[twisted]

Police: Boy, 3, accidentally shoots, kills father in Indiana home after finding his loaded gun - Yahoo! News

Another horrible, preventable accident. At least it wasn't a kid being killed.

 

[DystruktoBoi1]

Not even sure what to say about this but it has to be one of the worst things that can happen to a gun owner, and this is the reason why you must make sure if you have children to lock up your guns, always. I don't even have kids and they would have a hard time getting to my firearms without 2 keys and then figuring out how to load them.

 

[DragonFyre]

Very sad! This is why my guns are always locked up in a safe. I even have a lock on my bedroom door too.

 

[Twogunwilly]

Sad and so preventable with proper parenting skills. Take the mystery away, show them the dangers and teach them don't touch.

 

[PA Guns & Ammo]

This is what fuels the Brady campaign. As we all know, this could have been prevented. Maybe we do need a safety course before owning any firearms as a requirement. I cannot tell you how many people I see with bad habits with firearms. Last Saturday I was at my LGS to buy the SR22P and as I walk in, there is a guy and his teenage son at the counter. This kid was holding a shotgun in his right hand with his finger all over the trigger. Now it made me nervous until I seen the 6 cartridges on the stock of the forearm! I stood next to the door until the gun store owner took it into his hands. I was about to go off the handle but I didn't. Too many people assume because the gun has a safety that it cannot fire. I feel bad for the family and hopefully since the kid is so young, he will not remember what he did.

James

 

[Darthgamer138]

This is what fuels the Brady campaign. As we all know, this could have been prevented. Maybe we do need a safety course before owning any firearms as a requirement.

Absolutely not.

 

[msrfrog]

sad but at least the father was killed and not the baby. Although he will have to grow up and live with it even though it was the fathers fault.

 

[gizmo]

self correcting problem.....fool who didn't know how to properly store or keep track of his guns will no longer make that mistake.

 

[MikeyCNY]

Hopefully the child is too young to remember and never learns what happens. I can only imagine how he'd feel even as a teenager if he knew what he did. So sad.

 

[nessman]

This was no accident at all... and no surprise here either. This is what happens when you put on the PGA Open while your 3 year old is in the middle of watching Elmo's World. Found the lil' tot's picture online...

 

[BUCKrub91]

Maybe we do need a safety course before owning any firearms as a requirement.

Nothing worse than a GUN OWNER advocating more gun control... -.-

 

[Sponty]

Nothing worse than a GUN OWNER advocating more gun control... -.-

So when a shooting range requires you to take a safety course it's gun control? Sorry but these aren't freaking toys were playing with here and I really think some people NEED to take a safety course. Just go stand around the gun section of your local gander mountain and tell me at least half the people there don't need a lesson in firearm safety.

 

[LetsGoRed]

I'm curious why there's strong pushback to having a safety course as a prerequisite to owning a firearm? It's not uncommon for activities that would create an obvious danger to others if done incorrectly to require instruction and even passing an exam. A safety course doesn't even necessarily mean that you'd be examined, just that you attend. I have read what I can about gun safety, taken lessons with respect to my long guns that included safety instruction, sat through the required class for the handgun license application, and intend to seek out further handgun instruction once I have my license. I'm not saying that everyone should be required to be so extensive in their safety training, but it would be of some comfort to know that others who lawfully possess guns are informed to some degree about safety basics as well. If that helps to avoid some of these accidental shootings, wonderful. And less tragedies such as these means less fuel for those who'd like to make it harder for law abiding folks to have firearms.

 

[DystruktoBoi1]

I agree I do not think that failing a test should prevent you from owning a firearm, however some basic safety class wouldn't be a bad idea, however I think people are afraid it may end up like the hunters safety course, too many people, too little instructors and sparsely placed classes and if that became a prerequisite for owning any firearms at all, it would very much start to be like gun control, especially if the state started doing things like only having 1 or 2 classes a year with an attendance cap of say, 60 people. So in all of NYS 120 people a year get to legally own a firearm of ANY kind, and they have to drive probably to Albany or somewhere near NYC to take these course. Now that starts to sound like gun control to me.

