Strollerderby : gun control

Elementary School Essay Lands Dad in Jail

JeanneSager — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 13:20:00 GMT

I'm not sure which part is more depressing: that a father would shoot his son with a BB gun or that the boy would think it normal to write about in a school essay.

A Wisconsin nine-year-old related the day his father shot him in the buttocks for not moving out from in front of the TV screen in an essay for his teacher; and the teacher called in police to investigate the boy's father.

The dad, David J. Peschl, was subsequently arrested on a felony count of child abuse. He admits to the incident, but says it wasn't malicious or even a form of discipline. It was "horseplay," he says, and he regretted it immediately after it happened. Regretted it, maybe, because he realized he'd end up in jail?

The little boy apparently wrote in the essay that the moment was the "most painful thing I ever felt in my life," and says his mother could hear him screaming from the road. His father says the wording of the essay doesn't sound like his son, inferring that the boy had "help" from a teacher in crafting the piece. Although I agree kids embellish, it's not hard to imagine a nine-year-old saying the time his father shot him in the behind with a BB gun was the worst moment of his life. He was shot . . . with a BB gun . . . by his father.

That's not horseplay. Horseplay is wrestling a child to the ground and giving them a noogie. Horseplay is tickling them until they move out from in front of the TV. Horseplay is throwing a blanket over their head and yelling "now you can't see the TV either" or something equally silly. Shooting them in the hind end with a BB gun? That's simply cruel - and I dare say abusive (hey, police agree - look at the charge).

It's sad that a father would do this to his child, but a small part of me is even sadder that the child thought this was normal. That of all the moments in his life, he thought of this one to write about for a school essay - as if it were just another moment like any other.

Or do you think this was a simple cry for help? That the nine-year-old was too afraid to speak about this in words to his teacher, so he wrote through the pain to share his tale?

Image: Kids.Indianeducation (not the boy in the story)

Pistol Packing Preschooler Shoots Babysitter

JeanneSager — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 16:28:00 GMT

A four-year-old who was angry that his teen babysitter stepped on his foot loaded a shotgun and shot the teen in the arm. Now he's facing possible charges of aggravated assault.

Wait a minute, what? A four-year-old not only gets ahold of a gun but KNOWS HOW to load it, and police are seriously considering him as the criminal here?

Police in Jackson County, Ohio are also considering charges against Nathan Beavers, the 18-year-old who was shot - and who allegedly stepped on the boy's toes - for child endangerment. Now, would that be for the toe-smashing or for allowing a four-year-old to get hold of a gun? The story, as reported by WSAZ, doesn't say (only stating that the sheriff "isn't sure" if he will pursue charges for either).

Beavers, by the way, is recovering at the hospital. The shot, by a twenty-gauge shotgun, went into his arm.

We've seen the age of criminals dropping in our country. No one needs to remind me of the sad, sad story of the eight-year-old currently facing charges for the double homicide that included his father and his father's friend. But there has to be some age limit, even on violent crimes (and I would say this child was violent - an adult in the same situation would likely face a violent felony).

Can a four-year-old truly know right from wrong? Does he have the capacity to understand the ramifications of loading a gun and pulling the trigger?

I'm still shocked by the fact that this child, at four years old, could already load a shell into a shotgun. I am aware that there is a very different culture surrounding gun ownership in rural areas (according to Ohio state statistics, just one percent of the county's land is devoted to residential/industrial/commercial real estate), and children are often more often to be exposed to guns - and at younger ages. What country kids (myself included) learn about guns comes as much from osmosis as it does actual hands-on instruction. The guns are omnipresent in many rural communities.

So, perhaps, this four-year-old wasn't taught how to load a shotgun. Maybe he's a smart little kid who figured it out on his own. That still doesn't tell me why a gun, and a shell, were accessible by a four-year-old.

As the sheriff says he has't decided, I'm hoping he'll come to his senses . . . and make sure he protects this child's innocence.

Image: HearingVoices

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Mother of Slain Boy Denied Right to Sue

Shannon LC Cate — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 23:30:00 GMT

The mother of an eight-year old boy shot and killed by the biological son of his foster parents was denied the right to sue the social workers responsible in the case. According to the Joplin Globe:

"Braxton Wooden Jr. was shot in the head by Mark and Treva Gordon’s 14-year-old biological son, [Ethan] on June 2, 2005, during a game of “cops and robbers” with a handgun taken from a bedroom closet of the Gordons’ home.

The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis decided that because there was no evidence that the social worker and her supervisor had any knowledge of the presence of unsecured firearms in the home, the case did not rise to the standard of “conscience-shocking conduct” required to override a qualified immunity from lawsuits under which the Department of Social Services and state social workers operate."

When the social workers come to my house to do a six-month update of our foster license, they always ask "are any guns in your home in a locked cabinet?" To which we reply that we have no guns in our home. Every time I am shocked that a foster license is an option for gun-owners at all. Call me a big-city elitist, but a I don't believe a locked cabinet would stop a determined 14-year old any more than a bedroom closet would. And it's clear in this case that the 14-year old was determined to play with his parents' guns. He lied to investigators at first, claiming the eight-year old had shot himself. Later, other foster children who had stayed in the home testified that they had been chased by the boy more than once while he brandished "one or more of three handguns that were in the home" and had seen him loading and unloading the guns.

If the social workers aren't responsible for this tragedy, who is? Because when the state takes the drastic step of removing a child from the home of his birth, it had better make sure that the place it puts that child is safer than home. Protecting the professionals responsible for assuring this when they fail is not in the best interest of children. Not only should this boy's mother be allowed to sue the state, she should be awarded huge punitive damages to teach the state a lesson.

