OFF way OFF: unhappy kids/guns story

M Holmes fofp at HOLYROOD.ED.AC.UK
Tue Jul 4 06:44:43 EDT 2000


Robert C. Mayo writes:

> no kidding...this is my point.
> this kid wanted to play with that gun, real or not, so badly, he was trying
> to take it from a stranger saying 'no'. they don't know the difference
> between real guns and toy guns, so to them, there is no difference. this is
> why they pick up real unsupervised guns that don't have a cop attatched and
> accidentally (?toy/real?) shoot (?pretend to shoot?) themselves or somebody
> else. we hear about that every so often, too often, yes? i guess what i saw
> was as close to that scenario as i''ll ever get, not close at all but
> freakin' close enough. it really creeped me out. i'll never cross paths with
> li'l dude ever again and yet i find myself thinking about his future, and in
> that, thinking about every kid's future re:guns and violence.
> because they don't know the difference.

The simple answer is that adults who own guns have a very strong duty of
care to ensure that they don't get into the hands of children. That's
also true for matches, petrol, paracetomol, bleach, sharp knives and any
number of things with which kids can hurt themselves or other people.
The cop behaved very well. The real question is where the hell was the
supervising parent of the kid.

FoFP



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