imported post
The text of the article linked above by Takemine2:
(My comments are in blue)
2-year-old shooting victim remains in critical condition
By LAWRENCE MOWER AND MIKE BLASKY
LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL A 2-year-old girl is fighting for her life in a hospital room after being shot by her older brother Thursday night, the second child to fall victim to unsecured guns in less than a week. The girl remained at a local hospital in critical condition tonight. She and her family have not been identified by authorities.
“It’s a tragedy. It can be so prevented,” Las Vegas police spokeswoman Barbara Morgan said. “You have a right to carry a weapon, but you need to be responsible with your firearms.”
This spokesperson has it right. I agree with her on this simple statement 100%.
The department’s Violent Crimes Unit and Abuse Neglect Unit is investigating the shooting, which happened about 8:30 p.m. Thursday at the girl’s home at 1708 Verde Jardin Way, near Jones and Oakey boulevards. Investigators believe the girl’s 4-year-old brother found a loaded, improperly secured handgun in the house. While holding the weapon, it discharged, striking the sister in the torso.
The family was home at the time of the shooting Morgan said. No charges have been filed. The parents weren’t at the home this afternoon. There was a car in the driveway, but it was missing a tire and didn’t appear to have moved in some time. A barking dog welcomed visitors behind a fence in the backyard.
So, Why are there no charges in this incident? How is this negligence different from that case which I referenced in the OP? Proximity to the unsecured firearm and the kids? The fact that this kid is still alive? Confusing.
One neighbor said Verde Jardin Way was roped off by police until at least 2 a.m. today. She said she didn’t know the residents, but couldn’t believe parents would leave firearms around their children.
“People need to have their guns locked up,” said the neighbor, who wished to remain anonymous. “We’ve got kids, too. They (parents) need to be alert.”
I have kids. I have firearms. My kids are older than these and KNOW how serious a tool they are. They get to go shooting, and can recite the rules backwards. I trust them to know better, as they have reached the age of reason, and they have seen first hand the dangerous nature of these tools.. just like they have with my table saw. Amend the above to say young/unstable/ignorant/untrustworthy kids and I will agree. But without such amendment, I keep my firearms where my kids can get them in case (god forbid) they ever need to back up their mother and I, or protect themselves in our absence.)The incident was the second this week involving a child being injured or killed after gaining access to a firearm. A 5-year-old autistic child, Giovanni Kopystenski, died Monday after accidentally shooting himself in the head with his father’s gun.
Maybe the boy being autistic means the father should be held to a higher standard of firearm responsibility? Again, confusing.
His father, Alexander Kopystenski, was in the car with his son when it happened and was arrested by police on a felony charge of child endangerment.
State law does not require guns be stored in a particular manner around children. But under the state’s child endangerment statute, a parent or guardian can be prosecuted if they allow situations “that a reasonable person would not grant,” such as leaving a loaded, unsecured weapon around a child.
This kind of law makes sense to me. Just like we all keep saying. It is not having or carrying a firearm that should be criminalized, but whether you USE it in an unlawful or responsible manner.
Last month the parents of a 10-year-old boy were charged with child neglect, reckless endangerment and child endangerment after their son shot a girl in the mouth with a pistol.
The two were playing “cops and robbers,” according to authorities, and the boy loaded a bullet into his parents’ .38 caliber weapon and pulled the trigger.
Again, why charge these people and NOT the couple this article is about?
North Las Vegas police found the family kept several unsecured guns in their home and that the boy had been caught playing with the guns before.
??!! So.. you have a kid who plays with your unsecured firearms and you continue to KEEP them unsecured? In this case, and all others IMO, if you do not have DIRECT control over your tools (of any intended use) that have the potential to cause death or serious injury and you do not PROTECT children from the misuse of them, then YOU should be locked up.. not the tools.
Guns have claimed the lives of 18 children 15 years of age and younger through homicides and accidents since the beginning of 2006, including Monday’s incident, according to a Clark County spokeswoman.
Five of those incidents were accidents. Police recommend that firearms are stored in a locked area, secured with a trigger or slide cable lock and kept unloaded.
Never an accident. It's gross negligence. SO.. the remaining 13, if my math is correct, were homicide, then? Why does this belong in the article other than to add fuel to the fire.
“You have a responsibility to keep your gun locked up,” Morgan said. “If it’s not locked up, it should be completely unloaded.”
Locked up should mean that regardless of if in your closet, gun safe, or on your hip, you should have Direct control over access to it, again, IMO. Anyone who is too stupid to understand the responsible way to keep and bear arms should not be allowed to have them, much less breed more of the same.
Contact reporter Lawrence Mower at
lmower@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0440. Contact reporter Mike Blasky at
mblasky@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0283.
Thanks, Takemine2...
But really.. this does not add to my worries. Just helps confirm them.
I am deeply saddened by the loss these people have had to endure, but their OWN negligence seems to be the important factor...
And this is no reason to start believing that, or acting like, you can mandate responsibility.. any more than you can morality...
Oh wait.. we do both already. don't we....