well its the headline they dream of,but even though i only read d21's account of the report,it does seem strange,what kind of gun was it for a 4 year old to just pick up and shoot to kill,sounds like a tragedy,

being from the 1970's so obviously things have moved on but why do 4 year olds want pieces of kit like a PS3,don't they have lego or toy telephones from fisher price,christ alive what is happening,it is bad parenting for me,the amount of times i am in shops and kids give their mums 18 rated games to go and buy for them at the till is way to often,are these mums stupid,you wouldn't give your 12 year old the last house on the left or the exorcist to take home and watch before bed,some people are just so stupid

Pools aren't made to drown people, guns are made to kill.

Something tells me that there is more to this story than just a kid wanting a Playstation. It just seems strange that a 4 yr would have enough time and strength (unless the gun was lightweight) to quickly pick up the gun that the father probably laid nearby, point it at his father's head and pull the trigger, without the father having enough time to react. Maybe grab for the gun or move out of the way. And why was the father even walking around with a loaded gun shortly after coming home from the store, anyway?

Either way, education is the key. Not laws that remove freedoms.

@Thismeintel.

Those are damn good questions. Reminds me of the scene in Magnolia (I was watching yesterday) where the cop visits this druggy girl who had her music on too loud. Instead of being alarmed by her totally druggy look, he's explaining to her why keeping the volume on so loud is bad for your ears. smh

lol but guns have only one reason, they are made to shoot on other people. i love the logic of people from countries were weapons are allowed in every household. i love how americans always talk about their stupid right to protect their house. nobod is taking your house when you get robbed. the only reason people get killed in robberies are when they try to defend themselve. too funny that in other countries people don't have to protect their house with a weapon...and you are totally wrong that people aren't safer in countries without weapons, that's just not true.

"freedom to have the right to have a weapon at home" lacks every logic. we aren't in the wild west where we have to own a gun to protect us. you get robbed? then let them take what they want and you get it back from insurance...

you know what the problem with weapons is? if you have one at home and you have big problems in your life you are more likely to do bad things with it than if you don't have a weapon and you would have to finde someone to sell you a weapon illegally. people lose their job or so and then they see their wepon at home and think "i will rob a bank". if they wouldn't have the weapon most wouldn't go to a weapon dealer to buy one illegaly.

i mean, to be honest, why do you think you need to protect your house and i don't think so? why don't i care about the chance to get robbed? if i would get robbed, i could do nothing because i don't have a weapon and i still don't fear it because i know the chance that someone would kill me then is like 0.1% if i don't shoot at the guy in my house. because then, yes then he will shoot back and one of both will die, he or me or even a family member..

or do you really wish to tell me that your life is saver than mine because you can shoot on someone if you get robbed at home? yeah great idea make the gangster angry! and if there are two or three in your house which you don't know you are srewed.

Yes, that is true that education is key, but don't use desperately flawed analogies to dismiss the flagrant risks.

Its not a flawed analogy.

The reason people go on about gun laws isn't because they have the capacity to kill, its because of innocent deaths and accidents. Just like kids drowning in pools.

However, you teach kids to swim, they don't drown. You teach kids about guns and gun safety, they don't die or kill by accident.

The analogy is fine, its the crazy thought that removing the freedom to protect yourself, family, and property with a gun will actually making you safer that is flawed.

thanks for the lectures but when a crazy person is in your house where your wife and 2 daughters are,i'd like to blow his f*cking head off not have a chat with him about gun laws

I don't have a problem with people owning guns. Yes, they are made to kill. But when handled properly, there isn't an issue. I grew up in a house with guns. My father was very strict about them. I was not allowed in my parents' room, which is where they were kept, and they were also locked up. My dad did begin to teach me about the dangers of guns, and how to use them safely relatively early, however. He made it explicitly clear that guns are dangerous and should be treated with respect. If you aren't stupid with handling them, you won't have any problems.

This father made the mistake of setting his gun down where his child could get it. The result is this tragic incident. And it is true that if guns were banned, this man wouldn't have had a gun and he would still be alive. But when you ban guns, the only people who can get them will be law enforcement (who are very much a reactive force), and criminals who don't care about the law.

Thus, you disarm the population and leave them at the mercy of those who do have guns. Yes, it would be harder for criminals to get guns. But if they're determined, they'll still be able to get one. The only way to ban guns completely is to get rid of every single one, and destroy all knowledge of how to make one. That won't ever happen.

The reason that I, and others, are for allowing people to own guns is because I would like to be able to protect myself and my loved ones. I can't count on the cops to be there to protect me. There aren't enough of them, and they are a reactive force.

So, at least in my experience, owning a gun has not proven to create more problems. The families that I or my parents know that also have guns have not had any accidents because they know how to handle a gun properly. So the problem here (as far as I can see) isn't the gun itself, it's that the father forgot basic lessons on how to handle one.