Tuesday, August 05, 2003

Acceptable Losses?

Girl, 15, killed by shotgun discharged by brother, 11

"A 15-year-old girl died Monday night when her 11-year-old brother shot her with a shotgun in their Northwest Knox County home, authorities said."

"At this point it looks accidental," Knox County Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Martha Dooley said late Monday. "
I'm thinking that I can see ten stories like this for every one where a gun was successfully used in thwarting a burglary or other attack.

So, ten kids killed, ten more lives ruined by the ones who pulled the trigger. Is it worth it?

UPDATE: SayUncle has some good discussions in the Comments. Trouble is, as evidenced by the title of my post, the relatively low number of children's deaths/year by guns is misleading. It's not the number of deaths, but that there are deaths at all. The key phrase here is relatively low number - there's no relativity about it. The fact that even one child has been killed due to a combination of their own curiosity, their parent's negligence in proper safety training and home safeguarding and the fact that the gun exists in the home at all is an unacceptable loss.

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