A two-year-old boy in North Carolina found his parents’ gun and played with it while his mother was doing laundry. The gun went off, striking her in the back. She was able to call her husband and the police. She was 33 weeks pregnant. She died, as did the child she was carrying.
Republicans should really decide whether they are pro-life or pro-death.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
It is very sad that this senseless death occurred. Did not have to happen if the parents, primarily the father, has secured the weapon so the two-year-old boy could not get to it.
Now the boy will have to live the rest of his life knowing he killed is Mother. Accident or not, he will have to live with that memory. The Father will have to live with the loose of his wife, his son’s Mother, and the child she was carrying all because HE did not secure the weapon. Lock it up. He must carry the blame more than his son.
All the prayers and well wishes by the leadership of this country will NOT bring the Mother back. Will not wash away from the boy’s memory watching his Mother die. Until the leadership of this country has the intestinal fortitude to do something about what is going on in this country with guns then this country will continue to be the “Killing Field” of the world. The voters of this country also are to blame for this senseless killing in that we have not stood up and voted people out of office who are not willing to do something about guns in this country.
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The Repugnican nonleadership in this country has the blood of these innocents on its hands.
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I was loading a bit into my drill one day and inadvertently squeezed the trigger of the drill, which promptly dislocated my middle finger. If I had been careless enough to own a gun and keep it unlocked, I might have done worse.
My distant cousin was killed when a gun that was being passed around for inspection in a group discharged accidentally.
There are dangers we must deal with. Cars, trains, even horses have been death to humans. We must limit access to guns, especially access by those not equipped to consider the consequences of their use. In saying this I am thinking of everyone from Kyle Rittenhouse to a baby. And we should limit the production of guns that have no purpose outside of military applications.
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A friend of mine (this is Florida) bought a handgun “for protection.” She hid it under her bed so that her son wouldn’t find it. Her son found it and accidentally killed himself. She did a great job there of protecting him, huh?
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A 14 year old
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we should limit the production [and prohibit the sale to anyone but the military] of guns that have no purpose outside of military applications
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I totally agree. Military grade weapons should never be owned by civilians.
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Well said, Diane
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News like this goes over me like the proverbial water off a duck’s back. I honestly don’t care anymore. It can happen to every single one of us. Just a few miles from me on a very well traveled highway, one motorist shot and killed another. He was caught a week later. This is no longer news in the United States. Perhaps rather than reporting on each one and shaking our heads in prayer or disgust, we should have them compiled in secret and release en masse at the end of every month. It could be cross-referenced by geography, type, and so on.
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No one cares about mass death except families.
Look at the disparate attention to the ship loaded with migrants that overturned and drowned hundreds vs. the deaths of five on the Titan.
Individualizing tragedy makes it more relatable
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Don’t get me started on that sub. I have chores to do today.
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GregB It does seem a little firehose-ish on Diane’s blog of late. CBK
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Here’s the compilation, Greg:
https://www.gunviolencearchive.org/
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This is not sane.
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This post may be the all-time most mindlessly partisan writing that has ever appeared on this blog. The parents – likely the father – should have secured that gun so the child would not have had any conceivable access to it. I presume that the handgun was legally owned.
I regret the gun culture in the U.S. that is a byproduct of our frontier history and ethic of individualism. I’ve never owed a gun, and I feel fortunate to have always been able to live in areas with low crime rates. If I could redo only one thing in American culture it would be to greatly decrease the number of guns in private hands. But there are tens of millions of law-abiding citizens who will never give up their guns; we would need a police state to take those guns away. And few politicians – including Democrats – favor confiscating all privately-held guns, as is advocated elsewhere in this thread. No politician is responsible for this family’s tragedy, however much politicians may be criticized for other aspects of our gun violence problem.
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Key point above: “I feel fortunate to have always been able to live in areas with low crime rates.” Says volumes more than the rest of this obfuscation.
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GregB,
Make an effort to address the “obfuscation.” Tell us how gun confiscation is practical in the United States when a large majority of the population favors the right to own firearms, with limitations.
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“…all-time mindlessly partisan…should have…I presume…byproduct of our frontier history and ethic of individualism (all highly debatable, pure slanted interpretation)…law-abiding (code, see earlier comment)…would need a police state (hyperbolic hyperbole)…No (fill-in the blank) is responsible…”
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Tom,
Every politician who votes against gun control is directly responsible for the thousands of gun deaths in this country.
Every politician who votes for permitless purchase is responsible, as are those who endorse open carry and oppose sensible limits—like red flag laws—is responsible.
There was a federal law banning the sale of assault weapons to civilians from 1994-2004. The GW Bush administration allowed it to lapse.
I agree that we can’t take people’s guns away.
But we should have the strictest possible laws about the right to purchase and store weapons.
We could make it illegal to purchase assault weapons.
The Politicians could pass laws to limit gun purchases to responsible buyers who have no arrests, no interactions with the police. We could require gun owners to take safety training courses. We could require them to buy safe, locked storage for their guns.
We could look at the gun safety laws in nations like Japan and Australia.
