This story about the poor dead kid in Goodlettsville is just incredibly terrible on so many levels it's hard to know where to begin. From WKRN:

Prior to the shooting, the dad had been watching television with the two children and was playing with the family’s cat with a laser mounted onto a gun. Police said the man later went into the kitchen and forgot to put the firearm out of the children’s reach. The older child picked up the gun in an effort to get the cat to chase the laser. Police said the child was unfamiliar with how the laser worked and instead pulled the gun’s trigger, firing one shot. The 5-year-old victim was struck and killed. The father stated he kept a weapon nearby for protection.

Set aside, just for a second, that a child died in a completely predictable and preventable way. This jackwagon who lives in an apartment complex was waving his loaded gun around in the vicinity of his children in order to play with his cat. He was playing with his cat by flailing a loaded gun around.

This is so stupid and inconsiderate and dangerous that it boggles my mind. Can we agree that this is a person who is not responsible enough to own a gun? Who is this man not a danger to?

And then he had this incredibly dangerous tool and he didn't teach his kids anything about how to keep themselves safe around it?

Well, folks, this is how nanny-states get made, because, I say, if we can't trust people to teach their kids about gun safety, then the state needs to get involved and have age appropriate gun safety education in schools.

Kids need to know that they should treat every gun as if it's loaded. They should know that you absolutely should never point a gun at anything you don't intend to shoot. They should be taught to consider what might be behind the thing they're aiming at. And they especially should be taught that their gun is their responsibility and it's a big one. It should be kept in a safe, secure place and, if you have it out of its safe, secure place, then you're responsible for what happens with it and you need to keep your eye on it. Younger kids should be taught not to even touch guns and older kids should be taught to not touch a gun without an adult's supervision.

This should be the kind of thing "responsible" gun owners teach their kids. Gun owners who can't adhere to these simple guidelines should have the maturity to say "Hey, I'm not responsible enough to own a gun. I'm going to get rid of mine." It shouldn't take a bunch of laws to make that happen.

My god, it shouldn't take a dead kid.

But, if this kind of life-saving education isn't going to happen at home, then we need to provide it in our schools.



