Re: Five-year-old boy accidentally shoots, kills sister
My parents had a swimming pool in our backyard when I was growing up. My dad built a very heavy and tall locked gate that kept me, my brother, my sisters, and neighborhood children from going in unsupervised. That's a responsible parent.
I am sure that the parents in this tragedy understood gun risk. I think that they probably made sure, when they were supervising him, that he did all the right steps, just like when I went swimming, my parents, or someone able to open that heavy gate was around and making sure I was safe. But they became irresponsible parents when they didn't lock the gun back up, unlike my parents who locked that dang pool all the time, no matter how much I felt I was able to do it on my own.
It's not a perfect analogy, but to me it is a better one than just lumping this tragedy into the gun control debate. There is no law that can be enforced in the privacy of one's home that will prevent or eliminate all tragedies occurring from irresponsible behavior.
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