Posted on 09/29/2013 3:58:50 AM PDT by Pharmboy
The .45-caliber pistol that killed Lucas Heagren, 3, on Memorial Day last year at his Ohio home had been temporarily hidden under the couch by his father. But Lucas found it and shot himself through the right eye. “It’s bad,” his mother told the 911 dispatcher. “It’s really bad.”
A few days later in Georgia, Cassie Culpepper, 11, was riding in the back of a pickup with her 12-year-old brother and two other children. Her brother started playing with a pistol his father had lent him to scare coyotes. Believing he had removed all the bullets, he pointed the pistol at his sister and squeezed the trigger. It fired, and blood poured from Cassie’s mouth.
Snip
Cases like these are among the most gut-wrenching of gun deaths. Children shot accidentally — usually by other children — are collateral casualties of the accessibility of guns in America, their deaths all the more devastating for being eminently preventable.
snip
And there are far more of these innocent victims than official records show.
A New York Times review of hundreds of child firearm deaths found that accidental shootings occurred roughly twice as often as the records indicate, because of idiosyncrasies in how such deaths are classified by the authorities. The killings of Lucas, Cassie and Alex, for instance, were not recorded as accidents. Nor were more than half of the 259 accidental firearm deaths of children under age 15 identified by The Times in eight states where records were available.
As a result, scores of accidental killings are not reflected in the official statistics that have framed the debate over how to protect children from guns.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Be prepared to hear about accidental childhood shooting deaths for the next few weeks from your media outlets.
Sorry about the dumb typos—haven’t had my coffee yet—saw this first thing on the Times’ site. And make sure to read the comments on the site—some are arguably worse than the article.
Selected Causes of Death, Ages 0-19, per 100,000 Population (2007)
Cause Number of Deaths Mortality Rate
Natural 36,272 44.1
Perinatal Conditions 14,570 17.7
Congenital Anomalies 6,896 8.4
Neoplasms 2,302 2.8
Respiratory Disease 1,442 1.8
Circulatory Disease 1,666 2.0
Nervous System Disease 1,609 2.0
SIDS 2,453 3.0
Unintentional Injury 11,560 14.0
Motor Vehicle 6,683 8.1
Drowning 1,056 1.3
Fire/Burn 544 0.7
Poisoning 972 1.2
Suffocation/Strangulation 1,263 1.5
Firearm 138 0.2
Homicide 3,345 4.1
Firearm 2,186 2.7
Suicide 1,665 2.0
Firearm 683 0.8
Suffocation/Strangulation 739 0.9
Poisoning 133 0.2
Source: National Center for Health Statistics
” and shot himself”
Gee, and just a few words before they were making it sound like the gun acted on its own.
Strange, the common denominator is “human finger on trigger, ergo, human action”.
Yet they demonize an inanimate object with a superstitious and cult like dread.
See thread two or so over about terror of a...keychain.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3072545/posts
The keychain was just going to morph like a transformer you know!
/ sarc.
“The killings of Lucas, Cassie and Alex, for instance, were not recorded as accidents. “
So what were they classified as? Probably homicides thus driving up the ‘children killed by gun violence’ stats.
did you consider posting this as a Barf Alert? or do NY Slimes articles contain an automatic Barf Alert?
Yes...I DID consider adding a barf alert, but figured it was superfluous for the reason you mentioned. After all, has there EVER been a NY Times article that anyone alive can remember that supported 2A?
The reason for posting this was to alert Freepers and other patriotic Americans about the new arguments likely to get substantial press about accidental gun deaths in children.
Yes...they are classified as homicides according to this article. But one of the medical examiners defends this by saying that the term ‘homicide’ does not necessarily include intent.
What is wrong with these idiot parents, we had guns in the house growing up, YOU DID NOT TOUCH THEM. They were put up high out of your reach. Not even locked up as we do today.
My carry piece if it is not on my hip is on the night stand, and IF I cannot carry it to a place I need to go then it is locked in the gun safe. Memphis is a crime riddled city, my son’s killer is out of prison, I don’t like to be with out protection, it takes the LEO 30 mins or more to respond.
The true reason we are seeing this is 0 need’s us unarmed so when he starts WW3 with Syria we won’t be able to fight the terrorist just like Europe. And will be victims.
Then we have the forced installment of 0’care, we are not far from rebellion like our Founders were.
murders 2011
323 by assault weapons,
496 hammers, 650 knives, 12,000 drunks,
195,000 medical malpractice.
looks like doctors kill more people than criminals.
Hmm. Seems like someone “forgot” to check the “causes” list before engaging their (if they had one) brain. Sounds like the typical panty waste/nancy boy tact these asshats would take so, not really surprising. Looks like they’re going all out. Yet another mass attempt to betray the constitution.
What about the hidden toll of abortion?
They always trot out the childrden. They just can’t help themselves.
What about the Ford Focus that killed little Jeremy Patterson who’s mother was driving the car? It is time for Car Control legislation.
Tragic deaths, yes. But being used to ‘teach’ the wrong lesson. Lesson should be - ‘guns are not toys and are in fact dangerous tools: treat them that way.’ A loaded pistol should not be where a 3-year-old can get to it. A 12-year-old should have known the basic rules of firearm handling for at least half his life - including 1) the gun is ALWAYS loaded, and 2) never point a gun at something you don’t intend to shoot.
I don't know about Georgia but in my state, children cannot ride in the back of a pick up truck.
Several years back, a young boy was in the back seat of his grandpa's car, where there was a loaded .22 rifle, the kid shot his grandpa in the back of the head, killing him. Grandpa died of stupidity.
They know the liberal knee jerks will fall for that trick everytime (using children, save the whales, save the trees, etc...) while at the same time advocating Planned Parenthood who kills 10 times as many babiex every year. They want your guns and the will lie, cheat, steal, deceive, manipulate, distort, etc...whatever it takes to get the job done. They don’t want you to be able to defend yourself from them or any of their thugs.
Yep...when my grand kids come for the weekend, I disassemble the shotgun, and all handguns are completely inaccessible to them.
Why can’t others figure this out?
I’d lay bets just about every one of thos accidental deaths involving children were in idiot lib homes. Conservatives know to put their firearms in a safe place oit of reach of children; at least all I know that have firearms and children.
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