3-Year-Old Shoots and Kills 5-Year-Old in Colorado

and the guardian(s) of the children were not arrested why?? both the owner of the gun AND the guardian(s) should be arrested.

neglient homicide. a loaded unsecured weapon in a house with children…a distaster waiting to happen. this is why my kid knows if he is at a friends house and sees a gun he is to leave immediately

That 3 year old is going to be scarred for life if he ever finds out what he did. Tragedy.

I’d like details on the gun. I’ve owned many different guns over the years and I doubt very seriously that a three year old would be able to successfully point and pull the trigger on any of them. If they were on safety, as they should always be, it would be virtually impossible. maybe this guy accidentally shot the kid and decided to blame on a small child who would be unable to argue otherwise.

the 3 year old didn’t do anything. It’s proper gun safety to always assume a gun is loaded, no matter what, and to never point it at anyone. And then, you tell children that if they see a gun they tell an adult. There is no reason that young children need to be holding guns- loaded or not. There are gun owners who are responsible. I’m guessing this guy didn’t even have any training or permits. It’s people like this that make it difficult for normal citizens to own firearms and be trusted. What a shame. Even if he did pull the trigger, his brain isn’t even developed enough with the proper reasoning skills to make a smart decision about firearms. So again, not his fault. Every adult in the home should be held responsible.

Cara and Douglas, I don’t agree with you that every adult in the house are responsible. If you were there and knew nothing about the gun until it was fired, why were you responsible? Did you mean that every time you are in a residence with some other adults and children, you have to ask every adult and see if any of them have a gun?

A tragedy it is but we must not forget that the gun itself did not kill the child. The owner must be held accountable. Always keep your weapons up out of the way and hide them so a child cannot find it. It could as easily been a knife.

once again, we can thank the NRA for their diligence.

I own several guns of various types. Over the years I’ve had at least one of most types made from the middle 19th century forward. Can’t think of one that a 3 year old could fire without assistance.

Here’s an idea: DON’T OWN GUNS. They cause nothing but tragedy. And before some gun nut starts complaining about his rights, just remember that just because you have the right to do something, doesn’t mean that it’s a good idea. I have the right to hit myself in the head with a frying pan, but it’s a stupid thing to do. Owning a gun is statistically a bad idea, especially when children are concerned.

seems like if this was christ’s birthday he’d see that nothing goes wrong on this one day of the year. kinda busts that theory, doesn’t it?

“again?” I could see a stupid comment like that coming a mile away.

Five people died in a house fire this morning.
I suppose they should not have lived in a structure that might catch on fire.

Many fires this time of year are started by electric lights on Christmas trees.
Should we blame Martin Luther for starting the tradition of the Christmas tree? Should we blame Edison for inventing the light bulb? Maybe Tesla for developing the alternating circuit. We could blame Wal-Mart for selling the Christmas lights or the guy who sold the tree.

If you can’t blame any of those you can’t blame the gun.
Blame the guy who was careless with his Christmas tree and the guy who was careless with his guns.

This is why the NRA offers gun safety classes. Gun ban people scream at the very thought of teaching their children to leave guns alone. Teaching older kids how to keep guns out of the hands of younger children is also taboo. They’re even dumber than the religious right screaming about sex education. Ignorance is somehow better than education.

Lessons learned at a young age can stay with someone as an adult. If we teach firearm safety in school accidents such as this could be reduced. While we’re at it we should teach basic first aid and firefighting.

You’re not going to remove all the guns from the United States. They didn’t do it in Chicago and Washington DC, you’re not going to do it in Houston or Denver either. The best we can do is learn to live with it and educate the public about gun safety.

We’d have to do it covertly. The gun-ban folks hate the thoughts of education.

By the way. Gun ownership is at an all time high and gun sales are better than ever. According to the FBI, violent crime is being reduced at the same time.

Gun safety classes by the NRA is akin to ‘preaching to the choir’. I am not concerrned by those gun owners. By taking the classes, they show they have some sense. It is the other people out there
that scare me. How many times a day do you see someone do something incredibly stupid and irrresponsible – as on any daily drive on our highways? These same people own guns. My point is if
we cannot keep guns out of their hands, which to this point we have obviously not done, then lets
get rid of all guns. Then no more 5 year olds die needlessly. If responsible people want to own guns, then do they not have the obligation to help keep them out of the hands of criminals and morons? The NRA doesn’t see it as their responsibility. The NRA should do more for it’s members, and not so much for the criminal and chronically stupid element in our society. This is absolutely insane. Civilized we are not.

Some people should not own guns! If you cannot be responsible with them and keep them out of the hands of your little ones, you should not have a gun. I am sick and tired of seeing idiot gun owners in the news.

Store your guns out of reach of kids & unloaded, or don’t have them if you have small children. It is as simple as that.

Autos are highly regulated, license, plates, yearly inspections.
Guns have none of those controls.

