It is never going to stop! And I do not understand why parents seem to never be charged.

[Tx4obama]

There have been too many little kids shooting other little kids.

And tonight is no different.

Texas Boy, 7, Shot By His Younger Brother, Police Say
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/08/texas-boy-shot-by-brother_n_3234438.html

It infuriates me every time I read: "... no charges have been filed."

If folks are supposed to be responsible gun owners, then it is time for them to take the responsibility when these 'accident's occur.

Parents need to be criminally charged when they have NOT locked up their guns like they should !!!

[Skittles]

1. the reason seems quite obvious

no matter how stupid and negligent these parents are, it must seem cruel to the authorities to add to their grief / troubles by bringing charges

[Control-Z]

2. You forgot

the sarcasm thingy. I hope.

[Skittles]

3. I'm not saying it is right

I'm just offering a theory

[RudynJack]

6. What sarcasm?

I think Skittles is exactly right. Not to say they SHOULDN'T be charged, but even I have a hard time seeing what's to be gained, other than setting an example. And I don't like example prosecutions.

[jeff47]

16. If the child died from any means other than a gun or car, charges are filed.

Especially if the parents have a lot of melanin in their skin.

[Tx4obama]

4. Yes, it would be cruel, BUT...

I think that if there was a law that said IF you leave your gun in an unlocked place and a child gains access to it and shoots someone then you'll be charged with a felony and you will not be allowed to ever own a gun again.

That would help to get the guns out of the hands of the people that are careless.

When they are not 'charged' then they have the legal right to continue to still keep guns in the house.

Just my opinion.

[Skittles]

5. as I told Control-Z

I'm not saying it is right - just offering a theory

I think people who keep guns around children unsupervised are stupid beyond belief

[jberryhill]

9. Think about it for a sec...

How about we punish them by taking their children away?

That's gotta be worse than locking them up.

The thing is, kids are regularly killed by this kind of thing, and yet parents continue to be irresponsible with firearms. So, if having kids killed by irresponsible parents is not enough to deter other irresponsible parents, I can't really see how locking them up changes the apparent lack of deterrent effect.

[wickerwoman]

10. That would work in an ideal world

where you wouldn't be punishing the kids with years of foster hell just because their parents are dumb fucks.

If we could guarantee that the foster environment wouldn't be worse than whatever they were facing at home, it would be feasible but unfortunately we can't.

[jberryhill]

11. I guess I wasn't clear

By "punish them by taking their kids away", I meant to refer to those kids who are, effectively, taken away by having been shot to death.

The notion that locking them up would serve a deterrent or cautionary purpose to others neglects what would remain the primary deterrent - i.e. the fact that people lose children by not being careful with firearms.

[hollysmom]

13. Foster care is not hell for all kids

I know one kid's mother who was distraught because her kid did not want to come home again. There was no fighting in the foster family, so he could sleep through the night, no one to push him around. my friend eventually woke up and got a divorce, then her son was happy to come home, but not all foster care is bad.

[wickerwoman]

15. I didn't say it was.

I said we couldn't guarantee that it wouldn't be. The statistics on abuse in foster care are appalling and those are the "lucky" kids who don't end up in group care.

[dballance]

7. Unfortunately, I Believe You are Correct.

And no, by offering your opinion, I don't believe that means you think it's the right thing to do or that you support the authorities if that's their reasoning for not filing charges. You simply offered an opinion I bet a lot of people share. I know I do.

Not to mention, can you imagine the TV and web news about how cruel the authorities are charging a parent of a dead or maimed child? I can see headlines like "Haven't They Suffered Enough?" being all over. It would make great ratings and drive web traffic to sites. Both of those mean higher ad revenue for the media. So that's what they'd do.

[Skittles]

8. you are very much correct

[jeff47]

18. Well, the parents have demonstrated they can't be trusted with guns

And currently, the only available mechanism to ban them from owning guns is a felony conviction.

As for a frenzy of support for the parents, I'm not so sure that would happen - they killed their kid through their negligence. We didn't exactly flock to defend other parents who kill their children.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

12. How many would go unreported?

If parents faced charges they might hide the body.

[Deep13]

14. Well, there has to be a state law defining gross negligence as a crime...

...in caring for children. If instead of gross negligence, the law says "willful" or something like that, it would be very hard to prove. And even if gross negligence is the standard, it still could be a long shot. Civil negligence means that someone is less careful than a typical, reasonable person. Gross negligence, the criminal standard, means the parents had to be tremendously careless.

And if the folks in the jury box are also from Texas and leave their own guns unlocked, then can the defendants really be more careless than and ordinary, reasonable person of that county?

I'm not offering this as an excuse, of course, but what the state really needs to do is make a child endangering law specific to guns.

[Robb]

17. Until there are fewer firearms, it will not stop.

And it will never stop or slow unless we abandon the fiction that it's impossible to reduce the availability of firearms.

I distinctly recall a time when reducing the number of nuclear warheads available was seen as lunacy, an act that would cause more problems than it ever solved.

Or a time when it was absurd to imagine same sex marriage ever gaining legal status anywhere, let alone cultural acceptance.

Or black people getting to use any restroom they pleased. Or women getting to vote. Or the use of mercury being regulated.

Time heals all, even this. But many will die while we drag our heels and discuss how impossible the only rational solution is.