Please explain to me "My first gun."
 

So this company called Crickett makes guns specifically for small children 4-10.

That seems like a perfectly valid thing: a well regulated militia would certainly have toddlers...

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1367511546.jpg

So when the inevitable happens, no one should be shocked.

On Tuesday, inside a rural Kentucky home, a five-year-old boy accidentally shot and killed his two-year-old sister. The boy had been playing with a .22 caliber single-shot Crickett rifle made and marketed for kids. The children's mother was reportedly outside the house when the shooting took place, and apparently didn't know that the gun contained a shell.

"Just one of those crazy accidents," said the Cumberland County coroner, according to the Lexington Herald-Leader.

Some people...

Relax...

About 10 kids a year are killed by lightning strikes every year. More than 100 are killed by parents backing up their cars in driveways.

Accidents happen. It's the price of freedom.

I got my first shotgun at 5. Started hunting alone by age 12. Guns are a part of American culture that you don't understand. Designing firearms for kids? Probably safer than the adult sized .410 I was lugging around at 5.

Whether it s a gun marketed for 5 y/o's or adults it the parents' resonsibility to make sure guns are secured!

Of course you can teach your kid how to shoot at a young age, and of course you'd do that on a rifle that's designed for it. Is that a toy that should be left laying around loaded? No! It is just negligence by the parent(s). There are a lot of other things in our lives that are deadly if not controlled properly. You are from L.A. - how many kids drown in the backyard swimming pool every year? Same root cause: Negligence.

G

Yup, parenting issue here. Could have been a piece of cutlery, plastice bag, or looped cord in the corner and the 5 year old may not have understood the ramifications of using any of them on his sister.

I started shooting a .22 at 6-7. I was a couple years older until I could pull the cocking knob by myself, but I carried it all over for years.

I got my boys a youth-sized .22 when the older boy was 7. Sold it to a friend after they outgrew it.

I don't know anyone who has been injured by an accidental gunshot and I know lots of shooters.

I know plenty of people who have been injured by cars. Those stories don't even make the paper in most cases.

Selective reporting.

Exactly.

Moses: You haven't a clue about me, so don't be an a-hole and assume. I fired expert with every weapon I handled when I was in the Army and had a single shot .22 when I was 10. I sold my assault rifle a couple months ago after having it for 25+ years.

You can 'invent' a profile for people who don't like random innocents getting killed by guns, but I don't fit it, and most others don't. Might be better to talk with people than AT them.

The issue is bigger than you want to admit. Know the number of people in the US killed by guns vs. lightning strikes and pool drownings? Or knives? Or...?

In case anyone is interested, Slate has been keeping a tally since Sandy Hook...

Gun-death tally: Every American gun death since Newtown Sandy Hook shooting (INTERACTIVE). - Slate Magazine

..amoungst children?.... That's what this thread was about right?

Yeah, but that's a tough one. "Children" seems to include gang-bangers 21 and under.

Oh... you were 10 and had a single shot .22. That makes all the difference in the world because everyone knows that 10 years old is OK, but teaching them at 9 years or younger is just crazy. :rolleyes: Your first post regarding "toddlers" in a militia sounded like "a-hole" venting to me.

neat. about the same time i began collecting stories of lives saved by the defensive use of firearms. 19 pages so far.


http://forums.pelicanparts.com/off-topic-politics-religion/728290-self-defense.html




see you all when this gets to parf.

So you were shooting at 10 but are somehow offended that a company markets firearms for 10 year olds? OK....

Lets not forget teh "my first toolbox" stuff from Lowes, Home Depot, etc. How many injuries occur every year with basic hand tools? How many people are killed with hammers?

What a "child appropriate" firearm is is something that is small enough for short people to handle well and safely. Low recoil (22lr), often single shot, often manually cocked.

The article is about a 5 y/o that shot his sister, not 21 y/o gangbangers or overall gun control. If it's about overall gun control than just say so....

It's about gun control. It's also about what the mainstream media chooses to cover and what they don't. This should be in PARF....

Who's being the a-hole here? It's not Moses......

Scott

MMMk...
Perhaps when it makes it over there it will contain an article of relevance.

Nope. Just that the stats that get paraded around are always "massaged" to make the numbers fit the message. I suspect you won't find reliable statistics on 2-year-old shooting victims, because those with an agenda are happy to lump them in with 21-year-old gang bangers to make their point.

I thought it wa about a mother who lost a daughter because she was careless.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1367514679.jpg



I didn't get my first gun until I was about 12.
Before that I had to use my grandfather's rifle to go off huntin in the desert.
After I finished all my chores of course ...........

That too.

Have you seen some of the parents around here?!?!? BTW, this shooting happened not too far from here.

Everyone around here is armed to the teeth and the relationship between "armed to the teeth" and "responsible parents" is an inverse correlation.

Wait, I am confused.

Sounds to me like you have become soured on firearms or you at least make it sound like that when you mention selling your "assault rifle" and are attempting to create drama and push your beliefs with a thread like this.

