p.s. i put this in the "brain dead" category because those kids have a brain dead father. if you have a gun and kids, wouldn't it be common sense to lock your guns up? gun cabinets don't cost as much as losing one of your children due to your own parental negligence.

Sounds like why Jack O'Neill quit the air force.

this is very sad but keep in mind that for every 10 people 'accidently' killed by a household gun, one possible robbery is thwarted.

An 11yo should also have enough common sense to LEAVE THE GUN ALONE!!!! Is it me, or is the younger generation just not as intelligent these days. I'm seeing this with my oldest, she's smart as heck, brings home A+'s on her report cards, but the kid has NO COMMON SENSE. *sigh* of course, she is full fledged blonde, sooo maybe that is why...lol.

And your back-up proof of that is....?

Yes, it's the kids fault. His parents seem like idiots leaving a loaded unlocked gun where their children could find it, but you have high expectations of their progeny?

Honestly, its both the parents and yes, the kids, fault. Sad it had to end in tragedy like this. The parents should have had the mentality to keep their weapons (loaded or unloaded) in someplace safe. However, the 11yo should have had the common sense to not play with it. Unless this child was raised in a barn out in the middle of bumf**kegypt, with no access to school/tv/news, this 11yo knew the dangers of a weapon without proper adult supervision.

Yes, it shouldn't have been where he could get it (stupid stupid parents) but he shouldn't have touched it...PERIOD.

I don't agree. Not playing with guns isn't instinctive and frankly the mindset seems to believe that guns are ok, they're safe and that "everybody should just know that" but it's not the case and that's why these tragedies happen.
He has to be taught not to touch it, to handle it properly to know the ramifications. This isn't instinct.

I do understand what you're trying to say but without more information there is no way to pin this on the child. I know WAY TOO MANY gun owners that haven't a clue. They think they're safer with one but they haven't idea one about the proper handling, care, storage or safety.

Last summer I watched as my brother's MIL brought out an awesome shotgun to show my brother and his friends. There was a round jammed in the chamber. One of my brother's friends laid this in his lap and struggled with the bolt action to unjam it. I was FLIPPING out as the barrel was pointed squarely at said MIL. These were guys familiar with guns. Nobody seemed to notice but me. Then MIL picked up the gun and nonchalantly swung it around, all the guys ducked, but frankly she never pointed it squarely at anyone like the guy who laid it in his lap. This is utter ignorance and arrogance. This is the main problem with gun owners, 99.9999% think they know what they are doing and perhaps the real number is closer to 50%. I know many people who own or have owned guns and very, very few I would consider knowledgeable about them.

No, ok, its not instinct to not play with a weapon.

I will admit some people, who right well know the basics of gun safety, become down right idiots in the presence of a weapon. Heck, my grandpa was a 50 something year old man when he accidently shot himself in the leg (we still laugh about that till this day).

I am curious if my school is the only school that teaches gun safety? They start with Kinder kids, and teach it till Senior year.

The dangers of guns are spouted off everywhere you turn/look. Even at school you don't bring a gun,....why..because they are not safe. Thats why I say that unless this kid was raised in BFE without tv/news/school, he knew at least SOMETHING about gun safety, even if his parents taught him nothing.

I am not blaming this solely on the kid, I am putting ALOT (good 90%) of the blame on the parents for their ignorance/stupidity/moroonism/retardation/idiocy/etc. but at least 10% of the blame, is falling on the kid too.

Guns don't kill people, ...oh wait.

I've never heard of guns safety being taught in school, anywhere. That is completely news to me. However, if it's anything like the abstinence program, we're all screwed.

But education starts at home and it's 100% wholly the responsibility of the parents to teach their children about such things. Putting that blame anywhere else is part of the problem with our society, you cannot expect an 11 year old to take personal responsibility when their parents lacked it.

Maybe we should just not have guns so readily available and then there won't be a question about whose responsibility it is because an 11 year old won't be able to get their hands on one or a 2 year old or a 5 year old. If we can't trust the people who are licensed to own these things to secure them, then they shouldn't be licensed to own them.

It's just that simple.

For every 10 year old who is 'accidently' killed by a gun at home, there are 9 million other kids who aren't killed by a gun accidently because guns aren't allowed at home.

Want to talk robbery statistics? How about the 'You're more likely to be shot if you own a gun than if you don't'

A researcher took a look at the 'Gun related deaths' in a portion of the country and found suicides, accidents, and homocides were alltogether much higher than the number of 'Self-protections' that also occured.

But it all comes down to one number. 0. That's the number of gun related deaths when there was no gun involved. You can compare that to 1, or 100, or 100,000 or more. No kids died from gunshot wounds at home from an 'accident' when there was no gun.

No, but if people keep blowing their own heads off before reproductive age, eventually Natural Selection will take its course, and we'll all be so scared of guns that we couldn't bring ourselves to touch them.

That'll be like 15 million years from now though.

Maybe its my hometown thing...the school my kids go to don't really teach it either, at least, not fully what we were taught. We were taught proper weapon handling...what to do if you come across a weapon with no adult around...dangers of weapons (guns/knives)....etc. Things that everyone should be taught. Each year its taught on the level of the grade...so Seniors are taught more umm...thorough things than a Kinder kid is....make sense? maybe all schools need to implement this.

just so you all know, my earlier comment was a total joke on the fact that people who own guns for self defense tend to either a) end up using them out of rage or b) it 'accidentally' goes off and someone is injured. It is VERY VERY rare that a gun is actually used in self defense, and looking back my 1 in 10 stat is probably way too optimistic.

I am very much for gun control