Beating a Dead Horse
I’m sure you’ve all read about this an unbelievable number of times since last weekend, but I just feel like I have to put in my two cents.
WTF was that father thinking allowing his 8 year old child to shoot an Uzi? For you non-locals, a Connecticut father brought is son to a shooting range event and allowed him to shoot an automatic rifle. Of course, that in itself is bad enough. What happened next, somewhat predictably, was that the child ended up shooting himself in the head and killing himself.
The judgemental bleeding-heart liberal in me (which is really only about 10% of me, as I’m surprisingly conservative on numerous issues) wants to ban all guns in Massachusetts and hold the father and gun club responsible for the child’s death. The realistic moderate in me (probably about 70% of me) says we shoud enact laws to forbid children from shooting any firearms, and should ban any style of weapon not used for hunting (do people really need to own an Uzi?). The conservative in me (about 20% of me) says leave the laws as they are, it’s a free country, and the father has suffered enough.
Besides, guns may be their hobby. And I’d be just as angry if there were laws forbidding me from participating in my hobbies, like cockfighting or dealing drugs or getting really drunk then driving. Oh wait, there ARE laws against those things. And why is that? To protect others.
Now, I’m all for letting people live and let live. Do what you want to do as long as it doesn’t put OTHER people at risk. What you decide to do to yourself is up to you so if you’re careless and die as a result of your own stupidity, well, at least there’s one less stupid person in the world. But, when your activities CAN affect other people, that’s when I care.
But allowing children barely out of car seats to use an Uzi? That’s just stupid. That’s putting you, your child, and those around you at risk.
*Oh yeah, and that’s me in that photo with a completely inappropriate toy…and I find that image very disturbing.
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Perhaps disturbing, but it’s also a pretty damn cute picture.
What’s sad is that his father was the Chief of the ER. You’d think he’d know a thing or two about gun injuries.
Taking your kids to a gun show is just bad parenting. This unfortunate story is proof.
Guns frighten me when it comes to my children. I like shooting. I go to the range and it’s very cathartic. The youngest kid I’ve ever seen there has been about 14 I think, and he sure as shit was not shooting an Uzi. I cannot conceive of circumstances under which I would take them to the range for another 10 years or so. It was ignorant arrogance, and a damn shame. The father, criminally, has been quoted as saying (forgive me, this is indirect) that his son lived a full, – albeit short – life, and he and his wife have no regrets about their choices. Excuse me? I have no use for the man. I don’t know how he sleeps at night; he deserves what he gets.