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This story just goes to show all weapons in a house with children should be locked up. Specially if they have friends over. I know this a broad statement but it's my opinion.

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent ... 4293b.html

Kennedale teen shot during sleepover 10:58 AM CT

10:58 AM CDT on Tuesday, June 19, 2007
From WFAA.com Staff Reports

A 16-year-old Kennedale teen was shot and wounded in a bedroom of his residence early Tuesday.

Kennedale police said they received a report of a shooting shortly after 1 a.m. in the 700 block of Crestview Drive.
Officers found the victim, identified as Kyle McBride, lying on the floor.
He was taken to John Peter Smith Hospital in Fort Worth in unknown condition.

According to witnesses, friends who were spending the night with Kyle had been examining his .22-caliber rifle prior to the incident.
Police said a 17-year-old friend was holding the weapon when it discharged, hitting Kyle in the back.
The 17-year-old, whose name was not made available, was held for questioning and later released.

Police said there was no indication that drugs or alcohol were inovlved, and added that the shooting remains under investigation.

Detectives said Kyle's father was asleep in another part of the house

Wildscar wrote:This story just goes to show all weapons in a house with children should be locked up. Specially if they have friends over.

I had access to firearms at what by today's standards would be considered a shockingly early age . . . provided I was alone.
If friends were over, guns were off limits unless my father was with us.

Wise policy . . . my parents understood that the collective IQ of a group of youngsters is inversely proportional to the number in the group . . .

HankB wrote:

Wildscar wrote:This story just goes to show all weapons in a house with children should be locked up. Specially if they have friends over.

I had access to firearms at what by today's standards would be considered a shockingly early age . . . provided I was alone.
If friends were over, guns were off limits unless my father was with us.

Wise policy . . . my parents understood that the collective IQ of a group of youngsters is inversely proportional to the number in the group . . .

Same policy I apply at my house now.

But your formula is wrong... it should be "the highest IQ of the bunch divided by the number of boys in the group" so if you have two "average" IQ (IQ=100 by definition) boys, they have a group IQ of 50. You can expect some pretty dumb things from them. Add another "average" boy, and you can depend on it...

Children tend to be very driven by emotion and fantasy, and they take the scenes from movies to be fact. (Ex: Person gets shot multiple times with a rifle. Person is thrown back several feet. Person goes to hospital, recovers, and learns lesson.)

Biggest problem there is education. Obviously, if they had been taught to check the weapons condition, keep finger off the trigger and point in a safe direction, it would have never happened. Accidents like this can be prevented through education and presence of mind. My kids know very well what a weapon can do because I've shown them. They understand how dangerous they can be and I leave the safe unlocked (but closed) the whole time I'm home. Of course, I do lock it up when I'm not home, but I have no doubt if I left it unlocked, they'd not touch a thing.

I have yet to see a properly functioning weapon discharge without someone touching the trigger..

age_ranger wrote:Of course, I do lock it up when I'm not home, but I have no doubt if I left it unlocked, they'd not touch a thing.

But would thier friends know the same? This was the friend that shot the gun owners son. Even if the Gun owners son knew every inch of the firearm it does him no good is it in another persons hands. Specially one that dosent know better.

age_ranger wrote:Biggest problem there is education. Obviously, if they had been taught to check the weapons condition, keep finger off the trigger and point in a safe direction, it would have never happened. Accidents like this can be prevented through education and presence of mind. My kids know very well what a weapon can do because I've shown them. They understand how dangerous they can be and I leave the safe unlocked (but closed) the whole time I'm home. Of course, I do lock it up when I'm not home, but I have no doubt if I left it unlocked, they'd not touch a thing.

Education is very important, but responsible gun owners keep their guns away from children when they are not being directly supervised.

"Oh not my kid, he/she makes great decisions" Bull. Kids are not able to make those kinds of decisions reliably, especially when other kids are involved to apply peer pressure. They make make the right choice one time and the wrong choice the next. There is a reason they have an adult to watch out for and teach them, they are not at the maturity level to make those decisions for themselves yet.

This is exactly why I bought a safe. My son's girlfriend brings her two young boys over almost weekly. I never was too concerned about the guns being stolen, but I worried about the boys getting into them and something happening, so the gun safe was insurance. I'm not worried about them being here now, because the home protection weapons go in the safe when I know they are coming (and come out when they are gone). Plus, all the others that were stashed around the house are now residing safely too.

Its better to be "safe" than sorry. If you leave room for error, then thats not acceptable.

My guns are always locked away, except for my daily carry.

I would never think of locking a gun away from my kids at age 17.

Then again, my kids, even those under 17, are effectively "gun-proofed", and would never think of taking a gun out as something to show off.

That is one thing I liked about the CHL class I took. The instructor was adamant about locking firearms up if kids where in the house. He even offered child locks for firearms to anyone that wanted them. He said we could take as many as we needed. Even though I had one that came with my Beretta I took a couple. Never know when they will come in handy.

My dad DRILLED gun safety into us since before I can remember. He was probably rattling it off in the delivery room.
In spite of that, my brother shot my sister because he was playing with his BB gun. It isn't that he wasn't taught; it's that he was a child and reasoned as such.
Even with the only child left at home being my sixteen-year-old sister, he keeps all weapons under some type of lock-up, just incase children of friends or relatives come by for a visit.
He recommended this safe to me since I tutor children in my home. http://www.handgunsafe.com/ If I need it quickly, it's a touch combination that one can feel in the dark. It comes with bolts so that you can bolt it to a larger safe or a shelf so that it isn't a packed suitcase for burglars.

dihappy wrote:Its better to be "safe" than sorry. If you leave room for error, then thats not acceptable.

My guns are always locked away, except for my daily carry.

While I agree and follow the same procedure, I still often ponder the fact that:

• My parents kept revolvers in the kitchen and bedroom and a shotgun in the entry coat closet without incident.
  My grandparents kept a rifle near the front door without incident.

I know that "times have changed" but much of that "change" has been in what I observe outside my home and not inside. In addition, my children have lived their entire lives with an assortment of fully functional midieval weapons used as decorations (I am a history buff) throughout the house and have never gone after each other with an axe, sword, boar spear, halberd, etc...