The real issue I see here is poor parenting, nothing more.

My kids have shot firearms, they each have air guns, that are stored in the safe, locked away until we go camping or they are taken out to be used with proper adult supervison. My daughter also has her own compound bow. She knows how to use it safely and knows that it is not a toy.

How someone came blame a company for creating something that is actually useful because of the mistakes of the consumers has always baffled me....

Bill

LOL. All the usual knee jerk responses.

I'm not one of those people who values the lives of children over adults. The whole point of the original post was that children as young as 4 are not an appropriate target for gun marketing.

The inevitable happens. And this is far from an isolated incident. At least three times in the past 6 weeks a small child has shot and killed another small child.

My problem is with 'gun nuts' that give access to guns to small children. It's bad enough when its carelessness and it's -- IMO -- worse when its a company's policy to put guns in the hands of 4, 5, 6 or 7 year olds.

Sure, there are kids who are mature at 8 or 9 or 10. There are plenty here who aren't mature in their 30s and 40s.

How many children do you know who are 4-7 years old who should be handling a weapon of any kind?

My daughter has that rifle in pink and stainless, got it when she was 5. It's in the safe with the other firearms. Its not a toy and is handled as such. This has nothing to do with the gun or the age of the child, it has everything to do with morons being parents. We can regulate gun ownership but any idiot can have a child.

We're mostly in agreement on this, but I don't like a gun manufacturer targeting these marginal parents with advertising that encourages them to make stupid decisions on gun access.

Darwinism doesn't always punish the stupid, sometimes it's the person standing next to the stupid one.

Tech..I looked at the shooting list..
if they did something other than turning them loose...
many of those killings would not have occurred..
the other things needed..
a fast track real death penalty..
and mandatory jail times..
NY stop & frisk did an awesome job..
while Chi town ..
the killers talk about their rights being threatened..
and it's sheeple continue to be culled..
so the press will moan and groan about the little girl..
while Antoine with 2 deadly assault by age 17 is out tonight..
looking for some action..

Rika

Yes, agree with most of your points. But adults are responsible for their own actions. The legal system rarely puts anyone under 15 on trial as an adult. My problem is with arming children -- especially 4-7 year olds.

If "you" can teach children about sex, abortion, and how not to have babies why can't you teach them to safely shoot and not kill someone.

The amount of guns you have, or don't have, has no bearing on how responsible you are as a parent. I'm guessing all of us own other things that are dangers to kids if used unsupervised, used improperly or at all like someone already said. The responsibily still lies on the parent no matter what the object is, plastic bag or assult rifle.

I'm sure there are kids out there who are more responsible, but after talking with/knowing some of the kids in my wife's second grade class, I would haul a$$ in the other direction if ANY of them was holding a weapon, designed for kids or not. If they don't understand a pencil isn't a toy, I dont trust them to know a pink gun isn't either.

true, those aren't the kids you should be teaching to shoot, wait a year or two for the slow ones, give them time.

Parental negligence. Nothing more and nothing less. Tragic accident surely.

I'm curious to how you arrived at the conclusion that Crickett marketing of their pink rifle is targeting marginal parents? Second, kudos for selling your assault rifle - I can barely afford to shoot my semi-auto centerfire rifle - would hate to feed something fully automatic. :)

I prefer to think of it as utter stupidity...I'm sure it was there before they became parents :rolleyes:. I began shooting .22s when I was around 6-7, and had a shotgun before I was a teen, so I'm a "gun person" and have been all my life. I actually do have a problem with "cute", pink guns, and do fear some of the "gun fascination" that many have acquired in recent years.

ps: A guy I've known since college recently accidently shot himself with an unfamiliar handgun he'd received as compensation. He too had gotten caught up in the recent "gun mania" and he simply "had no clue". An intelligent, funny, 53 yr old attorney...dead. Guns aren't toys....I do not believe in making them "cute" (ESPECIALLY for kids), but everybody has their own opinon...YMMV

The 2 yo should have been packin'.

Who cares who they are marketed to. How many 4-7 y/o's are buying pink shotguns?...None, the parents are.

What a tragedy. My sympathies to everyone involved.

Both of my sons received Chipmunk rifles on their sixth Christmases. They were, of course, locked up at all times we were not actually at the range. I think both learned a great deal of responsibility with them, having their own rifles in amongst adults at the range that demanded they behave appropriately with them. I believe it is part of what shaped the men they are today.

Of course, irresponsible parents are everywhere. We had a similar incident near here just last year. A toddler strapped into a child seat managed to get loose, grab his dad's .38 Special from the center console, and kill his seven year old sister. Mom and dad were in a rush on their way to a wedding, had stopped at a friend's shop for something, and had both gotten out of the mini van "just for a minute".

The negligent father should, of course, be punished severely, right? Right? Apparently not. At least not if he's a cop...

accidental shooting | The Today File | Seattle Times