Posted on 12/30/2010 5:16:56 PM PST by neverdem
I wasn’t around guns much when I was growing up — my family owns a butcher shop so others would go out in the woods and drag the deer back to the store to get cut up — but I remember one time my Uncle Tim took some members of my family and I target shooting a long, long time ago.
I could have been more than 12 or 13 at the time, 15 tops, and he taught me how to respect a gun. Always keep the barrel pointed to the ground, be careful how you hold it while walking. All that sorts of stuff. It was a one day, crash course but I remember it. He was deadly serious talking about how a gun should and shouldn’t be handled until I actually got to shoot. Then, given the fact I may have grazed a barn from 30 feet gave some sage advice about not going into the military.
It wasn’t a lesson put into practice as I may have shot two other guns in my lifetime but it was memorable — A boy get to shoot a real gun for the first time once.
This is, of course, leading into the questions about what to do with a 12-year-old who shoots and kills his 12-year-old friend while the two are playing with his father's handgun.
The most altruistic course of action is probably nothing. It was a tragic accident. The two were just goofing around with what any 12-year-olds who didn't know any better would think is a pretty cool thing — a gun. It may be a flippant way to look at it, but from the outside looking in that’s what it is. A tragic accident.
However, there is a dead child and because of that, we as a society governed by laws, demand someone held accountable.
As such, 12-year-old Michael O'Rourke, who inadvertently shot and killed his buddy of the same age, Yuri Naumkin, is charged with manslaughter.
It may sound severe given the circumstances, but a fundamental measure of manslaughter is committing a recklessly act that causes the death of another. Given the fact the two were loading and unloading a handgun before a bullet discharged, reckless behavior is a pretty easy sell.
But he’s 12 and the case will end up in family court where there is no grand jury and no trial jury and those involved don't deal in common criminal court terms like felonies, misdemeanors, punishment or sentencing. Rather, the focus is on the nature of the offense and the history of the child. Ideally, those are paramount to the judge when he or she considers how to handle a case.
Odds are the boy will receive some counseling or probation, his record will be sealed and that will be it.
It as far as the legal end of things goes anyway. I just can't imagine what the kid is going through. Or what his parents are going through. Not to mention what the Naumkin's parents are going through. This is a tragedy for all those involved and there is nothing society can do to rectify it. Nobody to punish. Nobody to throw behind bars. No debt to collect.
By the sounds of it, it could have just as easily been O'Rourke laid to rest Tuesday. That's not how fate played out, and I'm not one to question fate.
While the manslaughter charge appears justified, with the understanding of the likely disposition, the misdemeanor endangering the welfare of a child charge against the father, Edward O’Rourke, is a little more confusing.
The handgun was properly registered and perfectly legal. New York, for better or worse, doesn't mandate an owner store guns in any particular fashion so the father did nothing wrong according to the law. I’m just waiting for the activists to jump on the tragedy and use it as an example in an attempt to enact such a laws and tout the virtues of gun control but the fact remains it's not on the books now and honestly, thankfully, such instances are few and far between.
New York doesn’t need anymore laws governing legal guns. A better approach is to teach kids, at a very young age, to respect guns for the dangerous weapons they are, or better put, can be. At the risk of being cliché-ish, guns are only as bad or as dangerous as the person holding them.
Stricter laws and lock boxes will only make guns more taboo, more of a mystery and every 12-year-old boy is naturally drawn to taboo and mystery. They are not drawn to things out in the open and they are taught to respect.
James V. Franco is The Record city editor. His column appears Thursday.
His conclusion is remarkably sane, for a lib.
His conclusion is remarkable sane for a liberal - but here's the deal. Liberals have come to the conclusion that gun control loses votes for them - that's why it's dropped below the radar except for 'common sense' pieces like this. Tell me the last time you saw some MSM person pitching gun control. It's been years. They know what works for them - and what doesn't - and their friends in the MSM reflect that change...
Tell me the last time you saw some MSM person pitching gun control. It's been years. They know what works for them - and what doesn't - and their friends in the MSM reflect that change... it's about votes and winning NOT integrity and a change of values.
By the time I was 12 I had shot thousands of rounds of 22rf hundreds of rounds of shotgun. Who knows how many pounds of BB’s from BB guns. Shot many pistols and some high power rifles.
By the time I was 15, make that thousands of rounds of shotgun, many more thousands of rounds of 22 Hundreds of highpower rifle lots of pistol ammo. Was reloading all my center fire rifle ammo and most of my shot gun ammo.
Owned my own rifles, shotgun and pistol very well knew how to properly handle how my firearms taught others how to also.
Never ever came close to shooting any body.
Not teaching children how to properly and safely handle firearms is one of the worse things a parent can do.
Not teaching children how to properly and safely handle firearms is one of the most demonstrably criminal things a parent can do.
IMHO, the bleeding heart libtards who keep the NRA's excellent "Eddie Eagle" minimum basic gun safety program
out of public schools should be given irrevocable life imprisonment any time a child under their tutelage misuses a firearm.
I always taught my kids if you find a gun bring it home we can always use another one.
Do you know for certain that he is a lib?
FReepmail me if you want on or off my New York ping list. Happy New Year!
And oh, yes, there will be more, more, and more attempts at gun control, brought to you by people who have NO NEED to defend themselves, because hirelings and quislings defend the Ruling Class. We the Sheeple don't deserve to be able to defend our own lives, according to the Self-Appointed gods of rulerdom.
FREE PEOPLE HAVE GUNS; SLAVES DON'T.
And yes, I plan on going out with mine, the hard way if necessary.
That said, I believe the reason liberals stopped pushing gun control is because they know the issue doesn't work for them. They'll still push to take away our guns - but it won't be part of any political platform. And articles like this would NEVER have been written by a liberal 10 years ago...
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