5-year-old Kentucky boy fatally shoots 2-year-old sister

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I own a Cricket Rifle and I taught my sons to shoot it at a very young age. A 5 year old can’t cock the weapon - at least neither of my sons could at that age.

Basically the same as leaving an unbuckled 5 year old in a running car or handing a 5 year old a loaded and cocked gun… Oh…
 
You might have a hard time convincing some people of that. Many 4 and 5 yr olds go hunting with Dad and Mom and own a .22 at that age. One reason I don’t let my kids play at other people’s houses. I teach my kids gun safety very early like my dad did us (he was a police officer and had his service revolver at home), and we don’t own gun ourselves. I am not opposed to guns, but we don’t hunt and we live in a safe area so we don’t have a need for them. Most people I know do have them and many have given them to their kids. A .22 is regarded as a good 1st gun because it is easy to handle. No, my sons will never get a gun as a gift and I agree it is not a good idea. But you will find it very hard to convince other people of that. To you and me it’s common sense not to give guns to kids, but to many others it is a way of life to introduce guns by age 2.
 
I am extremely pro-gun and I see nothing wrong with teaching young people how to safely shoot a rifle. But I would at least wait until the child was 8-10 years old before trusting them with a firearm. I got my first bb gun at 9 years old, and was only allowed to shoot a real firearm while my dad was around.
I do not think charges should be filed though. These parents are grieving enough over the fact that their son shot and killed their baby daughter. Going to prison isn’t going to bring that girl back and this is the worst possible time to split this family apart with prison sentences. This family is already torn apart enough.
 
MattJB said:
I am extremely pro-gun and I see nothing wrong with teaching young people how to safely shoot a rifle. But I would at least wait until the child was 8-10 years old before trusting them with a firearm. I got my first bb gun at 9 years old, and was only allowed to shoot a real firearm while my dad was around.
I do not think charges should be filed though. These parents are grieving enough over the fact that their son shot and killed their baby daughter. Going to prison isn’t going to bring that girl back and this is the worst possible time to split this family apart with prison sentences. This family is already torn apart enough.
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If you let a kid have a loaded gun alone, you are an idiot. If they kill someone with it, you are responsible and should go to jail, preferably for a very long time, not necessarily just for punishment either, but to protect other children and innocents from you.
 
7armyrugrats said:
You might have a hard time convincing some people of that. Many 4 and 5 yr olds go hunting with Dad and Mom and own a .22 at that age. One reason I don’t let my kids play at other people’s houses. I teach my kids gun safety very early like my dad did us (he was a police officer and had his service revolver at home), and we don’t own gun ourselves. I am not opposed to guns, but we don’t hunt and we live in a safe area so we don’t have a need for them. Most people I know do have them and many have given them to their kids. A .22 is regarded as a good 1st gun because it is easy to handle. No, my sons will never get a gun as a gift and I agree it is not a good idea. But you will find it very hard to convince other people of that. To you and me it’s common sense not to give guns to kids, but to many others it is a way of life to introduce guns by age 2.
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I say let a first gun be a pellet rifle. Those are generally non-lethal (depending on the power of the weapon) and a much safer alternative to teaching kids gun safety before entrusting them with a .22 rifle. A .22 is one of the worst weapons you can get shot with. The small fast bullet will bounce around inside a person, causing as much damage as a much more powerful caliber round.
 
CatholicGeek1 said:
If you let a kid have a loaded gun alone, you are an idiot. If they kill someone with it, you are responsible and should go to jail, preferably for a very long time, not necessarily just for punishment either, but to protect other children and innocents from you.
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I would never let a young child have a loaded gun ALONE. However, I WOULD let them use it with a responsible adult supervising them. I respectfully disagree with you to a certain degree. A prison sentence isn’t going to change anything that happened.
 
MattJB said:
I would never let a young child have a loaded gun ALONE. However, I WOULD let them use it with a responsible adult supervising them. I respectfully disagree with you to a certain degree. A prison sentence isn’t going to change anything that happened.
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A prison sentence isn’t going to change anything for a murder victim either. That doesn’t mean that it is not appropriate.