Let’s call a spade a spade, the fault lies squarely on the shoulders of the ### who came to that home with a loaded gun, and allowed it to be within reach of the innocent child. I’d like all these people who say all the adults in the house should be responsible. That’s a load of crap, if you are in your own home, and you have your children in your own home, I’m going to tell you, you don’t monitor them 24/7. It’s unreasonable for them and you, espcially at 3 and 5 years of age. They play with toys in the living room, or run up and down the hall way to their bedrooms, it’s their home, not a damned prison.
The only person responsible is the jerk who was arrested………

How does regulating, registering and licensing and inspections of cars stop the drunks, idiots and selfish from speeding, driving drunk or driving distracted?

“Autos are highly regulated, license, plates, yearly inspections.
Guns have none of those controls.”
=======================================
Yeah, automobiles are highly regulated and they STILL kill more people in a year than guns. What’s your point?
There are also three times as many guns in the US as there are registered vehicles. And there are STILL more auto-related fatalities than gun-related fatalities.

Even if it’s suicide? No – because if they are serious enough to pull the trigger, the will kill themselves by some other means (hanging, pills, carbon monoxide, etc). That’s a fact of life. Trust me, I see on a routine basis.

And you are correct, tougher enforcement would discourage a lot of what goes on – but how would you like to be wrongfully convicted of a DUI because you used mouthwash one morning and never be able to drive again? Or how would like to go to jail because a 16 y/o stole your guns and shot someone? How is that your/my fault? That’s like saying if my truck is stolen and they kill someone while driving that I am responsible. Also food for thought.

Here’s a thought – there are roughly 22,000 guns laws on the books – yup, that’s right – 22,000. How about we undo 99.9% of those.

All guns to be legal.

No gun free zones.

Require a background check. Anyone CONVICTED of a violent offense can not buy or possess guns.

Now here’s the kicker – instead of all of those laws making the average citizen a criminal just for possessing a gun – make the laws apply to crimes.

If you are convicted a violent crime AND a gun was used (not just possessed) in that crime, your sentence is doubled and/or you spend life in prison. Shoot someone while in the commission of said crime and you get the firing squad upon conviction. Hey, what is good the goose is good for the gander.

Merely walking down the street w/ a gun shouldn’t be illegal, nor should having one in your home. The type / caliber – auto / semi-auto / handgun / long gun does not matter if you are doing nothing wrong.

I’m a friend of the victims and the convicted and while it maybe easy to sit at your computers casting blame at everyone and everything, I can tell you that there was no malicious intent here. This family has been through more than just this horrible instance and what they need is support, prayers and sympathy. They do not need judgement from everyone across the globe. This was a terribly horrible mistake, a tragedy. The convicted was usually very careful with his weapons. but it only takes one slip up for an event like this to happen. The lives of all involved and those that love them will forever be affected by this incident.

I hope everyone will pray for the children and the family and send them your good will and sympathies rather than your political disputes and judgement.

I doubt a 3 year old could have fired any handgun- I’m an adult woman, my hands are weak from carpal tunnel syndrome so I don’t have normal strength, and it is hard for me to pull the trigger even on a .22. My husband’s .45 was too heavy for me to hold steady. And there are very few guns that go off when you pick them up or drop them.

While I understand being responsible – here’s another perspective.

Let’s say your the parent of a 3-5 y/o and you are on blood pressure meds. You store them in your medicine cabinet in a child proof bottle and go about your day. But this day you mistakenly didn’t twist the cap on all the way and your kid climbed up on the cabinet, opened the medicine cabinet and ate all of your pills – OD’ed and died.

Should you go to prison? YOU didn’t screw the cap on all the way – YOU didn’t keep a 24/7 eye on your kids.

Unfortunate accident? Yes. Preventable, yes. Intentional? No.

What about kids drowning in pools? ‘I turned my back for 2-3 minutes and found him face down in the pool!’ is something we hear a lot. Should we throw them in prison for that?

“a person should be held responsible for foreseeable results – for a shotgun to be fired into the air with enough force, to get enough velocity, to travel in such an arc as to land a mile away (longest shotgun range is about 1,000 yards depending on gauge), and still have enough force to kill someone on the ground is so far outside the normal realm of physics that it is a pure accident, nothing more.”

That’s actually a different story- about a different accidental shooting.

I agree with the guys who said, most 3 years olds couldn’t pull the trigger on a gun. I believe maybe the guy had an accident and is blaming the kid??? Possibility???

We all have right-wing pundits like Mike Gallagher to thank for this. Only last night did Mike complain about the US Marine who tried to enter the Empire State Building in NY and was arrested. Mike claims it is this fellows 2nd amendment rights to own a gun. Of course, but to bring a gun into the second target of Al Quaida in 2011? You’ve got to be kidding. Think of the people up at the top watching some guy moseying around with a revolver. Common sense says that if you keep a gun, you keep one in your home, like the woman who recently killed an intruder while protecting her baby. I hate guns personally. I respect ones right to own one, but I totally disagree with people failing to have the common sense to keep one hidden in their home, and especially, MOST ESPECIALLY – those defenders like Mike Gallagher, who pump up the public with hay nanny fear which results in children dying. Shame on you Mike Gallagher!