Three-year old shoots and kills infant brother

[cab67]

15. The parents absolutely should be charged.

Losing a child is indeed tragic. But what if it was a neighbor's kid? Or some stranger who just happened to be in the trajectory path of the bullet?

Children are incurably curious. If they see guns, they'll pick them up. I once saw a video where someone tested the NRA's Eddie the Eagle educational program, which was intended to teach kids to leave guns alone and tell an adult if they find one. So they'd put a gun (not a real one) on a table and exit the room, leaving the children unattended. The average time it took for kids who'd been taught to leave guns alone to pick up and start playing with the gun was less than 20 seconds. In some cases, they'd have two kids in the room; one of them would scold the other kid for playing with it - "we're not supposed to do that!" - but in every case, the child willing to pick up the gun was able to persuade the other child to join in the play; in not one instance did the more rule-abiding child persuade the other child to put the gun down. This was a while ago, and I might be misremembering some of the details, but I'll try to find it.

Kids will play with guns if they find them. Leaving a gun unsecured, either loaded or with ammunition close at hand, must be punished.

I'm not saying the parents should spend time in prison. But they should definitely be sanctioned for their lack of responsibility.