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St. Louis Post Dispatch: "DON'T BUY a handgun."

Josey1Josey1 Member Posts: 9,598 ✭✭
edited August 2002 in General Discussion
Two dead children a day

GUNS



DON'T BUY a handgun. If you already own one, keep the weapon unloaded and locked in a secured area, with the bullets stored elsewhere. To ignore this advice is to endanger loved ones.

Last Friday, a 14-year-old kid in Marthasville, Kevin David Shortt, was killed when he and a friend, 15, were handling guns at Kevin's home. A .45-caliber Colt long revolver went off, striking Kevin in the groin, authorities said. The 14-year-old is under house arrest, charged with involuntary manslaughter.

In an incident six years earlier in Dittmer, Kevin Handley, then 27, shot and killed his brother, Kenneth, 35, with a .38-caliber pistol belonging to their father, William "Billy" Handley. Kevin Handley was acquitted by reason of mental disease or defect. But Kenneth Handley's widow filed a wrongful death suit accusing her father-in-law of allowing Kevin Handley to have access to the pistol when he knew his son was unstable. A Jefferson County jury concluded that the father should have foreseen the danger and ordered him to pay $400,000. The verdict is a welcome step toward holding gunowners accountable for their weapons.

The National Rifle Association says its Eddie Eagle gun safety program discourages gun-related accidents among children. Its program urges kids to never touch or handle guns they find at home or elsewhere. The shooting in Marthasville shows that safety messages don't always get through. Kevin David Shortt's mother had told him last Friday morning: "No guns." Parents of both children said they had talked to the boys about gun safety and allowed them to handle weapons only when an adult was present.

Handguns claim the lives of more kids than all other weapons combined. An average of two children a day were killed by handguns in the United States between 1995 and 1999, according to a study by the Violence Policy Center in Washington. Missouri and Illinois were among 11 states in which the number of children killing other children with handguns was higher than the national average.

Lives could be saved through an effective gun-storage safety law like the one Rep. Joan Bray, D-University City, has proposed. It's time for the Legislature to take action.
http://home.post-dispatch.com/channel/pdweb.nsf/TodayFriday/86256A0E0068FE5086256C1E0030D8F1?OpenDocument&PubWrapper=Editorial





"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878

Comments

  • Gordian BladeGordian Blade Member Posts: 1,202 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    I think the time has come for society to determine whether we can continue to allow individuals the right to own a very dangerous object. This object is responsible for many deaths every year. This object is not necessary in any way for earning a living or putting food on the table. There is no Constitutional Right to own one. I am talking about the family swimming pool.

    According the the "Live and Learn" child safety organization,

    Each year, nationwide, more than 300 children under 5 years old drown in residential swimming pools, usually a pool owned by their family. In addition, more than 2,000 children in that age group are treated in hospital emergency rooms for submersion injures.

    Medical costs for submersion victims during the initial hospitalization alone can be quite high. Costs can range from an estimated $2,000 for a victim who recovers fully to $80,000 for a victim with severe brain damage. Some severely brain damaged victims have initial hospital stays in excess of 120 days and expenses in excess of $150,000.


    Pools should only be owned by public institutions where we can control the operation and make sure there are adequate lifeguards. I know many people will object to filling their existing home pools in with dirt, but if it saves one child, it will be worth it.
  • will270winwill270win Member Posts: 4,845
    edited November -1
    I magine how many kids we could save if we simply ban all automobiles.


    ~Secret Select Society Of Suave Stylish Smoking Jackets~
    Will270win@nraonline.com
  • NighthawkNighthawk Member Posts: 12,022 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    More children are injured yearly by Poisen substances,electrical shocks and by every day house hold items.I read a article that gave the Stats on it guns were way down the list.I cant remember where I read it,but I did.And they say the Injuries sustained by firearms is totaly inaccurate.

    Best!!

    Rugster


    Toujours Pret
  • IconoclastIconoclast Member Posts: 10,515 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    It truly seems most "journalists" in today's media have been well trained in the traditions of Joseph Goebbels' "Big Lie" technique - if it is outrageous enough and repeated enough, it will become accepted as the truth.
  • nunnnunn Forums Admins, Member, Moderator Posts: 36,085 ******
    edited November -1
    When I was about 8 years old, my dad let me mow the yard with a power mower. It did not have a blade brake/clutch. It did not have an interlock to hold down while starting it. It did not have the starting rope way up on the handle. Actually, it was on the handle. You wrapped it there after you used it to start the engine by wrapping the starting rope around a little cylinder atop the flywheel and then pulling.

    I understood that there was a spinning blade under the deck, and that if I put a hand or foot under there, I would lose it. I understood that the blade could strike hard objects and propel them with force. I was a little kid, and I got it. I never injured myself with a mowe

    Somebody once said, and I tend to agree: Accidents are Nature's way of removing stupid people from the gene pool before they have a chance to reproduce.

    SIG pistol armorer/FFL Dealer/Full time Peace Officer, Moderator of General Discussion Board on Gunbroker. Visit www.gunbroker.com, the best gun auction site on the Net! Email davidnunn@texoma.net
  • gars320gars320 Member Posts: 471 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Where does "2 DEAD CHILDREN A DAY" come from?
    By his account the second shooting "child" victim was 35 and his shooter was 27!
    Now that hardly counts as a child in anybody's book or else I'm still just a teenager.
    SaxonPig is right! This bozo doesn't know * from shinola asbout guns. Where does he get off giving unsolicited advice on the subject.


    Nil Illegitimus Carborundum
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