Please quote where I have stated my opinion on gun ownership. Show me the line of the post. Show me the post itself even. I have not, and will not discuss my feelings on guns in this thread. The discussion has no place here. The gun did not make this possible anymore than the video game made it possible. It was an element that could easily be replaced by dozens of other objects. If guns did not exist, this tragedy would have still occured.

It is closed minded to say the gun led to the death and refuse to hear any other arguments. It is almost the literal dfenition of the term. He has closed out all other possibilities regardless of what is said.

I hope he drops the soap and gets shanked everyday.

the focus should be on the person who died and the person who killed him.

i hope a just punishment is carried out.

How about differing population densities?

An American Journal of Human Biology article in 2005 (Vol 3, Iss 2, pages 111-118) finds a positive correlation between population density and homicide rates.

The mathematics alone make sense if you say there is a percentage chance for an individual to commit murder per interaction and higher population densities lead to a larger number of interactions per time.

Therefore you can not compare murder rates for two countries with differing population densities or probably a large number of other factors (people in poverty, climate considerations, etc.). Guns laws likely have an effect as well, but the question is if the decrease in murder rate is a fair exchange for risk of the people not being able to protect their rights even against one of the strongest armies in the world (their own).

OK, good, so we agree. But my firend, I'm not pushing some agenda. I'm simply saying that guns should not be available to the general public. When they are, you have freak accidents and incidents like this where a father shoots his own son. I'm saying this as a person, not a political leader who is trying to win someones vote.

I don't think someone would give a damn about it. There are many incidents of people dying by guns in country's that have gun control. However, I think keeping them away from the hands of the general public is a good thing. We are not going to legalize herion just because someone may not give a shit about laws and become a heroin addict anyway. I'm sure many gun owners make it through their lives without killing anyone. But those are the normal people. Allowing everyone to have guns puts a gun in the hands of a man who ends up shooting his own son over a video game.

Agree on what? That using this tragedy to rail against guns is one if the most disgusting things I can imagine? I would agree with that. I have said, and will say nothing regarding my views on guns. Start another thread if you want my input on that.

These are my sentiments...I'm not sure what's the Mother's angle in all of this, but I feel some sympathy for her, and as for the political agenda associated with the story...i'll say it again...blaming guns, is like blaming games...this guy had far greater issues, and somehow, if you could kill a child over a game...I'm not sure what's to blame other than the individual.

Where did you get that information?  It doesn't tell the distance in the story.  And what it does say is that the kid tried to knock the gun out of his hands and then ran away, and was shot while running.  If the kid couldn't get 3 feet, he must have been as drunk as his dad. 

And if he was at any real distance, IMO that guy was probably too drunk to hit him with much of anything other than the gun (which was itself far from guaranteed), especially your downright comical suggestion of bow and arrow.  And car. 

(Not that it can't be a formidable weapon but it sounds like the circumstances would have made it not any kind of option -- he was drunk, the kid could have grabbed the arrow before running, etc.)