Hunter Shoots Through Trailer Wall, Kills Toddler

JeanneSager — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 15:01:00 GMT

She was sitting in her grandparents' house, doing what toddlers do. The next second, a bullet tore through the wall in an otherwise quiet rural neighborhood. Charly Skala was gone.The hunter whose high-powered hunting rifle claimed the sixteen-month-old's life is sitting in jail.

Despite my politics and my strictly vegetarian diet, a childhood spent in rural America has made me fairly tolerant of guns. I grew up with people who hunted to survive. End of story. But the story I shared with readers of my local newspaper has been hitting the news across the globe, and the reaction has only highlighted the vast difference between the right to bear arms afforded the average American and the need to tote a high-powered weapon.

It's not fear-mongering to say this could have happened to any family in America. Skala's family was sitting inside their trailer when the bullet burst through the wall. They were gathered to watch a football game. It hardly gets more all American.This hunter - according to officials - was just four hundred feet from the home and pointing straight at it. The .300 magnum could easily shoot more than a mile if nothing got in the way. According to the upstate New York assistant district attorney, hunter Edward Taibi of Queens, brought an "elephant gun" to go deer hunting.

Now a little girl is dead, and a hunter (who police said is extremely remorseful) is awaiting a trial on manslaughter charges. Is this merely a case of a horrible accident to get past? Or is this evidence that some guns just don't belong in the hands of the general public?

Image: Sullivan County Democrat

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Boy Accidentally Kills Himself At Gun Fair

Amy S.F. Lutz — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 12:31:00 GMT

You gotta love gun folks. You know who I'm talking about - the NRA card-carrying absolutists who hear about an eight-year-old who accidentally killed himself at a gun fair when the UZI he was firing recoiled with such force he shot himself IN THE HEAD, and accuse the Massachusetts state legislator who now wants to pass a law that would prohibit anyone under 21 from shooting a machine gun of trampling our Constitutional rights.

Maybe I'm the crazy one, for being appalled at ads for the show - run by the COP Firearms & Training Company at the Westfield Sportsman's Club - that bragged, "[There is] no age limit or licenses required to shoot machine guns . . . It's all legal and fun." In fact, the entrance fee was waived for children, to encourage gun afficianados to bring their kids.

But, clearly, it's not all fun. And just as obviously, there should be an age limit for handling such incredibly powerful weapons. Although Christopher Bizilj - as well as the other shooters - was accompanied by an instructor, he still managed to lose control of the gun.

The ironic part of the story? Christopher's dad, Dr. Charles Bizilj, is the medical director of emergency medicine at Johnson Memorial Hospital, in Stafford Springs, Connecticut. How many gunshot wounds do you think he's seen on the job in the ER? Although I'm heartsick for this family, and am sure that Dr. Bizilj will question his judgment for the rest of his life, I can't help but think he should have known better.

Toddler Dies Playing with Loaded Handgun

Hannah Tennant-Moore — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 19:40:00 GMT

According to Jason R. Matteau’s MySpace page, his main interest is “shooting rifle and pistol” and his greatest fear in life is “losing his son.” It’s impossible to imagine the hell he must be going through, now that his greatest fear has come to pass as a direct result of his interest in guns.

While at home with both of his parents and his baby sister, Matteau’s two-year-old son, Wyatt, founded a loaded handgun. He picked it up and the gun went off, shooting a bullet through Wyatt’s head.

Detectives have ruled the death accidental, which seems clear judging even from a quick peak at the parents’ MySpace pages, both of which are covered in photos of their two children and messages such as “I have the best children in the world.” However, the investigation continues into possible wrongdoing on the part of the Matteaus, since Connecticut state law prohibits storing loaded handguns in a place where anyone under 16 might be able to find them.

Church Lures Youth With Annual Gun Giveaway

Amy S.F. Lutz — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 12:02:00 GMT

It's tough to get the attention of kids today - you have to compete with X-boxes and playstations and I-pods and text messaging and The Hills and all that cool stuff. So, in order to attract more teens, the Windsor Hills Baptist Church, in Oklahoma City, has made it an annual tradition to give away a semi-automatic assault rifle at its annual youth conference.

Hey - it got my attention.

And I guess it's working. After giving away their first gun last year, the church expected hundreds of kids from as far away as Canada for this year's conference, which was held last weekend. Unfortunately, the gun giveaway had to be canceled, since the priest running it couldn't come because of a foot injury. Organizers promised the $800 weapon would be given away at next year's event.

Please, someone, anyone, tell me this crazy story is a hoax. I mean, an assault rifle? Given by the church? To a kid?

If they really want to drive attendance, they should offer free porn. You can get a lot of porn for $800.

Gun-Toting Preteens in Great Britain

Hannah Tennant-Moore — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 18:38:00 GMT

Call me a peacenik, but it seems to me that if you’re seeking reassurance from a school headmaster that someone should be granted a gun license, perhaps the applicant is a tad too young to have his own firearm. Well, the Wales police think differently. It’s become known that they’ve granted several gun licenses to teens and preteens, some as young as 11 years-old. Although this knowledge has caused an uproar amongst many parents concerned with gun violence, it’s perfectly legal, since Great Britain has no minimum age limit for shotgun certificates and the Wales police have assured the public that each applicant for a gun license goes through a rigorous background check—including, when necessary, getting a reference from a teacher.

Interestingly, the head of MAMA (Mothers Against Murder and Aggression) included amongst her reasons for opposing the issuing of firearms to youngsters that she feared Britain becoming as violent as the United States. Judging from a hunting accident involving a seven-year-old that occurred in Ohio, one of several states that does not have a minimum age limit for carrying guns, she could be right to point to the United States as an example of why grade school kids should not be carrying guns.

Photo: southerncomfort.wordpress.com