Slate Writer confuses Law-Abiding People with Felons.

 

If two children die from two gun accidents, one from a family where the father is a felon that owns a gun illegally, and another one from a law-abiding family, should both fathers be charged as criminal? Justin Peters thinks so.

On Saturday, a 2-year-old North Carolina girl was playing in her house when she found her father’s loaded handgun hidden under the couch. She grabbed the gun, shot herself, and died later that day. On Sunday, the girl’s father, a 19-year-old felon named Melvin Clark, was arrested and charged with involuntary manslaughter.

I’m glad Clark was charged, and I hope he’s convicted. The speed with which charges were brought against Clark is somewhat surprising, given that, as the Fayetteville (N.C.) Observer has reported, there have been several unintentional shootings in the Fayetteville area recently that have not resulted in charges. In March, a Robeson County man was cleaning his shotgun when it unexpectedly discharged, killing his 10-year-old son; it does not appear that charges were ever brought against him. (I’ve contacted the district attorney’s office, and will update this post when I get a definite answer.) That same month, a Columbus County man was playing with his gun when it suddenly discharged, injuring his friend; no charges were filed. In 2011, a Tabor City, N.C., man fired a rifle he thought was unloaded. It wasn’t, and the bullet went through the walls of his house and into a neighbor’s yard, striking three people, one of whom later died. The man was never charged.

 

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So-called accidental discharges can generally be ascribed to carelessness on the part of the gun owner. The state can encourage compliance with gun safety protocols by charging those people whose failure to follow them results in injury or death. That’s one reason why I support prosecuting gun-owning parents whose children die or are injured in unintentional shootings: to send a message to other gun-owning parents, and hopefully encourage them to take gun safety more seriously. But that message gets muddled if the laws are inconsistently enforced.

Source: http://www.slate.com/blogs/crime/2013/10/24/melvin_clark_child_shooting_gun_safety_laws_are_pointless_if_nobody_bothers.html

 

Mr. Peters, bad things happen, that’s life. I too wish everyone would practice gun-safety, car-safety, knife-safety, and be safe in general, but that’s not realistic. While you were bitching about gun accidents, you failed to mention the many daily acts of armed self-defense law-abiding citizens and legal residents engage in.

Jails are for real criminals. I don’t mind a felon going back to jail for owning an illegal gun, but a father who has to see his son die because of a stupid gun accident has already been punished more than enough. Unlike journalists, most Americans aren’t out for blood every time something bad happens.

I also don’t see what laws you want enforced, is it a crime to have an accident? Do we have enough prisons to incarcerate people who made one mistake? Who’s going to pay that bill?  In California prison overcrowding is so bad that sometimes Judges order the early release of criminals, REAL CRIMINALS, not a careless father that had one gun accident, but real bad guys.

Drug users don’t always go to jail either, in spite of the protestations from my libertarian friends, when a pothead or meth-head is jailed, is usually because they have priors. No priors? You might get rehab with probation. Hardly anyone with small quantities of illegal drugs does hard time.

Paris Hilton was caught with cocaine, she went to jail for 30 days not for the drug crime, but because she failed to show up to court. If she had gone to court, she would have gotten probation or rehab.

Suffice to say, gun accidents aren’t more tragic than pool drownings, bike accidents, hiking accidents, and any number of ways a child can die. I once met a man in a wheelchair who used to play high school football but suffered a spinal chord injury. That’s life, and unless you want to keep your children in a padded room for the rest of their lives, you will accept the risks.

So stop being a bleeding heart, Mr. Peters. If you care so much about gun safety, share the NRA’s Eddie Eagle video, that’s far more productive than confusing law-abiding people who had a bad day with felons who do bad things.

 

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