 

[pmcjuryny]

I'm curious why there's strong pushback to having a safety course as a prerequisite to owning a firearm? It's not uncommon for activities that would create an obvious danger to others if done incorrectly to require instruction and even passing an exam. A safety course doesn't even necessarily mean that you'd be examined, just that you attend. I have read what I can about gun safety, taken lessons with respect to my long guns that included safety instruction, sat through the required class for the handgun license application, and intend to seek out further handgun instruction once I have my license. I'm not saying that everyone should be required to be so extensive in their safety training, but it would be of some comfort to know that others who lawfully possess guns are informed to some degree about safety basics as well. If that helps to avoid some of these accidental shootings, wonderful. And less tragedies such as these means less fuel for those who'd like to make it harder for law abiding folks to have firearms.

A safety course setup by gun owners and firearms enthusiasts would be a good thing, but if you make it law, the course will be dictated by Albany. I would be scared to death to see what kind of course would come out of Albany, and what the requirements to pass it would be.

 

[cooden]

If we have a safety course for firearms, then we should have safety courses for:

Riding a bike
Riding a skateboard
Drinking Alcohol
Smoking Cigarettes/Cigars
Operating Snowmobiles
Operating ATV's
Using power tools

Get the picture yet?????

 

[ECU Pirates]

So are all of you against the hunter safety course? I will be honest, I have seen a ton of complete idiots that I wish were not into firearms. Muzzle sweeping the entire firing line (including their kids) with a hot AR. A safety course might not fix those idiots though. Perhaps an IQ test is in order....

 

[fullmags]

I'm curious why there's strong pushback to having a safety course as a prerequisite to owning a firearm? It's not uncommon for activities that would create an obvious danger to others if done incorrectly to require instruction and even passing an exam. A safety course doesn't even necessarily mean that you'd be examined, just that you attend. I have read what I can about gun safety, taken lessons with respect to my long guns that included safety instruction, sat through the required class for the handgun license application, and intend to seek out further handgun instruction once I have my license. I'm not saying that everyone should be required to be so extensive in their safety training, but it would be of some comfort to know that others who lawfully possess guns are informed to some degree about safety basics as well. If that helps to avoid some of these accidental shootings, wonderful. And less tragedies such as these means less fuel for those who'd like to make it harder for law abiding folks to have firearms.

+1 Government should not be involved in our lives, but if things like this happen often,THEY WILL BE. Instances like this are why we one day may not be able to posses firearms. I do not think a we should be forced to take any coarse on anything. Although it should be STRONGLY suggested by anyone selling anyone a firearm. May it be a store or an individual. OMG...my first post.

 

[LetsGoRed]

If we have a safety course for firearms, then we should have safety courses for:

Riding a bike
Riding a skateboard
Drinking Alcohol
Smoking Cigarettes/Cigars
Operating Snowmobiles
Operating ATV's
Using power tools

Get the picture yet?????

It's a spectrum. Just as everything shouldn't require formal instruction or testing, I assume you wouldn't say nothing should require it. I'm inclined to put possession of a firearm closer to the driving on public streets, operating heavy machinery, practicing medicine, etc end of the spectrum than on riding skateboards and operating power tools.

While I'm not keen on trying to put kids in harm's way, I do think that it's not right or feasible for the government to impose itself in the name of safety in everything that happens in one's home among their family, so I would be more inclined to say that if someone has a premises only license, then they shouldn't be required to take a safety course (realizing that the situation in the story would have unfolded the same in such a case).

But with a CC license, you now have the ability to expose the public to significant and immediate danger if you don't know gun safety and I'd be fine with a safety course requirement *if it's done right* (meaning that it isn't, deliberately or not, a bottleneck in the process for getting your license). I don't want to be driving on streets with unlicensed drivers or be walking by construction sites with untrained crane operators. And unlike other potentially dangerous situations where I could see a possible danger and take steps to avoid it, with CC I could be sitting next to someone with an unholstered CC gun in his sweatshirt pocket absentmindedly fingering the trigger while the muzzle is pointed at me. By the time I know this yahoo doesn't know the first thing about gun safety, I could have a round in my gut.

 

[NirvanaFan]

Why not have a course on voting? That is responsible for more problems in this country than firearms ever will be.

A safety class would just be another hoop to jump through to own firearms. Do you really think that in NYC, there will be enough classes? I certainly doubt it. They're a good thing to take, but they shouldn't be mandatory.

In NY do you HAVE to have a drivers license? I know in some other states (Idaho maybe?), there are certain exemptions. That's a topic for a different discussion though. What does matter is that getting a driving license isn't a right. It is a privilege. Bearing arms is a right guaranteed by the constitution. Should we all have to take a class before we can go to church or express our political views?