American toddlers have shot 23 people so far this year

The issue isn’t the guns; it’s the religion of gun ownership.

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I had no idea that the EU was so violent!

Edit: yes, I was poking fun, but one absurd statement deserves another, doesn’t it? I live on a narrow road with poor cell phone reception, and people knock on my door late at night a couple times a year when their cars break down or get stuck. I hardly ever “blast” them, even if they are godless European heathens!

Edit2: although, obviously, I do answer the door prepared for violence. It would be very foolish to do otherwise. What sort of person doesn’t feel obligated to protect their family from police and other murderers?

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What is needed are tiny toddler-sized guns, that can be placed behind the trigger of the normal-sized gun, to keep it from firing.

Great Success!!!

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I’d put an extra heart for the appropriate use of today’s vocabulary word “ratfuck”, if I could.

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gotta be a new record for a gunthread without our usual cast of characters…

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Yes, there is. In most of these cases, the way the firearm was stored was probably already against the law. Moreover, my bet is that in some cases, these firearms were not even legal for the adults to own. And for that matter, just about any firearm purchased from a licensed dealer in the US includes a FREE gun lock that renders the firearm inoperable. So there’s no reason in the world why this should be possible. Yet it is.

Laws regarding firearm storage are regulated at the state and local level, and always enforced at the local level.

Exactly what I was thinking of. Sigh.

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The subordinate clause, entirely dependent on the subject and verb of the sentence, is not able to stand alone. Don’t judges know anything about English grammar?

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That’s what we do in my family. But we’re not paranoid that the gub’ment is coming to take our guns.

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Silver lining: the wall won’t have to be constructed very high. The average child gate is, what, 3-feet high?

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Great minds think alike! :wink:

It’s official, toddlers are killing more Americans than terrorists! WE NEED TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT THESE TODDLERS! We could build a wall to keep them out, or just ban all of them from entering the country…

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…from my cold, pudgy hands!

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North Carolina needs to protect me from these little bastards in the john.

I’m pretty sure that legislating responsibility doesn’t work.

I own guns (target/precision guns and cowboy era replicas). I also have a 5 year old. I keep mine in a secure safe. Key and combo locked. I’d be doing this with or without the laws currently in place. Similarly, I realize that this makes them largely inaccessible in the NRA paranoid fantasy situation of an armed home invasion. Seems much more likely that a weaselly 5 year old is much more likely to get to and get hurt or hurt someone else with an unsecured firearm than our chances of having to face down armed robbers.

The problem: I have personally known a number of (idiotic) people with and without kids that don’t keep their guns well secured, despite the legal requirement to do so. Consequently, I and my kid do not go over to certain people’s houses.

People seem particularly resistant to this sort of “common sense” legislation because they buy into the statistically unlikely scenario that they’re going to need instant access to a gun to defend life and limb. Yeah, that could happen, but it’s probably pretty statistically unlikely compared to your unsecured gun being stolen or misused.

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Who’s the cutest super-duper predator, you are, you are!

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For a site that likes to use science and statistics, the fear mongering comes out when there is a gun post.

There are between 70 million and 90 million (depending on who’s numbers you believe) gun owners. There were 586 total accidental deaths in 2014 (CDC data) and 15,986 accidental injuries.

Assuming each injury was precipitated by a different gun owner, that . 008% of gun owners are responsible for all fatal injuries. And .02% of gun owners are responsible for All firearms accidents that result in injury or death. (Assuming 70 million gun owners, rounded).

I’m OK with California’s safe storage law. I think it should be national. I keep my guns under my direct control or locked up at all times. But accidental injury and death is very much in the margin of error.

Now here’s a gift to all those who want a scientific reason to ban guns. Google “Number needed to harm” and Number needed to treat". It is easy to find the number needed to harm (see the CDC data but it’s about 700 thousand injuries and deaths a year total.). The number needed to treat is much harder to find. One progun survey puts it at 2 million gun saves a year. Others point to the only 600ish justified homicides. This discounts all uses of guns that are not self defense.

I get that every one of these deaths is a tragedy. And I wish that the number was zero. But in the context of number of guns and number of gun owners, this margin of error is really small. If you want to argue that 70million+ people who harm no one should be deprived of their guns because of the the less then 1% that are not responsible or make a mistake or are malicious or are suicidal, you are welcome to your position.

But what I read is 99%+ of gun owners being roundly demonized for the actions of the very few.

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Thank you for keeping your five-year-old locked in a safe. With so many toddlers shooting people, I’m glad to know at least one gun owner is acting responsibly.

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Acceptable loss… when it’s a toddler?

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Who is arguing that? Even the original article just says safe gun storage should be regulated, and points out that the NRA prosecutes sues states that even try to do that.

Edited to make sense…

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