Sunday, April 24, 2011

"We've grown up around firearms. We know the safety and we practice it."

"We've grown up around firearms. We know the safety and we practice it." : Greg Laden's Blog:


Maddy Montanye, 11, shot in the head while in her living room.


In the state of Minnesota, in a typical year, about 700 or so people will end up with a bullet somewhere in their body. Gun proponents will tell you that some of these are criminals shot by law abiding gun owners who were defending their homes from armed invaders. But the truth is, almost none of them are. Indeed, about half of those injured are shot in a similar manner to the little fifth grader up in Pine County; [t]hey are shot and wounded or killed because of the accidental discharge of a firearm. 
So in order to preserve our ability to kill someone who enters our home ... we have adopted a system in which about half a percent of our population is shot yearly for no good reason. 
... Most of the people who are shot by accident are children between the ages of 10 and 19. (Some of the injuries are hunting accidents, of course.) 
The source article the blog post I've quote from is based on is pretty depressing.
Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...