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8 year old shot leaving school [US]

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Comments

  • Registered Users Posts: 13,034 ✭✭✭✭It wasn't me!


    leggit wrote: »
    Sorry, I forgot hunting was a great reason to let anybody have a gun.... what about people who live in massive cities? should they have access to guns?

    and you'd let a child have a gun if he was supervised!!!

    People who live in cities hunt too. The miracle of transport.

    And yes, children the world over shoot for sport and recreation. In Europe, competitive shooting training starts around 8 or 9 in most countries with airguns, and they're onto smallbore rifles by about twelve or thirteen.


  • Registered Users Posts: 14,739 ✭✭✭✭minidazzler


    leggit wrote: »
    Sorry, I forgot hunting was a great reason to let anybody have a gun.... what about people who live in massive cities? should they have access to guns?

    and you'd let a child have a gun if he was supervised!!!

    Firearms are a great resource for home defence, and most firearms used in crimes would have been illegally acquired.

    And yes, I would let a child use a firearm supervised, because I could teach the kid the right way to use it, what not to do and that it's all about safety.

    Do you think pretending they don't exist works?


  • Registered Users Posts: 13,252 ✭✭✭✭kowloon


    Yakult wrote: »
    I blame the parents.

    If a 9 year old can get a gun, thats pretty worrying and actually happens quiet alot it would appear. Not the first time something like this has happened and it will continue to happen.

    +1, the gun, if it came from home, which is usually the case, should have been stored where a child can't get access. The same goes for bleach and the likes.

    I think it's right that they insist they be kept in a safe in this country, don't think that's always the case in the States.


  • Registered Users Posts: 8,659 ✭✭✭CrazyRabbit


    I wouldn't blame a child for something like this- but whoever let it fall into his hands should be prosecuted. Not only did they leave it someplace accessible to a kid, they left a loaded gun in the house. No 8/9year old could load a gun by themselves.

    A 4 year old can load & cock most handguns...so long as they seen someone else do it.

    If it was an accident, then the blame lays at the feet of the gun owner.
    If the boy was being bullied & put a stop to it using a gun, then the blame is with the school, teachers, the gun owner, the boys parents, and the bullies parents (especially them).

    Regardless...I'll have sympathy for both the boy and the girl.

    P.S. I bet the child will be tried as an adult and get 25 years to life. Insane justice system in the US.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 7,334 ✭✭✭RichieC


    This is why the NRA wants mandatory gun indocrtination training for all children. these shootings simply will not happen if people are properly trained in gun safety. Have you ever heard of a person trained in firearms going on a mad one? probably. but that's just anecdotes.


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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 23,316 ✭✭✭✭amacachi


    I love how the American justice system allows for a 9 year old kid to be criminally negligent.


  • Registered Users Posts: 7,041 ✭✭✭Seachmall


    amacachi wrote: »
    I love how the American justice system allows for a 9 year old kid to be criminally negligent.

    If they're mature enough to understand the nuances of sexuality they're mature enough to understand the thing that goes "BANG!" isn't a toy.


  • Registered Users Posts: 14,739 ✭✭✭✭minidazzler


    Seachmall wrote: »
    If they're mature enough to understand the nuances of sexuality they're mature enough to understand the thing that goes "BANG!" isn't a toy.

    But a lot of things that go bang are toys. The fact is a 9 year old child isn't old enough to understand death as something permanent.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 6,388 ✭✭✭gbee


    TV News this AM says the girl is still in critical condition and they have managed to stop the bleeding ~ a far more serious report than yesterday's AM report.

    They are leaving the bullet in place as it does not pose a health risk at this time. Contrary to earlier reports the little girl was near death and had a series of emergency operations later yesterday.

    Meanwhile, dressed in orange, the little boy appears in courts with several charges and his biological father is patting his back.

    It emerged that the boy had told students that he was going to bring his 'dad's' gun into school and run away. Police believe the gun belongs to the mother's boyfriend.


  • Registered Users Posts: 5,420 ✭✭✭Lollipops23


    Just saw a news story accompanied by pics of the little boy in an orange jumpsuit. Honestly choked me up- he's not an adult, and while I'm sure he knows what he did was wrong, he can't fully understand the consequences of his actions.
    He also doesn't appear to have taken the gun in for the purpose of aiming at someone and shooting- probably just wanted to look like the big man to his friends.
    All I could think was that it should have been his parents in the dock...


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  • Registered Users Posts: 11,747 ✭✭✭✭wes


    Trying the kid as an adult is a bit much imho. It was clearly an accident.

    Having said that, he should at least be expelled from the school, and should be punished in some other way as well, but trying a 9 year like that is silly.


  • Registered Users Posts: 424 ✭✭FinnLizzy


    Daveaherne wrote: »
    This is the U.S.A you most know its that child's right to bare arms. I bet right now fox news and the NRA are blaming those who want gun control for this.

    "Eight year old girl gunned down! Did gun control help her? Why didn't she have her gun? These liberals want eight year old girls going to school DEFENSELESS, vulnerable to gun attacks. Solution to the problem, arm all school children. Crisis averted!"


  • Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 16,165 Mod ✭✭✭✭Manic Moran


    It seems to me that the mother and her boyfriend have a little explaining to do.
    This is why the NRA wants mandatory gun indocrtination training for all children. these shootings simply will not happen if people are properly trained in gun safety.

    I submit that not training the kid at all is the worse course of action. It's like never talking to your kid about sex in the hope that if you don't bring it up, they won't know about it or do it. Instead, they go ahead and do it anyway, but without the advantage of good advice.

    NTM


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 8,021 ✭✭✭Mike 1972


    gbee wrote: »
    I wouldn't agree. Children should perhaps not have guns in their school bags, perhaps. .

    Well if we take the NRA's arguments to their logical conclusion yes they should.

    If American adults need guns to protctet themselves then surely American children have an even greater need to do so therefore let them all have guns ?

    If American children had guns the death toll at Columbine would have been far lower and there would be no bullying or paedophillia.

    Thats NRA logic.

    Coming up next....NRA's logic on the Abortion question.....Let foetuses have guns !


  • Registered Users Posts: 20,830 ✭✭✭✭Taltos


    But a lot of things that go bang are toys. The fact is a 9 year old child isn't old enough to understand death as something permanent.

    Hate to tell you but I remember being 7 with a clear understanding of how permanent death is...
    I think in this case though instead of not understanding death the child does not understand consequences - though he is learning fast now.


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