Another shooting tragedy
 

I read in the Daily Sun today about the shooting of a 7 year old boy in Tampa.

He was at home with his grandmother (age 63) and the boy got up at 1:30 a.m. And his grandmother heard the noise, took her .22 pistol, fired once in the dark toward the sound, hit her target, and the 7 year old is in critical condition.

Every time I read of a family member being accidentally shot makes me wonder why some people insist on owning guns. Home defense is the usual reason given but then a family tragedy happens too often. Yes, even once is too often.

Will it do the state of Florida any good to put the grandmother in prison? No, she will be punished everyday just remembering what she did to this child.

Guns do not kill people, people kill people. Even a 63 year old Grandmother.

As she should!! He was not shot by a gun. He was shot by a stupid careless person. She should be punished! So if she did not have a gun, likely she would have hit him with a bat of some other thing. There is a simple rule for anyone who strikes out, regardless of the tool used: KNOW YOUR TARGET or DO NOT ATTACK. Poor kid. He is the only victim here.

I disagree, the other victim in these incidents are the other 99% that do home defense correctly!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This account of the story could also have read like this:

"He was at home with his grandmother (age 63) and the boy got up at 1:30 a.m. And his grandmother heard the noise, took her baseball bat, swung it with all her might once in the dark toward the sound, hit her target, and the 7 year old is in critical condition.

Every time I read of a family member being accidentally hit over the head with a baseball bat makes me wonder why some people insist on owning baseball bats. Home defense is the usual reason given but then a family tragedy happens too often. Yes, even once is too often.

Will it do the state of Florida any good to put the grandmother in prison? No, she will be punished everyday just remembering what she did to this child."

However, look at what ACTUALLY happened. I don't think playing the "it could have been" game is useful in a tragic situation.

The point is being missed here: Be mad at overreactive stupid people. Not the gun.

I so disagree with this. Guns don't kill people. People don't kill people. People with guns kill people.

Here's my take... Guns don't kill people. People don't kill people. People with guns kill people.

People without guns kill people. Guns without people don't kill people.

In this instance, a person with a gun critically wounded a 7 year old boy in the middle of the night after mistaken him for an intruder.

Is there any way to put a good spin on that? No.

Couldn't agree more. Not sure why you quoted my post. It certainly wasn't an attempt to put a good spin on anything. It was simply a statement of fact.

No person, without a gun, found it easier to kill people than did those with a gun.
My theory and I'm stickin' with it.:mad:

Another sickening story. IMHO

Another story that reinforces my belief that guns laws need to be enacted to prevent this sort of episode, but that ain't going to happen!

If they couldn't get laws after Newtown, they won't get them anytime soon!

A gun should not be in the possession of someone who is not responsible or doesn't think straight.

Very sad. :(

That is always very sad but the gun is not the problem. People are the problems and you just can't fix stupid! If you are an anti gun person fine don't own a gun. You could also put a bit sign in your yard (if TV allowed it) stating the you do not believe in guns. Do not tell other people that they can not protect their family and themselves. Read the Constitution and move to another country if you don't like ours.

That is only one interpretation of the constitution, and much like any other interpretation, it's open to interpretation! And differing opinions.

I doubt that either one of us in our family could protect ourselves with a gun. I wouldn't trust our skill level and don't feel the need to go out and become proficient. Actually, I don't think I have that talent.

We have armed our house to the teeth, though.

And then there is our very large dog who lives with us. Though a very friendly golden, he has an "intrusion" bark and can detect anyone around our property at any time of the day. He "knows" certain neighbors and workers, but if you're a stranger jogging down the street at 3:00 a.m., he will let you know he sees you, and the sound of that particular bark is very menacing.

I am not anti-gun and I am not pro-gun

I am a moderate, kinda sorta, a fiscal conservative for sure and here and there with social issues and it makes me mad when people bundle political beliefs together and think all R's are gun toters. It isn't true.

I am from the middle of the country where people hunted and had guns but no one I knew had guns to arm themselves against other people until we moved here.

I get annoyed when everyone speaks some canned stuff to me. Everyone should Think for yourself.

The folks I know who own them are good people and the folks who I know who don't own them are good people.

The folks who own them illegally who I read about in the paper all of the time are NOT good people and if enough of them come close enough to me and mine, I will change my mind and do something different.

The gun laws have nothing to do with the behavior of people with guns
Chicago, New yourk and Los Angeles have the toughest gun laws in the country.....just look at their out of control killings....PER DAY!!!!!

As far as someone who is not responsible having one......until we get through this period in our history of doing nothing or anything that might hurt someone's feelings or risk a vote.......nothing will change in that regard.

This is a very sad story .But something else to think of. People dont want guns in a house but when ISIS attacks in this country ,and they will, your going to wish you had those guns. To bad this happened, I agree know your target.

We don't know all the facts in this case yet, do we? She awoke suddenly, startled by a noise? Was she half asleep, fearful, and not thinking clearly?
Is she an emotionally balanced person? What was her normal state of mind? She obviously let her emotions take over and wasn't thinking clearly.
Does she have early stage dementia? That's a long shot but you never know.

I think it was just an unfortunate accident, just as if she was driving him to school, made a wrong turn, and hit another car head on.

[QUOTE=Villages PL;926636]We don't know all the facts in this case yet, do we? She awoke suddenly, startled by a noise? Was she half asleep, fearful, and not thinking clearly?
Is she an emotionally balanced person? What was her normal state of mind? She obviously let her emotions take over and wasn't thinking clearly.
Does she have early stage dementia? That's a long shot but you never know.
QUOTE]

You are right. We will never know. What we do know is SHE HAD A GUN and a 7 year old child is critically wounded.

Lots of "what if's" - but just one FACT.

[quote=buggyone;926674]Agree.

We've been through this a million times ... if you are concerned about having firearms in your house for self protection for you or your wife, then be sure not to buy one.

The lady whose home in Duval was invaded recently (with her in it) ... had she had the chance to react and known how to use a gun, and in view of what she suffered through, I'm sure wished she had one.

I know how you feel about this, TexaninVA. I think we've PM'd about this before. I still feel that for those of us never having been tutored in firearms and leery of guns period, it might be better to arm our houses than arm ourselves.

I know the story about the home invasion is being questioned by the police. Nonetheless, did this person do something neglectful, like leave her doors unlocked, windows open or unlocked, or did she open the door to a stranger?

Maybe you are right. I don't know. For ourselves, including my gun-trained army Vietnam veteran husband, we hope our constant attention to precaution will keep us safe.

Every time something like this happens the anti gun crowd here jumps on the chance to start yet another thread about how guns are bad and people don't need to own them. Just give it a rest will you! So a dumb person shot in the dark and hit a child. Tragic yes and she should be punished if found at fault. I've said it before and here goes again. If you are against guns then get the 2nd Amendment repealed. GOOD LUCK WITH THAT!

Actually, I find it the other way around. Every time something like this happens, the gun advocates jump in with their views and give no room for anyone else's.

We are allowed to express our views without being told to "give it a rest." We will express those views as much as we want, as that's what this forum is for. I feel your "directive" is out of line. Only the mods get to choose what we can say or not.

It's NOT the gun advocate that start the threads.

Oh, they have had plenty to say, in their own steamroller fashion. My point is that everyone is allowed to have their say without being told to "give it a rest." We are not here on this forum to give anything a rest. We here for stating our opinions decently. Like they say (borrowed from NPR), learn to disagree without being disagreeable.

NPR. Now that's another story! :laugh: Seriously, my point was that sometimes a negative story of something happening with a gun there is a post bashing guns. I know everyone has a right to post what they want because I am doing it right now.