Just a week ago, NBC News reported that a 12-year old walked into a New Mexico middle school gymnasium, armed with a sawed-off shotgun. He shot two students. Both sustained serious injuries.
Yesterday, The Dispatch reported that a 4-year old boy in Detroit was fatally shot by his 4-year old cousin, a girl. According to police, the children were playing in a bedroom, where the cousin found a rifle under the bed. The rifle was loaded and unlocked. The cousin picked up the rifle, pointed it at the boy and shot him.
Three questions:
1) How is it that a 12-year old was able to gain access to a shotgun?
2) How is that a loaded rifle was left unlocked in a house where there are two little kids?
3) In light of these events and the fact that several hundred kids are injured and killed accidentally by guns each year, what’s the justification against requiring (as Ohio H.B. 31 proposes) that guns be locked or safely secured in houses where there are kids?
4) Shouldn’t the owners of firearms in these types of situations be held accountable?
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