Furthermore, there is no legitimate reason that a five year old needs their own gun. If you want to teach them about firearms, fine, I still think that is too young, but reasonable people can disagree on that point, but do it with YOUR gun. No reason the kid should have had his own. Even less reason that he should have been left alone with it. Still less reason he should have been left alone with it loaded.
 
MattJB said:
I say let a first gun be a pellet rifle. Those are generally non-lethal (depending on the power of the weapon) and a much safer alternative to teaching kids gun safety before entrusting them with a .22 rifle. A .22 is one of the worst weapons you can get shot with. The small fast bullet will bounce around inside a person, causing as much damage as a much more powerful caliber round.
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I agree with you. I was just saying how people here view it as a good 1st gun. I also am pro gun and teach gun safety to my kids, but I have too many kids to trust having a gun in the house at all. We don’t even have a pellet gun, but now that most of the kids are older we are thinking about getting one.
 
7armyrugrats said:
I agree with you. I was just saying how people here view it as a good 1st gun. I also am pro gun and teach gun safety to my kids, but I have too many kids to trust having a gun in the house at all. We don’t even have a pellet gun, but now that most of the kids are older we are thinking about getting one.
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I own several guns myself, they sure are a lot of fun to shoot. 🙂
 
CatholicGeek1 said:
A prison sentence isn’t going to change anything for a murder victim either. That doesn’t mean that it is not appropriate.

Furthermore, there is no legitimate reason that a five year old needs their own gun. If you want to teach them about firearms, fine, I still think that is too young, but reasonable people can disagree on that point, but do it with YOUR gun. No reason the kid should have had his own. Even less reason that he should have been left alone with it. Still less reason he should have been left alone with it loaded.
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On that point, I can agree with you. I would never buy a 5 year old their own real firearm. That’s just silly. I would let them use mine if im watching them though.
 
SamH said:
More to this story.

I own a Cricket Rifle and I taught my sons to shoot it at a very young age. A 5 year old can’t cock the weapon - at least neither of my sons could at that age.

Basically the same as leaving an unbuckled 5 year old in a running car or handing a 5 year old a loaded and cocked gun… Oh…
Click to expand...
This. We should focus less on the age and more of the negligence of the parents in letting him have access to a loaded gun, unsupervised.
 
MattJB said:
I am extremely pro-gun and I see nothing wrong with teaching young people how to safely shoot a rifle. But I would at least wait until the child was 8-10 years old before trusting them with a firearm. I got my first bb gun at 9 years old, and was only allowed to shoot a real firearm while my dad was around.
I do not think charges should be filed though. These parents are grieving enough over the fact that their son shot and killed their baby daughter. Going to prison isn’t going to bring that girl back and this is the worst possible time to split this family apart with prison sentences. This family is already torn apart enough.
Click to expand...
This is absolutely negligence. Toothpaste tubes tell us to keep it out of the reach of children, the same should be true of everything which can be harmful in some way. These parents were irresponsible and this is probably going to make the left, who will blame the firearm rather than the negligent parent, try to push gun control through congress again.
 
PaulinePresbytr said:
This is absolutely negligence. Toothpaste tubes tell us to keep it out of the reach of children, the same should be true of everything which can be harmful in some way. These parents were irresponsible and this is probably going to make the left, who will blame the firearm rather than the negligent parent, try to push gun control through congress again.
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Then negligent parents need to be held accountable to prevent such further tragedies.
A child is dead.
 
CatholicGeek1 said:
If you let a kid have a loaded gun alone, you are an idiot. If they kill someone with it, you are responsible and should go to jail, preferably for a very long time, not necessarily just for punishment either, but to protect other children and innocents from you.
Click to expand...
There are people who willfully abuse their children and the states goal is always reunification. I agree that this Mother made a terrible mistake, and she will pay for it the rest of her life. I don’t think breaking apart this family would be in the best interest of the 5yr old boy. If we were all honest with ourselves, I would doubt any parent couldn’t think of a time when they’ve made a mistake and where not thankful because something bad could have happened. But for the Grace of God go I.
 
They should confiscate any other weapons in the house and the parents should be required to visit schools, YMCA’s, NRA meetings, and scout troops and explain the results of being negilgent with children and weapons until they’re too weak to roll their own wheelchairs anymore. I’m not opposed to finding a better family for the little boy either. He also gets to live with this forever, though it wasn’t his fault.
 
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