All of these measures are in the hands of Congress and state legislatures.
Yes, politicians are responsible. I can’t change the laws. Nor can readers here. Only elected officials can. And they don’t.
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Well said, Diane!
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You don’t need a police state to stop the sale of ammunition.
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Uncle Albert’s Nephew We’ll need a police state, just to keep order, if the current situation with guns and attitudes keeps going like it has. CBK
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If civilians were unable to buy bullets for their assault weapons, they would be toys. I’m good with that.
Pol
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Tom johnson said:
“And few politicians – including Democrats – favor confiscating all privately-held guns, as is advocated elsewhere in this thread.” end quote
Who advocated confiscating all privately owned guns????!!!!!!! That’s baloney, Democrats are talking about banning semi-automatic rifles not ALL guns. Plus many Democrats want to tighten up the rules for purchasing guns, licensing, permits and buying insurance for firearms.
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Tom was wrong. Nothing in the post said that the government should confiscate all guns. It’s a typical misdirection from gun rights people: if you do anything to regulate the sale of guns,next the government will take away everyone’s guns.
Other countries have figured this out, why can’t we?
Or do the gun rights people think it’s ok to just ignore the people killed by guns?
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Diane, this is beyond tragic and sad, and you spin it to be political about Republicans? Sick.
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Of course Republicans are responsible for the lack of gun control. In Congress and in state legislatures, Republicans vote against gun control of any kind. Florida and Texas, under complete Republican control, just weakened their gun laws. People who want to own guns don’t need to apply for a permit, don’t need any screening for criminal history or mental illness. And once they buy a gun, they can openly carry it.
Republicans oppose gun control.
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Could easily be a democrat north carolina is not all republicans. Mom carelessly left it out. You want to make this republicans fault.
Of course, there has to be better screening, and certain guns should not be sold, for sure. To use this story as a republican trash is below you and shameful.
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Republicans control the legislature in NC. Super majority. NRA owns only one party.
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The article was in a NC newspaper, but the shooting happened on Ohio
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Ohio is also owned by nutcase gun-loving idiot Republicans. Sorry, that’s redundant.
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Too many Republicans, even GOP women, are pro life until birth, and then they don’t care what happens to the infant, or the woman if she dies.
It is apparent that to most Republicans, anything that happens after birth is acceptable 2nd Amendment collateral damage.
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Good discussion about a curse we, as a nation, have placed on ourselves. If one could wave a magic wand and do away with all the guns, that would be great with me. (And I have guns inherited from my liberal, but frontier-minded father). Short of magic, there’s no way we could get rid of them all at once. We progressives and liberals could learn a lesson from our Republican friends: Gradualism. They are willing to take one step at a time, as with ending abortion, undoing public education and social security, etc. So, we should start by stricter requirements on purchasing, stashing in the home, types allowed, etc. It may be easier for Republican leaders to use gradual approaches, though, in that most Republican leaders are well off and don’t need social helps, immediate changes. It is of course harder for an underpaid worker, overworked teacher, or pregnant woman to wait for changes in law or custom.
And this to my friends who say they want to have guns for protection, but keep them under lock and key, that would seem to make them unavailable in a timely way in an emergency. A vial of mace or bear spray kept handy would be much less dangerous and more readily available. (My wife and I carry those on walking trails). Guns kept nearby are often used in bad ways, as in this story, or as by a wide-awake thief who turns it on the sleepy owner. Finally, I read of one case where a homeowner used a shotgun on a young intruder, spilling and spreading his blood all over the entry way–which he could never quite get clean. He said he would never do it again. He’d rather just be robbed than kill another poor person in his foyer. Whatever we do, it’s going to take a very long time to reverse this weapons train we’re on. And we haven’t even started talking about the massive profits of the weapons industries. Maybe we should start by taxing the hell out of them.
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One of the things we’ve kind of overlooked in this post, except for Roy, is the issue of child neglect. What in the world can be happening in that household for such a scenario to even be possible? Not sure if it has hit national news, but in Cleveland, a 16 month old girl was just found dead after being left alone by her mother who went on an eight day vacation to Puerto Rico and Detroit.
Even when we veer off into other issues, I hope everyone is drawn here by a deep belief in society’s obligation to give every child a good education and start in life. Yes, a couple of loonies intrude every now and then. But stories about individual children’s tragedies truly hurt the most.
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A single female friend of mine bought a gun for protection. She hid it, she thought, extremely well, behind stuff, under her bed. Her 14-year-old son killed himself with it. I learned this whole story years later from a mutual acquaintance. The mother wasn’t charged. This was in gun-crazy Florida, where the idiot governor and presidential candidate just signed into law permitless concealed carry.
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It’s not just toddlers any more. Amazing.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/woman-afraid-of-mexico-kidnapping-fatally-shoots-texas-uber-driver-police-say_n_6497567ae4b02f808ab63b52
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Crazy stuff like that seems to happen every day but you have to read local media to hear about it. Killing! Murder! Mayhem! An everyday occurrence
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