or the replies thereto - before shooting off your mouth?
I was referring to the anticipated liberal reaction to such a story, not to a particular post. I don’t think I was the only one making such a remark.
Um, yeah, you were. No one had mentioned blaming the gun until you did. I guess he must have been a policeman, huh?
No one explicitly mentioned blaming the gun, but that is the general attitude of liberals. I made no mention of the police on this thread.
If you want to know the attitude of “liberals” visit FARK and see the very first commentator on this news by “BearToy” who posts a picture of Darwin and writes:
Excellent work!
Evolution hardly has a chance to improve the species these days. This one was 4 so the genes remained untransmitted. This is very encouraging.
And when we look on his profile we see:
I am still in disbelief of what a shambles my country is in after 4 years of Republicans and their dimwitted Chimpy McFlightsuit, Bush. I am even more astounded that about half the people in this country have such profound character flaws that they still support him
http://forums.fark.com/cgi/fark/comments.pl?IDLink=1507251
I believe that in the next coupls of days, when I open the pages of my newspaper, I will see a letter to the editor blaming his kid’s death on the fact that MN just re-passed a concealed carry gun law.
I saw the same thing when months after the original law was passed a couple years ago (The law was passed again this year because some judge decided to strike it down). Some kid was caught bringing a gun to his school. Afterwards I saw a letter to the editor excoriating the people of MN because the law was responsible for allowing to carry that gun into the school Problem was, the kid did not have a permit to carry a concealed firearm and the law stated that people who had a permit would have to leave their guns in a car or at home if the place that they were visiting explicitly stated that it didn’t allow guns on its premises. The school was one such “gun-free zone.”
Gee, they gathered at a trailer. WHAT A SHOCK.
Guns can be enjoyed responsibly. Fucking idiots like this give responsible gun users a bad name.
Basic common sense and range safety rules would’ve prevented this tragedy.
Prosecute the idiot for involuntary manslaughter
The group had gathered for the long holiday weekend at a trailer on Lake Vermilion in northeastern Minnesota when the accident happened shortly before 1:45 p.m., authorities said.
Think maybe someone had a few barley pops before he decided to go shooting?
Dumbass people. Should be locked up.
It was tragic, and it was an accident, but if you kill your kid with a car, you still get sent to prison.
I want to keep my guns, but with the right comes the responsibility: the laws should be harsh for people who abuse that right.
I want to keep my guns, but with the right comes the responsibility: the laws should be harsh for people who abuse that right.
bingo
Next entry: Killing Cops
Previous entry: In Our Midst
Targic......poor kid.
Has anyone got a more details of the Ohio shootings? something weird is going on there.