20mm wrote:TH3180 wrote:Guess what you **** piece of ****. You don't know me and you don't know what kind of parent I am. You also don't know what kind of firearms owner I am. There are a lot of similarities between raising kids and firearms. Then again I'm a bad parent that doesn't know as much as you so I'll shut up.
Guess what? I never claimed to know what sort of parent or firearms owner you were. You were the one who sarcastically asked to be taught how to handle and store your firearms safely. I also never said you were a bad parent, though your seem to have trouble controlling your temper and acting rationally. That can be a sign of a bad parent.
AFTERMATH wrote:Perhaps I wouldn't have had the strength to crack a safe at that age. But sometime before the age of 7, I managed to get into a family friends car, you know the kind with the outside electronic combination locks, much like on many gun safes these days. I also remember cracking at least one combination padlock. Child-resistant lighters and those child proof cabinet locks were no match for me.
I had cap-guns and whatnot; I'm pretty sure I could have picked the cheapo lock on my parents bedroom and gone in there picked up one of his unsecured guns and managed to figure out how to load it. But that was off-limits. And believe me, I pushed the limits every chance I got - but I knew better than to cross the line.
Besides, I was too busy making weapons of my own; like knives, spears, bows and arrows - And mixing up household cleaners to engage in chemical warfare against spiders.
And this is but a glimpse of a handful of small memories remaining from my early childhood. I'm certain there were many more adventures where those came from.
So your parents set boundaries with you. They didn't allow you in the bedroom, kept it locked, and didn't have the firearms loaded sitting around for you to play with if you disobeyed them and did manage to get in?
I'm not saying being a parents easy, and there aren't tough choices you need to make (especially when it comes to firearms ownership). What if you have a teenager with behavioral problems who's showing signs of depression?
The title of this thread is "Do people not know how to store firearms?" and from most of the responses here it appears they don't. Lets condone what these parents did and write it off as a tragedy and accident that wasn't completely avoidable.
No one is saying that you should not take reasonable measures to prevent such tragedies.
The problem is, an oversight was made, and that sort of mistake can happen to anyone! Yes, there are consequences for our actions or inaction, but at the same time I believe this family has suffered the worst possible consequence they could ever face.
Do not forget, that this tragedy is shared also by those who were not responsible. Those who knew and loved the child and family who were not there. Those who may have had no idea of the potential that disaster would shortly befall them.
Rather than learn from this lesson, and perhaps show a grain of sympathy for the death of an innocent child, you have chosen to throw salt in the wound. And continued to rub it in.
Why?
No one can say for certain. Perhaps, you care and want to make an example. Perhaps you just want to fluff your feathers and condescendingly impose your superior knowledge and experience upon those who merely wish to make sense of it all.
But never the less, have you not made your point? Have you not presented your case?
Hindsight is 20/20.
But the unknown, the unforeseen is never completely avoidable - And no man is infallible.
