This is freakin' incredible. In Kentucky, some parents GAVE a five year old boy a .22 caliber rifle, and taught him to shoot it. (link).
Wrap your mind around that. A five year-old child who has been deliberately armed with a deadly weapon. Do you remember having a firearm when you were 5 years old? Me neither.
Anyway, this family also had a two-year daughter. They kept the 5 year-old's rifle leaning up against a wall. The youngster picked it up and was playing with it. He shot and killed the two-year old daughter.
The family you see had "forgotten" that there was still a round in the chamber. And guess what -- NO charges are filed, at least not yet.
Cumberland County Coroner Gary White told the Lexington Herald-Leader that the children's mother was at home at the time.
White told the newspaper that the boy received the rifle made for youths last year and is used to shooting it. He said the gun was kept in a corner and the family didn't realize a shell was left inside it.
White said the shooting will be ruled accidental.
BTW did you note that: "rifle made for youths" -- given to the five-year old
last year?
You might very well ask: As a parent, where can I get one of these fine deadly weapons made especially for children? Well, good patriot father or mother, look no further than the Crickett Arms Kid's Corner.
Yep, that's it's name. Kid's Corner. I didn't invent that as a matter of off-color snark. The gun manufacturer came up with that one.
So this is our gun culture. Firearms marketed at children and foolish parents, combined to produce the needless death of a child, and the likely serious psychological damage to another child.
All this passes us by, concealed under the euphemism "accidental shooting."