Tennessee Toddler Dies After Accidentally Shooting Himself

Last updated on February 8th, 2013 at 12:27 am

More tragic news. In Tennessee, a toddler accidentally shot and killed himself with his grandfather’s gun.

WBIR reports, “Police say 2-year-old Brennan Nowell died after he picked up the .40 caliber gun and shot himself in the side.”

We don’t know the brand of the gun, but as an example, the .40 caliber Smith and Wesson “was developed as a law enforcement cartridge designed to duplicate performance of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s reduced-velocity 10mm Auto cartridge, which could be retrofitted into medium-frame (9mm size) automatic handguns.”

Where is Wayne LaPierre to tell us that video games are to blame for this tragedy, or that guns don’t kill people, people do? Blaming the mental health of the shooter is also not applicable here, nor is the “bad apple” theory. There is no “bad guy” in this scenario.

America has a gun problem. A study from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine found “… on average, guns did not protect those who possessed them from being shot in an assault. The study estimated that people with a gun were 4.5 times more likely to be shot in an assault than those not possessing a gun.” So owning a gun for self-defense may cause an unreasonable sense of safety.

We also have a gun owner problem. Based on the recent gun violence alone, it’s beyond reasonable to conclude that we need to educate gun owners about proper gun safety, and enact gun laws that require compliance with gun safety as a part of gun ownership. With freedom comes responsibility.

Our thoughts are with the Nowell family. A toddler, killed days before Christmas.

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