Precious young life taken by gunshot

Freep ^

[Hillary's Lovely Legs]

Damon Quarker Jr. was curious about the world around him. The toddler liked talking to strangers, learning new words and exploring nooks in his eastside Detroit home.

Store guns in a gun safe, lock box or a locked cabinet or drawer.

Store the gun unloaded, with ammunition locked separately.

[GovernmentShrinker]

That's silly. Leaving a one and a half year old to roam a home unattended, puling things out of closets and off shelves is a recipe for disaster with or without guns in the house. THREE adults in the home at the time, and none could be bothered to keep an eye on this kid! At least two were reportedly engrossed in the TV. Children of stupid/irresponsible people are disproportionately prone to death from all sorts of causes. That's no reason to assert that all homes with children should leave themselves unprepared for self defense in an emergency.

Minor safety precautions -- e.g. no bullet in the chamber, and out of reach of toddlers -- allow the gun to be kept ready for self defense use, but inoperable to a tiny tot whose adult supervisors turn their backs for just a minute. I don't even have any children in my home, but I STILL keep my bedside revolver with an empty chamber on first.

[lavaroise]

Something tells me there is more to this story told by parents to cops to attorneys to the mayor and to the media out of the mouth of an antigunner....

I have a feeling someone wanted that kid dead. Could it be all of the above?

[GovernmentShrinker]

Given the lack of attentiveness on the part of the THREE adults in the home, it's plenty clear than none of them particularly wanted him alive. Whether they managed to shift their thoughts away from their TV show (and drugs? alcohol? $ex?) long enough to formulate any thoughts about wanting him dead, is less clear.

[T Wayne]

All guns are designed to launch projectiles. They are not designed to kill someone or something.

The INTENT is the perogative of the gunman.

AND... most modern firearms will not fire unless the trigger is fully depressed. It is ALMOST impossible for a dropped firearm to discharge. (not condoning ignoring safe storage rules)

[T Wayne]

" the capability to kill somebody."

There is a big difference between

"all handguns are made for the sole purpose of killing people"

and

All firearms are capable of killing people.

[Pintobean]

"Sad. Curious kids (i.e., all of them) and loaded guns don't mix, and should never be kept in the same house. "

All children are curious, it is the responsibilty of parents to teach their children.

The best way to handle curiousity is to address it at an age appropiate level while at the same time keeping things like handguns in a secure place until such a time that the child is old enough and mature enough to use such items appropiately.
The idea that you can child proof the world, only serves to bring about more situations like this one.

[r9etb]

The best way to handle curiousity is to address it at an age appropiate level while at the same time keeping things like handguns in a secure place until such a time that the child is old enough and mature enough to use such items appropiately.

At 18 months, this child was not old enough.

[Technogeeb]

I have a friend who grew up in Detroit that saw this kind of stuff happen every four or five months. It's amazing that it's still happening even 15 years later

Even more amazing is that it nearly always seems to happen in Detroit (the number of infants that die this way each year is in the single digits).

[Technogeeb]

The gun dropped out of a "box" or a "laundry basket" hit the floor and discharged?

I suppose it could have been a very old handgun. Although it is true that no modern handgun will do this, the lockwork on many very old guns aren't quite as safe. It still seems rather suspicious, though.

[r9etb]

There is a big difference between "all handguns are made for the sole purpose of killing people" and All firearms are capable of killing people.

We can agree that one has the right to keep handguns for self-defense. But let us also be honest in what handguns are for.

Handguns exist, by and large, for the purpose of killing people at close range. This is a simple fact -- why else would one keep a loaded handgun in the home?

[GailA]

Leaving an 18 month old with no one having a direct line of sight on them is ASININE, and asking for all kinds of trouble like falls from climbing, to getting in the medicine chest or getting into cleaning chemicals and drinking them...they after all look like Kool-Aid. I raised 3 boys you can't take your eyes off them for a minute if they are AWAKE, not even to go to the bathroom.

[T Wayne]

I keep loaded handguns for self defense purposes. I have accomplished this several times without a shot being fired and no one being killed.

I also have several firearms, including handguns, that have only "last resort" self defense application.

These firearms were not made to kill people. Can they be used for that? Certainly! But that does not make it their intended use any more that my 4x4 PU is intended to be used as an assassains weapon.

Possibility does not equal intent!

[hopespringseternal]

Leaving a one and a half year old to roam a home unattended, puling things out of closets and off shelves is a recipe for disaster with or without guns in the house.

Even children of attentive parents can and do get into risky situations. Assuming they survive, it scares the parents into another round of childproofing and greater vigilance.

In your standard n'er-do-well household, a near accident tends to reinforce the "God is watching out for my baby" mentality and even more laxness.

As I told my wife when childproofing, "She is short, not stupid. She is a curious little person. This stuff is just to slow her down so we can catch her before she actually makes it into a dangerous situation, not to eliminate the possibility that it will ever happen."

[r9etb]

These firearms were not made to kill people.

Handguns not made for hunting, TW. They are designed for killing things at close range. The only thing you're likely to kill in "self defense," (which is why most people buy handguns in the first place), is a human.

The fact that you've used your handgun for self defense without firing a shot, merely demonstrates the fact that people know a handgun will kill them. And by pulling your gun, you promised to kill them if they didn't go away.

Outdoors, one can extend self defense to things like bears. But that's a secondary application.

[T Wayne]

If as you suggest, the sole purpose of a handgun is to kill people, and by various estimates there are somewhere between 50 and 150 million handguns in the USA, why aren't more bodies showing up?

[r9etb]

If as you suggest, the sole purpose of a handgun is to kill people, and by various estimates there are somewhere between 50 and 150 million handguns in the USA, why aren't more bodies showing up?

I quite obviously did not say that the "sole purpose" of handguns was to kill people. I did say, however, that it is the primary purpose, and your own posts confirm the statement.

The number of bodies is irrelevant to the goals driving the design of the weapon. As I noted above: the driving design principle for handguns is to kill things -- people, mostly -- at short range. And of course, most people do buy handguns to give themselves the ability to kill other people. (That is what "self defense" boils down to, after all.)

The fact that there are not millions of handgun deaths simply shows that most people are not particularly keen to actually use the weapon for killing. That does not alter the fact that a handguns is designed to do just that, should the gun owner decide to fire it at somebody.

[ApesForEvolution]

In the end, the light becomes brighter and the darkness become darker...put your faith in Christ and follow Him. Things become 'clearer' in this murky world, I find. How's business BTW? I just signed the papers on mine and it's in a younger, more envigorated man's hands now...

[ApesForEvolution]

Keep digging...it's kind of fun watching you sink.

[r9etb]

Keep digging...it's kind of fun watching you sink.

So now you're going to claim that handguns aren't intended to kill things (especially people) at close range, and that people don't buy them for that very purpose?

I'm not the one sinking, AFE...

[Xenalyte]

I grew up with guns-lots of guns. They did not have to be locked up. My father told me if I handled them they would kill me, and if they didn't, he would kill me for touching them. I respected my Dad, and most of all, I had a great respect for guns and what they would do.

Us too. Growing up with guns removed all the mystery from them; Dad had guns like Mom had shoes. We were utterly not interested in the guns unless it was hunting season. (Mmmm, venison chili . . .)