Tragic accident? That kid probably had his choice of everything from a .38 revolver to a water cooled .30 machine gun.
People who are of good moral character have the right to own a weapon, but once you buy 98 of them, then you know that something is very wrong.
We always had plenty of guns around the house when I was growing up but I never shot anybody. My dad would have tanned my hide.
I have no problem at all with 98 guns. I have a major problem with any loaded weapons unsecured around children.
The story is tragic.
Unfortunately the MSM will try to outlaw guns now.
I grew up around weapons. My dad had 30 or so, mostly rifles and shotguns. Of course they were stashed away and the ammunition was kept seperate. He drilled into my brothers and sister (all hunters) the technique of checking to see if a weapon was loaded any time you first had it in your hands.
When he was a kid in Minnesota. He and his friend would go duck hunting before school. They would bring their shotguns to school and keep them in their lockers. One time they were late because they got stuck in the mud. They trailed into the principals office. they only thing he asked them was "did you get any?" then sent them to class without consequence.
Times have changed.
So what? I grew up surrounded by guns. They were tucked away in several rooms of the house, in the cars, in my neighbors' houses, in my relatives' houses, in my friends' houses. Locks... What locks? Not even on the front door. And never did I nor any of the other kids I grew up with EVER shoot anybody except in war. Being surrounded by lots of guns has nothing to do with it. The kind of people who own the guns has everything to do with it.
Those idiots would probably file the same charges if they had had a collection of 96 rocks and the kid stoned the other one to death.
By that age I had my own gun.
While citizens have the right the own weaponry, is 98 guns necessary? (rhetorical question).
First Rule. EVERY gun is ALWAYS loaded. Even if you just emptied it, still treat it as if it were loaded.
On top of that, never, EVER, point a gun at anything that you do not want to destroy. That includes pointing an "empty" gun at a friends head and pulling the trigger.
It wasn't the guns that caused this occurance. It was crap parenting.
This is one of those rare occasions that I would say the guy had an "arsenal" of weapons. Not like the "arsenal" of 5 or 6 guns you typically hear berated in the press.
Clearly, the child's choice to harm someone must be blamed on inanimate items. If this logic holds true, every son of a car salesman will run over people. Or, libriarian's children will assault people with books. If you have more than one butter knife you really better be careful.
Stop the madness, its the evil in the hearts of men not their tools that do evil.
In this instance, the 11 year old was clearly not trained properly to safely handle firearms. The failure to train him has cost the life of a 12 year old visitor and will rain plenty of legal problems on the heads of his parents.