!2 year old shoots home intuder

[Rainbowmum]

By the time Jay was 8 years old he knew how to handle a weapon.
Several times he joined me at the shooting range.
We have always had guns and not once did we have an incident , as we taught then to be responsible.

I never let them play with toy guns as I believe in "If you point it shoot it."
With gun ownership comes responsibility, would I leave a 12 year old alone with a gun , not on your life.

[ChadCoxRox]

The man rang the door bell and when she didn't answer he went to the back door and kicked it in and entered the home to rob it.

[Marc]

The man rang the door bell and when she didn't answer he went to the back door and kicked it in and entered the home to rob it.

The issue is the fact a child was left alone with a loaded gun.
Although judging on the dozens and dozens of news stories reporting American kids shooting family members accidently, or shooting up the school because they got detention, it shows a very much yahoo mentality in America regarding fire arms.

I was brought up on a farm, I used to go shooting with Dad all the time, but not once was I ever allowed out of his sight with a weapon.
He would never ever leave the gun cabinet unlocked even when he was in the house.

At the end of the day, there is only 1 reason to own a gun, and that is to kill something.
On a farm, completely acceptable, in an average town house, you have to ask why it would be there?

[Blue]

I would nt have left the gun accessible to the child, but I do think a 12 year old is fine shooting and, learning gun safety with adult supervision.

As for owning a gun in a town house - why would it matter where you live? A city dweller can go hunting just as easily has a farm dweller. Handguns aren't for hunting anyway, they are for target, competition and self defense shooting.

[Marc]

. Handguns aren't for hunting anyway, they are for target, competition and self defense shooting.

Exactly, and that is why hand guns in the United Kingdom are illegal, with except to a very limited profession, and even then they have to be stored in certained licenced areas.
And quite rightly so.

Why would the average person need an easily concealed hand gun?
1 reason only... to kill another human being.

America has the highest gun crime on the planet...

The UK has joint lowest with New Zealand and Japan.
All 3 have strict gun controls.
Out side of London I have never even seen an armed Policeman, yet I holidayed in America last year, and was pulled by the police because my hire car had a brake light not working, and they held us at gun point.
It shocked us enough to swear never to go to America again.

[James]

Hmmm, so many thoughts, guess some of us are just more proned to violence, made my first blowgun at 8yrs, first zip gun at 10, first explosive at 13, this was before internet, you had to read and learn, not saying something could have gone wrong, just saying attitude about these things is learned at a young age based on the countries and parents actions, Jim

[Pix]

Actually, there's another reason for a gun, it's to save life & limb. Police don't carry them (well in THEORY they don't) to execute people, they do it to save their lives and the lives of others.

In the vast majority of cases a gun used in self-defense isn't even fired because the attacker or home invader that sees it runs away. Even when the intruder is shot he usually survives (as in this case) because the police are typically on the way already from having been called, and if they're not then 911 is called immediately afterward (thugs who use guns, OTOH, don't call for help after). In any case (and the very rare case where a shooting in self-defense leads to death or permanent injury) it generally stops violence that was going to happen anyway and have, at times, turned armed mobs away after natural disasters, and that's why the point of a gun is to save lives, which they do.

And in this case, I don't know the details of what happened, but I'm sorry she went through that...but I'd rather she lived with shooting someone (who lived) than with what might've been done to her otherwise. As for the guy shot...no sympathy at all for him, hopefully he'll turn his life around now.

[jaxc]

I would nt have left the gun accessible to the child, but I do think a 12 year old is fine shooting and, learning gun safety with adult supervision.

As for owning a gun in a town house - why would it matter where you live? A city dweller can go hunting just as easily has a farm dweller. Handguns aren't for hunting anyway, they are for target, competition and self defense shooting.

i beg to differ,http://www.basspro.com/webapp/wcs/stores...subcatID=0