As for gun control: guns do not kill people; people kill people. Either round up all the guns or round up all the people who own one.
I think that’s an overused and oversimplified cliche that means nothing and adds nothing to a real and legitimate policy debate. Yes, people kill people . . . . but people with GUNS can kill people a lot easier, and people with a lot of guns and/or guns that fire a crap ton of bullets and mega-deadly bullets (hollow point, etc.) are able to kill a LOT of people a lot easier.
I never understood why many gun activists need to always frame this as an all-or-nothing proposition. Yes, our Constitution grants the “right to bear arms”, but I doubt Thomas Jefferson and George Washington in the 1700’s really knew that 200+ years later people would think that this RIGHT meant that any Joe Blow should be able to purchase rocket launchers, M16’s, and whatnot.
Safety education begins at home. There are many of us that grew up in a house with unlocked guns and managed not to shoot ourselves or someone else because we were taught by our parents to have a healthy fear and respect for guns as well as that guns are not toys. We were also taught from an early age how to handle guns properly as well as what to do in a situation in which a friend should find one and start to play with it. At age 12, I went through firearms safety and outdoor survival training classes.
Yeah, of course. But I don’t think this has much relevance to the controversy at hand. Just because YOUR experience was that the children were taught well and no one got hurt doesn’t mean that there’s not an inherent danger with such killing devices being unlocked in someone’s house.
And just because YOU knew how to react when you come across a gun doesn’t mean all or even most kids know what to do. And even if they do know, they’re still stupid kids and guns (or anything off limits) look pretty friggin’ awesome to a kid.
I’m pretty sure that DB’s friend did NOTHING wrong with respect to the law (I’m guessing. I honestly have no idea what the law is where he lives.) But, one simple mistake of not securing the weapons has now put 23 guns into the hands of people we don’t want having guns and people could potentially get hurt because of that.
I’m not saying that such a law is necessarily needed or would help on a grand scheme, but if it was illegal, for instance, to keep unsecured guns in one’s house, and a heavy sanction attached thereto, the chances of these guns now being scattered around his neighborhood in the hands of grimy thugging bastards would be muh lower.