One Week in April, Four Toddlers Shot and Killed Themselves

[billh58]

Last edited Fri May 6, 2016, 11:32 AM - Edit history (2)

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Sha’Quille Kornegay, 2 years old, was buried in a pink coffin, her favorite doll by her side and a tiara strategically placed to hide the self-inflicted gunshot wound to her forehead.

She had been napping in bed with her father, Courtenay Block, late last month when she discovered the 9-millimeter handgun he often kept under his pillow in his Kansas City, Mo., home. It was equipped with a laser sight that lit up like the red lights on her cousins’ sneakers. Mr. Block told the police he woke to see Sha’Quille by his bed, bleeding and crying, the gun at her feet. A bullet had pierced her skull.

-Snip-

With shootings by preschoolers happening at a pace of about two per week, some of the victims were the youngsters’ parents or siblings, but in many cases the children ended up taking their own lives.

“You can’t call this a tragic accident,” said Jean Peters Baker, the prosecutor of Jackson County, Mo., who is overseeing the criminal case in Sha’Quille’s death. Her office charged Mr. Block, 24, with second-degree murder and child endangerment. “These are really preventable, and we’re not willing to prevent them.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/06/us/guns-children-deaths.html?emc=edit_th_20160506&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=31465010&_r=1

These children could have drowned, been run over by an automobile, or suffered any number of other ways to die -- but they didn't. Society has taken safety steps to reduce the risk of death in and around swimming pools and automobiles, but not guns. Regulating and controlling gun use infringes on some gun nut's "right" to own as many guns as they like, and to keep them any place that they like -- including within reach of innocent children.

Many gun owners proclaim that they have a God-given right to "self-protection," but who will protect the innocent children from them? Certainly not the right-wing gun lobby, and those who support and enable the NRA and organizations who promote more guns on our streets and in the hands of our young.

Support a Liberal gun control organization of your choice today, and help to save innocent lives.

[MisterP]

1. their parents will still think that they were "protected," it was just a bad incident from that

which protected them from outsiders

[billh58]

2. They believe that these random deaths and injuries

are the price of freedom, in return for the guaranteed right to be armed and dangerous, while accepting very little (or no) responsibility for that "right." The term "responsible gun owner" is an oxymoron in today's society because, unlike Second Amendment absolutists, responsible citizens don't live in constant fear, and don't want or need to be armed with a lethal weapon 24/7.

Dispensing instant and deadly "justice" for a perceived threat is so very Right Wing and Trump-like.