The Pittssburgh Post-Gazette reports
The friends were drinking malt liquor, playing cards and listening to music, Mr. Chaney later told Clairton police, and at some point Mr. Chaney pulled out a semiautomatic handgun he had hidden on a shelf in the garage.
Mr. Chaney told police he removed the handgun's clip, pulled back the slide to make sure there were no rounds inside, then passed the gun to one of the other young men. He looked at the gun for a few minutes, then passed it to Karrie, according to a criminal complaint against Mr. Chaney, who stated that "we were passing it around and playing with the gun and looking at it."
Karrie gave the gun back to Mr. Chaney, who inserted the clip back into the gun and "cocked" the slide to the rear, the complaint states.
"He said the next thing he knows the gun went off, striking the victim in the right side of the chest."
These kids grow up with guns. They know more about guns than most. Yet, this is what happens. Some folks say what's missing is traing and education, but I honestly don't see it. All the gun tragedy these kids have been exposed to in their short lives did not sufficiently curtail their curiosity and desire to "play with the gun." Those impulses in many teenagers are too strong to be overcome by the lessons of older brothers in jail or by the Eddie Eagle training which insists on not playing with guns.
The only hope for kids like these is a comprehensive, national system of gun control legislation. Only this will make guns unavailable to young people who don't have the good sense to responsibly handle guns.
(cross posted at Mikeb302000)
What's your opinion?