I harp on Serious Mistakes because I get sick of reading about this kind of incident. Needless and completely preventable tragedy. In this case, an ounce of prevention would have been better than a lifetime of no cure.
The Serious Mistakes research I’ve done over the past two years has completely changed me in terms of how I prioritize things. Bad things happen too often, frequently because carelessness and incompetence.
If you own guns, you need a plan to secure them when children are around. Even if you don’t have kids, people bring theirs over to your home, especially your grandchildren.
Like many aspects of firearms, this needs to be thought of ahead of time. If you’re not willing to spend a little bit of time, money, and effort to keep firearms out of unauthorized hands, then get rid of your guns.
tacticalprofessor 
[…] Source: Serious Mistake Again […]
Claude, until IQ and personality tests are required for a drivers license, a marriage license, and a firearm purchase, all the usual shit that happens will keep on happening at the same rate it always happens. Strict testing might reduce problems. However, even smart, mature people might not agree that mandatory IQ and personality testing should be statutory. The best we can hope for is that the smart, trained people will: A) Be somewhere else when the shit happens. Or, B) Be lucky, and the shit happens to someone else in the room. Notice both A and B are related to geography. A persons future is very exact location dependent.
Lock up em people. No reason for children to be able to access one.
The issue is one of personal responsibility, or lack thereof.
Reblogged this on Women and Guns and commented:
Another avoidable tragedy. Lock up your guns or get rid of them!
I too am sick of reading about such incidents (I refuse to call them accidents because they are 100% preventable). We must continue to educate all people, not just people with kids, and not just gun owners. Before the NRA became a reviled gun lobby, the reason that organization existed was education and safety. If we can have public safety campaigns to stop drunk driving, “arrive alive; don’t drink and drive,” or encourage seatbelt use, “click it, or ticket,” which have been very effective, why can’t we do the same with firearms safety? Well, part of the reason is that the media and many policy makers would never allow the NRA to spew its “poison propaganda” over the airwaves. They would prefer that firearms did not exist. Well, they do exist, more than one for every man, woman, and child in the US. Pull your head out of…the sand, people! I doubt such a campaign will happen any time soon, whether funded and produced by the NRA or anyone else. So we must take it upon ourselves to do what we can to keep ourselves and our constitutional rights safe. Your erudite posts are a great start, Claude, but we have to do more. Please ponder this.
Rod, you make several good points.
Before guns became reviled as instruments of the devil in the media, the NRA’s purpose was exactly as you describe.
The fact that the campaign you describe will never happen is not because it isn’t needed but because the issue isn’t “if it only saves one child’s life.” That meme is just a red herring used by control freaks.
I hope people share what many of us are thinking and trying to accomplish. We can influence more people than we can have contact if we comport ourselves right.