Posted on 10/09/2015 6:02:15 PM PDT by montanajoe
A kid in my daughters sixth grade class blew his brains out last night.
I support the 2nd 100% but I have serious concerns whether we live in a society anymore where the average citizen is capable of responsible gun ownership.
If gun owners keep their heads in the sand and continue to have loaded or easily loaded firearms in their residences, where kids or kids taking any medication coexist then the 2nd is gone within twenty years.
The founders could have never envisioned that there could be a distinction between gun ownership and responsible gun ownership. Yet today distinction is glaring.
The thousands of cuts will end the 2nd unless gun owners get in front of this issue.
My grandfather introduced me to firearms by asking me “what is this?” as he handed me a .410 shotgun. I predictably answered that it was a gun. He wisely told me “it was a responsibility.”
A firearm is a tool despite all the emotional attachment some place on them, but a simple reminder to people to control access to them is not an attack on the 2nd amendment - it’s a somber reminder to make sure everyone that can handle the firearm can handle the responsibility. Who knows what this kid was thinking or even why and he certainly could have used any number of things to kill himself, but successful suicides by children that age are very rare so I bet somewhere out there is an adult that wishes they had made a different decision on where to leave the tool.
I don’t know his intent, but perhaps this thread was nothing more than a somber reminder made out of hurt. I don’t have any beef with that.
That already is and always has been a key feature in gun safety in a family. Unfortunately, the improvement to be gained no matter how diligent the efforts is unlikely to make any difference whatsoever in the assault upon the 2nd Amendment. Children intent upon suicidal behavior may only in a few instances out of many be dissuaded or prevented from utilizing guns to do so. Here are one of the few exceptions, and you almost have to wonder if it was worth it.
Almost a century ago one of the daughters aged 13 in a related family became very upset when her mother refused to let her go to an after school function with a boy she fancied. She threatened to make her mother sorry. Her father kept his loaded pistol, shotguns, and rifle in the house. The children had all been sternly warned throughout their upbringing that they could not touch or handle those firearms...or else. They were on their honor to obey those rules. When the daughter finally escaped being watched that day, she went out to the barn to find what she wanted. She found a large container of liquid and chugged it down. What she swallowed was carbolic acid. In pain she attempted to scream through her burned throat and collapsed on the ground in the yard. The family found her and frantically tried to help. The doctor came out to the farm and helped take her to a hospital in the nearest city, but she died with her gastrointestinal system burned and destroyed by the acid. Although she died in terrible agony from this impulsive and suicidal act, she did so mindful of her father’s stern warnings never to touch the firearms.
“especially kids on medications”
Kids are over medicated (ritalin, anyone?) and under parented in too many cases.
A kid in my daughters sixth grade class overdosed last night. I support the pharmacuticals 100% but I have serious concerns whether we live in a society anymore where the average citizen is capable of responsible prescription drugsownership. If prescription drugsowners keep their heads in the sand and continue to have prescription drugs in their residences, where kids or kids taking any medication coexist then the prescription drugs is gone within twenty years. The founders could have never envisioned that there could be a distinction between prescription drugs ownership and responsible prescription drugs ownership. Yet today distinction is glaring. The thousands of cuts will end the prescription drugs unless prescription drugs owners get in front of this issue.
A tragedy, most definitely. But somebody else’s bad decision or irresponsibility does not make it right to affect my rights. We’ve become such a nation of wusses.
In the Bloggers & Personal forum, on a thread titled 2nd and kids shooting themselves, jobim wrote:
Rope has no connection to the 2nd Am; irresponsible gun
ownership does indeed jeopardize the 2nd Am. Surely that
point is self-evident?
====================•==••••••=••============================
No, irresponsible gun grabbing politicians who hate the Constitution and the freedoms it guarantees Jeopardizes the 2nd amendment.
My son killed himself with one of our guns when he was 18 so I feel qualified to respond to you. We were/are responsible gun owners. Both our children attended hunter safety courses, spent time at the range and were taught all the rules and respect for firearms. Our son participated with the Border Patrol Explorers in several contest areas involving firearms. Our daughter was a NG MP. You can do “all the right things” and still have a young person make a forever decision for a temporary problem. People ask us all the time how we can still have firearms in our home after what our son did. I tell them that guns are a tool like a knife or a hammer. A person intent on committing suicide will use another tool if a gun isn’t available. I realize you and your daughter are in turmoil right now, but without knowing what has gone on in that home you have no right to point the finger at “irresponsible gun owners”. And if they were irresponsible, they have already paid a terrible price by losing their child. People commit suicide using cars, knives, pills, rope, bridges, buildings, and any number of other things that are more accessible than guns. What do you suggest we “wake up” and do about them?
