Another Shooting in Philadelphia
My brother Ray raises good points about yesterday’s truly heartbreaking gun-inflicted death here in Philadelphia:
Had the gun either been locked in a firearms case, or had a working gunlock that either immobilized the trigger or prevented the firing pin from coming in contact with the shells in the gun, or for that matter, had the shells not been in the gun and instead, had been in a separate location, this unfortunate accident would never had happened…
Defenders of the 2nd amendment like to say that ‘guns don’t kill people, people kill people.’ Well, 3 year old children don’t kill people with intent, but they do get into their irresponsible parents shit and find things to play with that they shouldn’t be playing with.
So whose fault is that? Who’d like to step up and blame the 3 year old for shooting himself in the face? Anyone?
I concur. A lot of my readers don’t know this, but I am a very strong supporter of the Second Amendment. My belief in the right to keep and bear arms has gotten me into arguments with my girlfriend, but I deeply believe in the right of the ordinary citizen to be able to defend him or herself with deadly force if necessary. The Framers knew what they spoke of: when you allow only the government to bear arms, the citizenry is helpless before the power of the state.
That said, what happened yesterday in Feltonville, one of the poorest and most violent neighborhoods in Philadelphia, is UNACCEPTABLE.
The ammo should not have even been in the gun. That’s rule number one about gun safety in the home, followed by “always assume the gun is loaded”. I learned about this in Boy Scouts for crying out loud.
The gun should have been locked away, out of reach of children. Again, this is basic gun safety.
None of these rules were followed in the Bailey-Henderson household: this is beyond question. Your average 3 year old is about 3 feet tall. That’s not very tall. The gun that killed that poor little kid was in easy reach. On a coffee table. In an unlocked nightstand.
This is gross negligence: is it too much to ask that parents be responsible for their kids?
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