Regardless of your attitude regarding needed changes in our gun laws; whether or not it concerns you that more than 33,000 Americans die every year from the use of a gun; no one who cares about children can deny the truth contained this story.
Although it is impossible to confirm the actual number because no official records exist, local newspapers estimate that more than 100 toddlers are killed by gunshot wound, or kill someone else each year. It should be shocking news if one child lost their life, or took the life of another, but our gun culture is so depraved that our nation accepts gun violence as ‘normal.’
With gun ownership comes great responsibility. Sadly, some of the gun nuts in our nation love their lethal weapons more than they love their families. I have previously reported many instances of toddlers obtaining access to loaded weapons and subsequently shooting another child, a relative, or themselves. The obvious question is “how were they able to access these guns?”
Before 1976 when the NRA became a lobby instead of a gun safety advocate, it set standards to prevent these tragedies. Their advice was simple; never keep a loaded gun in your home. Their second admonition was to keep the weapon and ammunition in separate locked locations. Simple; so why is this not the standard, or even the law?
The answer is sad, and simple. Adults view guns as toys, and their toys take precedence over human life.
The solution is simple, but politicians at all levels are fearful of challenging the gun lobby and losing campaign contributions; the laws must be changed and the punishment severe.
If a child accesses a lethal weapon, and discharges that weapon, the adult owner of that weapon must be charged with a felony and child endangerment resulting in the removal of the child from that home. If the child or another individual dies from the discharge of that weapon, the adult who owns that weapon must be charged with second degree murder. This is the only way to ensure the gun nuts will consider the safety of their loved ones before the joy of owning lethal toys.
Now let me make something completely clear; I believe that the Bill of Rights is the most important part of any document ever written by mortal man. It is far more inclusive than the Bible, the Quran, or the Tora. But, unlike our nation’s politicians, I believe in all ten amendments, while the majority of extremists only support the second amendment.
That said, the Supreme Court and our nations gun nuts, encouraged by the NRA, fail to address the true meaning of the second amendment, and how and why our founding fathers believed it was important. The debate regarding the wording was hotly contested at the Constitutional Convention. If our forefathers could have anticipated ordinary citizens accessing military weapons, with high-output magazines, the amendment would have contained more than one sentence. Common sense must negate fear tactics, lies, and misdirection.
When a five-year-old girl was playing with a gun she found in her home Saturday in LaPlace, Louisiana, discharged the weapon killing herself, these were the comments of the father’s neighbor, Joy Ursin.
“All I can say is it’s an unfortunate thing because Eric is a disabled military veteran and one thing is he has his guns, but he’s not ignorant to the fact of the danger, especially when his kids are around,” Ursin said.
“He would always stress how he had to secure (them), what he had to go through when the kids came. He made sure of that because he would get his kids every other weekend,” she said. So this gun wasn’t secured, but it was??? Really?
The father has not been charged with any criminal action.
No one in their right minds and deny the facts of this article, or the importance of protecting innocent children. My mistake; they’re called ‘gun nuts’ for a reason.
Op-Ed
By James Turnage
The Truth With No Restrictions 