Relentless in bringing to light the problems with limited regulation of firearms, on Friday Mother Jones discussed the 194 children killed by guns since Newton. They break it down as 103 homicides, 84 accidents, three suicides, and four “unclear” (but just as dead). 127 were killed in their own homes:

And the vast majority of them were killed in homes—127 in their own, and another 30 in the homes of relatives, friends, or neighbors. In 39 cases, children were shot intentionally in their own homes by their parents or adult guardians, accounting for more than a third of the 103 total homicides. And out of 84 total accidental shooting deaths, at least 49 involved kids handling a firearm left unsecured inside a home.

And worse, in “accidental” cases, adults are rarely held responsible:

Moreover, when it comes to the accidental gun deaths of children, adults are rarely held criminally responsible. In 72 cases in which a child or teen pulled the trigger, killing themselves or other kids, we found only 4 cases in which an adult was convicted. (Charges may still be pending in some cases.) In part that may be because only 14 states and the District of Columbia have strong negligence laws with respect to children and firearms.

Given my pessimism about progressive change on this issue, one of the best things we can do is what Mother Jones has been doing: stubbornly publicise the issue, every aspect of the issue (including the obvious political economic links between the firearm industry, the NRA, and an unwillingness as a society to confront this issue) and hope for marginal, yet consistent, change in public opinion.

One step we can take as a society is to eliminate the concept of accident when a child has access to a gun in an unsupervised situation. Regardless of where or how or why, if a child gets his or her hands on a firearm, it’s not an accident. It should be legally characterised as reckless negligence, and the responsibility for the resulting injury or death should rest with the adult.

In other words, a child gets your gun and does something stupid? It’s your fucking fault, and you are criminally negligent.

And of those 194 dead children, where the hell were all the good guys we’ve been promised?

Post-script: (A girl’s seven year old voice, in a beautiful English accent).”What are you writing, daddy?”

“Nothing you’ll need to worry about any time soon, sweetheart. You can go back to sleep.”