The result will not be certain, and the struggle will be astonishingly brutal, but many of us will not simply sit by idly and allow our rights to be stripped from us for one excuse or another.
Yeah, and the rest of us used valid examples of why your “point” is invalid.
You ignored them all.
“Blah blah blah”
In Texas, it is unlawful to leave a gun laying around where kids are present or could reasonably be expected to be present.
NOTE HOW WE DO IT HERE.
NO prior restraint. No requirements to keep it in a safe. No limit to how many guns you can have, or what kind. No trampling everyone’s rights because of the actions of a few stupid people. It’s your personal responsibility to act wisely and morally and figure out for yourself how to keep your guns out of the hands of kids. Otherwise you’re free to do what you want with your guns.
But if a kid gets ahold of your gun and hurts himself because you were careless and irresponsible, we hang a felony on your ass.
Simple, huh?
Just like free speech. No prior restraint. Heavy on personal responsibility.
What’s wrong with that approach? And DO NOT tell me “punishing the offender won’t prevent the tragedy”. Tough. The only way you can totally prevent all kid-gun tragedies is by abridging my 2A rights and that ain’t gonna happen.
I graduated high school a few years ago, and all the people who committed suicide in my grade ODed, hung themselves, or jumped off parking garages. If someone wants to kill himself the lack of a gun will not prevent him from doing so. Maybe people need to take care of their children’s physical and mental health instead of waiting for them to kill themselves.
OUTSTANDING post. Thank you.
I like that approach. Texas is a great state.
My condolences. I would think of suicide often as a teen, and then as a young father. I guess reason would creep back in. Thank God. Even though my family kept the guns in the open rack in my downstairs bedroom, I never contemplated using one of them.
I can’t imagine the harm I would have done to my parents or my family. But there were times (at least for me) where suicide seemed like the easiest option. And of course as a teen, it would be over stupid stuff.
Heck - looking back to me being a young dad - it was STILL stupid stuff. (Well, at least not worth killing myself over).
Shotgun is much better for self defense in the home
But you may be on to something - the folks at moveon.org are looking for people to say things just like what you posted:
Dear MoveOn member*,
...
As Senator Dick Durbin has remarked, the main obstacle to passing sensible gun control policies today is the National Rifle Association's "death grip" on Congress and state legislatures.
But the NRA doesn't speak for every gun owner in the United States. That's why President Obama signaled in his comments last week just how important it is to organize and elevate the voices of responsible gun owners to wrest control from the NRA.
We know that there are thousands of MoveOn members who own guns—the vast majority of whom do not believe that the NRA speaks for them.
Are you one of those members?
Yes, I'm a gun owner and I support gun control.
No, I'm not a gun owner, but I also support gun control legislation.
No, I oppose gun control legislation.
In the wake of at least the 142nd school shooting since Sandy Hook in 2012, Senator Harry Reid, the Senate Minority Leader, promised to push for new legislation. He told Congress, if "we don't take action, we are equally responsible for innocent deaths as the sick individuals who plot and carry out these horrific measures."
And today, the Democratic caucus in the Senate, led by Senators Debbie Stabenow and Chuck Schumer, announced their intentions to bring sweeping new gun control legislation.
With every major Democratic presidential candidate calling for reform, and President Obama tomorrow visiting the town of Roseburg, Oregon—where last week's shooting happened—this could be the breakthrough moment to launch a lasting and effective campaign to reduce gun-related violence in America. But we aren't going to do it unless we start to confront and out-organize the NRA now.
Please click here if you're a gun owner who supports gun control legislation.
...
So get ready everybody, we'll see lots of people saying "I'm a gun owner, 100% supporter of the 2nd Amendment, but its time for new common sense gun regulations..."
Wonder how many kids blew their brains out 100 years ago? I doubt more than a handful, because they were around guns. They also knew not to stick their heads in boiling water.
How true your words are. I was attempting to say that these rights are so precious that we must be ever-vigilant to hold fast to them. In this political climate, with this administration, it is wise for us to be fastidious in preventing the Left from finding reasons to remove this right. And they won’t stop their attack, but we must not make it easy for them.
As most here have surmised I don’t have any guns. They fell off the boat one day....
Really folks keeping guns aeway from kids and kids on medications should be a no brainer and no threat to the 2nd.
“keeping guns aeway from kids”
Okay, what do you propose beyond firearms safety courses that already exist and teaching kids to respect them?
You already smeared ALL firearms owners due to what ONE kid did.
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