When it comes to guns, accidents don't just happen, they are caused

I am a gun owner and I take my hobby pretty seriously. While I am not a nut-case concerning "gun rights" I do believe that gun ownership is something that should not be unreasonably restricted.

I am, however, very militant in gun responsibility. And the following aint it.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/10/27/boy.shoots.himself.ap/index.html

Wow where to start. I am assuming, since it was identified as a submachine gun, that this was an automatic weapon.

1. Why would anyone let an 8 year old shoot a fully automatic weapon? Semi auto I can understand. Adults have a hard time controlling an automatic weapon without training.

2. It is great that this "instructor" (A title I doubt they will hold for much longer) was "supervising" but clearly not closely enough to prevent injury to the shooter (who is dead) or to bystanders. Supervising a child with a fully automatic weapon means more than just keeping an eye on him. It means maintaining positive control of the weapon at all times!!

Accidents with fully automatic weapons don't just happen, they are caused. The child can not be expected to maintain safety in this situation. This was not an accident, this was negligence on the part of the adult.

Negligence that resulted in the death of a child and we are lucky that no one else was hurt.

These type of irresponsible actions give the responsible gun owners a bad reputation.

This is not how responsible adult gun owners act.

 

Tell it brutha!

 

Seeing the subject line I was like "OK, what are they going to say now" ... Then I read the story - HOLY BAT Stuff batman. I am just shocked that someone somewhere thought that would be a good idea.

Although - more people could have been killed, or injured which bothers me even more.

 

Who should be held accountable. The Instructor or the parents. You can only pick one

 

instructor. parents were stupid, instructor was in charge. policy at the place should not even ALLOW for stupid ppl to put such young children at risk.

i am in NO WAY for a nanny state but some people apparently NEED to be told what they can anc can't allow their children to do...

 

My worthless opinion: One of the moral duties of all adults is the protection of, and prevention of accidents to, children.