Shame on them.
Too busy banning books and bullying trans-kids.
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That marriage is not going to survive, and the kids are going to need a lot of therapy.
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my police department gives out trigger locks for free. I think a lot of them do. Probably not the fanciest model but a helluva lot better than nothing.
I know about this because I recently went to the PD to file an accident report and while waiting was treated to a long discussion between a mother and a son about the wisdom of “locking up pop pop’s gun.”
They decided not to.
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God’s above and below that makes me think “pop pop” was a suicide risk
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Or a risk to anyone who might show up unannounced on a day when he’s not recognizing people very well. I got the distinct impression that pop pop’s memory was only so-so at best.
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Every NEW gun includes a gun lock, per Federal law. If you get a used one there are so many places that give away gun lucks for free. NSSF provides free kits via local police departments, and there are even more both pro-gun and pro-gun control orgs who provide free locks and education on how to best secure firearms.
For a three year old, most don’t have the hand strength to manipulate and load a firearm. That is why so many really young kids end up shooting themselves vs someone else. They have to use their thumbs and end up pointing it at their chest. 
Keeping it unloaded with the magazine removed would be one extra step that would have most likely prevented this .
Several different methods would have prevented this vs nothing.
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If only the three year old had had a gun to protect himself from himself.
It’s not guns that kill people, it’s Americans with guns that kill people.
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…or your daughter…
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Instead of spending upwards of $1K for a firearm, how about these paranoid folks spend that money on improving the physical security of their home? Security film on ground floor and basement windows is probably $10-$12 sq. ft., including installation. Good locks, door and frame reinforcement are about $200-$300 per entrance, all installed by a professional. $1,000 to $2,000 on a home’s security and you don’t need to keep the damned gun in your nightstand. You can use it as a selling point when the house goes on the market when you move.
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Most notable would be, not having firearms at all in a household with kids. Firearms are the number one killer of kids in the US.
We spend billions researching and treating childhood cancer and other deadly debilitating diseases and we spend somewhere between jack and shit preventing easily preventable firearm deaths.
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Your children, your pets, or, if in a particularly sleep-befuddled state, yourself. (All true stories!)
To be fair, it assumes you own your home, but I suspect there’s zero difference in the mindset between home-owners and renters, because the real impediment to doing that is that the gun exists in the house to fulfill a power fantasy, not protect anyone’s safety.
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In almost every case personal safety in the home is better served with a baseball bat or a good sharp knife.
Or a good alarm system. The statistics on how many times a homeowner’s gun is taken away from them and used against them during a home invasion is ghastly. Even worse are the statistics on successful suicide when a gun is in the home. And even worse than that are statistics on children injuring themselves, other children, or adults in the home with a gun.
In reality, there are very few situations were gun is necessary for self-protection. In cases of the home, a shotgun is going to be far more effective than a handgun. Also a lot harder for a child to use or injure others with, and harder (though not impossible) to use in suicide.
I know I’m preaching to the choir. But the number of children who die from guns in a home, or their mothers’ purse, or a car is just devastating.
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Do you have a link on “yourself”? I can see all the others without any difficulty, but I don’t think however tired or drunk I’ve been that I’ve mistaken myself for someone else.
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Suicide would be the most common example, but every year gun owners accidently kill themselves while handling their own guns. Leaving a round in the chamber during cleaning, goofing around with an unexpectedly loaded weapon, the stupid trend where idiots were pointing handguns at their junk (the femoral artery is located in that line of fire), dropping a loaded firearm while drunk or just clumsy, etc.
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Yeah, those are all obvious, it’s more the “mistaken for intruder” implication in the comment that had me confused.
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Yeah, the stats are pretty clear - having a gun in the house means it’s far, far more likely to be used against a member of the household than an intruder. People just assume statistics never apply to them…
It’s been some years, but I recollect reading at least one story about someone who, still befuddled by sleep (or actually still asleep), thought there was an intruder and accidentally shot themselves in whipping out the gun…
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Yes, let’s ban books rather than guns! Brilliant. My friend who is a kindergarten teacher in Florida had to pack up all of her classroom books for review this week. But, guns? Yeah, pour 'em like you don’t don’t own 'em.
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Do you have a link to those statistics?
Er accidents are far, less common than suicides. in 2021 it was ~550 (1% gun deaths) vs ~26,3000 (54%)
Unless by “worse” you mean another word for “tragic” and not that the number of deaths is worse.
Just… why?
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If nothing else, it is a massive danger to the gun owner.
All suicides
- Number of deaths: 48,183
- Deaths per 100,000 population: 14.5
- Cause of death rank: 11
Source: National Vital Statistics System – Mortality Data (2021) via CDC WONDER
Firearm suicides
- Number of deaths: 26,328
- Deaths per 100,000 population: 7.9
Source: National Vital Statistics System – Mortality Data (2021) via CDC WONDER
Suffocation suicides
- Number of deaths: 12,431
- Deaths per 100,000 population: 3.7
Source: National Vital Statistics System – Mortality Data (2021) via CDC WONDER
Poisoning suicides
- Number of deaths: 5,568
- Deaths per 100,000 population: 1.7
Source: National Vital Statistics System – Mortality Data (2021) via CDC WONDER
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