I kinda felt that way when my neighbor’s kid started driving.
So, you would be okay with similar licensing requirements for a gun as for a driver?
Driving a car is a bit dangerous, which is why most states require some number of hours of driver’s Ed, and then require that you pass both written and practical tests before giving you unrestricted access. Then, they require that you register the car every year, renew your license every few, and carry insurance.
If that was your point, that people should have to take a training class, pass a test, register their guns, renew both periodically, and carry insurance, then I agree.
If that wasn’t your point, then I’m not sure that your feeling is relevant in any way.
Yeah, but it’s a very polite apartment.
But toddlers not killed at a higher rate by poisons, not even when we restrict our analysis to accidental shootings. And you really haven’t presented evidence they are at a higher rate of serious injury. You can’t lump “accidently ate a bunch of laxatives” with “shot”. All this despite the fact that literally every house is stuffed with poisons and they are used daily in many cases.
Well to be honest it took me awhile to remove some of my knife collection I had out when I had kids. But I definitely did when they started crawling around.
As a gun owner its completely against everything we are taught to leave loaded firearms around where children can get at them.
OK, and here are the facts. I think what’s most relevant is not the number of toddlers who manage to shoot people, but the number of children themselves who are caught up in America’s gun carnage:
Study reveals “staggering” toll of guns on U.S. kids
Overall, nearly 1,300 children in the U.S. die in shootings each year and another 5,790 survive gunshot wounds – from handguns, rifles and shotguns – according to the study published today in the journal Pediatrics.
The tally makes gunshot wounds the third leading cause of death for children ages 1 to 17 years.
Either this CDC study or a similar one I saw a few years ago had another related fact. In studying the rate at which children died from gun injuries in 13 first-world nations, the US had more childhood deaths from guns than all the other 12 countries combined.
If a toddler gets hold of a gun the owner of that gun should be criminally and civilly responsible for everything that happens to it. That should be the rule for anything that happens with a gun. If you own a gun you are responsible for anything that happens with that gun. Keep it locked up securely, and if it’s taken from you when not locked up it better be by someone with a bigger gun. This simple change will end the problem pretty quickly.
So much I want to respond to … Lemur866’s post #34 is very insightful, except I’d change it to some gun nuts, there’s many who padlock the loading room … 9-year-olds and 50 lbs kegs of gunpowder is a bad mix in anyone’s home … but toddlers shooting people is all about negligence …
They don’t investigate the parents, they act on behalf of the child … a 4-year-old child doesn’t know if his home is unsafe, the government acts in the child’s interest to investigate possible criminal behaviors in the home … kids talk … Child Welfare can tell the parent to get a gun safe, get rid of the guns or lose the kids …
Profit margin …
Yes … I’m completely okay with gun registration … there’s a serial number and the owner is completely responsible for that gun, unless they sell it or report it stolen … in no way does this impede my constitutionally guarantied right* to own a gun … just like voter registration, right? … common sense regulation, like not allowing peaceful assembly in the middle of the San Diego Freeway during LA rush hour …
- = my state constitution explicitly gives this right to the individual …
nm
Totally agree.
If someone dies, then this is usually the case. Its called involuntary manslaughter and it is a felony in many cases.
If someone merely gets hurt it is usually a misdemeanor and will not disqualify you from owning a gun.
No, I think the reason people don’t think that toddlers shooting people is a problem is because it is a fairly rare event.
It happens something like once a week. Something like ten times that many people get struck by lightning every week. About one dies from lightning strike every week.
I think its more likely the case that when people weigh the harm caused by toddlers shooting people and the harm caused by gun control, they conclude that gun control is more harmful.
Where are you getting this notion?
There is plenty of gun violence in black neighborhoods but its mostly gang violence (some of it by kids under 18). Do you have any evidence that black toddlers are killing their parents at a higher rate than white toddlers are killing their parents?
Sure they may not get your scent but toddlers poop a lot so its really half dozen of one and 6 of another.
Well, I’m OK with licensing and registration. But driving is not a constitutional right while the right to effective self defense is.
Well I am going to guess that teenage drivers kill a lot more people that toddlers with guns.
I’d support a gun safety class before getting a gun license. But once again, driving is not a constitutional right.
Well, it wasn’t my point. Although, I do agree that licensing and registration would probably be an improvement.
My point was that we impose risks on others all the time. Getting shot by toddler with gun is a really remote risk.
Something that happens due to negligence is an accident. “Accident” does not mean “without blame.”
OK, so do you have a cite that almost all of these are kids ingesting laxatives?
The CDC says that 90 children ages 0 to 4 die of poisoning every year.
You realize that almost all of that is teenage gang members shooting each other
or teens committing suicide right? Right?
These are inapposite diversions: the OP deals with toddlers shooting others — not the myriad dangers of toddlerhood.
Toddlers rarely use household items to poison their enemies. Or even their friends.
You can’t actually think that Manda Jo was suggesting that all child poisonings are caused by laxatives, can you?
I’m struggling to see the connection between gun control and laxatives.
Gun control freaks need to use laxatives?