Accidental Shooting of San Antonio Teen by Himself - No Charges

[mikeb302000]

Local news reports

A teen was transported to the hospital after he was accidentally shot in the stomach.

Officers say it happened just after midnight at an apartment complex on the 400 block of Utopia.

Investigators say Ray Fernandez, 18, was showing off a gun to friends when it accidentally went off. Fernandez was shot in the stomach.

Let's take some wild guesses. In San Antonio, Texas, teenage boys are raised with guns, right? Their dads and uncles all have 'em. They're taught gun safety from the very beginning.

Yet, we have so many of these PREVENTABLE incidents. What could account for that?

Let's make some simple deductions. Teaching gun safety to kids doesn't work in many cases. The more guns there are the more gun accidents we have. Too many people are just unfit to own guns and use them safely.

What can be done about it? Well, as our pro-gun friends keep telling us this is not the Minority Report, we cannot predict future events, so we have to work with what we have. When someone demonstrates their inability to safely handle firearms they lose the right to own them. It's that simple.

How else are we going to improve the situation? Why should we take a chance on these once-proven dangerous gun owners and hope they learned their lesson? No, I say one strike you're out. No second chances.

What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.
Cross posted at Mikeb302000

[ileus]

1. So you know he had a safety class how?

You really think he was showing off his newest hunting rifle?


Wonder if he learner to keep his meathook off the bang switch?

[aikoaiko]

2. If your blog didn't exist the NRA would have to create it.

[Eleanors38]

3. Pf-f-f-t-t. "is it over? "" Didn't know it started."

[Atypical Liberal]

4. Instead of "wild guesses" for policy decisions, why not look at hard data?

From WISQARS:
http://www.cdc.gov/injury/wisqars/index.html

From 1999 to 2010 there were an average of 695 unintentional firearm deaths each year.
From 2001 to 2011 there were an average of 16,472 unintentional firearm injuries each year.

This gives an average total of 17,167 unintentional firearm shootings each year.

There are 40 to 80 million firearm owners in this country.

That means that each year, 99.96% to 99.98% of firearm owners are not involved in unintentional firearm shootings each year.

And moreover, the trend in both deaths and injuries is declining.

[Clames]

5. Those facts only confuse and enrage Mikey.

Numbers mixed with math is not his strong suit.

[mikeb302000]

19. I guess your point is that since the percentage is so low

we should write it off as the cost of doing business even though many of them are easily preventable. That makes you a real sweetheart.

[4th law of robotics]

6. You extrapolated an awful lot from nothing

He's from Texas, ergo he was raised with guns and had dads and uncles who were present and gun owners and who taught them proper gun safety.

Let's make some simple deductions. Teaching gun safety to kids doesn't work in many cases. The more guns there are the more gun accidents we have. Too many people are just unfit to own guns and use them safely.

Don't quit your day job sherlock.

What can be done about it? Well, as our pro-gun friends keep telling us this is not the Minority Report, we cannot predict future events, so we have to work with what we have. When someone demonstrates their inability to safely handle firearms they lose the right to own them. It's that simple.

Unfortunately people like you deem their "inability to safely handle firearms" to mean anything, up to an including the desire to posses firearms.


/presumably every pregnant teenager had a parent or guardian who had genitals. Why weren't they taught how to use their junk properly? Clearly accidents like this, which are so common and preventable, are proof that teaching kids about sex doesn't work. Ignorance is the only solution.

[mikeb302000]

20. No, I don't deem the desire to possess firearms as a disqualifier.

You know that, so why do you have to exaggerate my position? Isn't what I really do say bad enough for you?

http://mikeb302000.blogspot.it/2012/08/one-strike-youre-out.html

My list has been recently updated to include a 7th reason.

[PavePusher]

7. Your mysogynistic assumptions are quite stupid. You should leave now. n/t

[mikeb302000]

21. You not only spelled misogynistic wrong, you used it wrongly. nt

[Remmah2]

8. FOX is a network of lies and propoganda supporting the wingnuts. nt

nt

[slackmaster]

9. Basic gun safety should be taught in public schools

How else are we going to improve the situation?

Teach every high school student the four rules of firearm safety, and how to safely unload the most common types of pistols, rifles, and shotguns.

[rDigital]

10. here here. nt

[4th law of robotics]

11. It's always fun to read the counter-arguments to this

people who have to make the case that ignorance is preferable to knowledge.

They always come off sounding like fundies (but if we teach kids about sex they might have it!) but they can't stand it when you point that out to them.

[Common Sense Party]

14. Of course they're fundies. They're TaliBanners. nt

[mikeb302000]

22. The idiots who keep making the news

were taught. What do you think, their dads and uncles and older brothers never taught them to not point a gun at someone.

[gejohnston]

27. you know this how?

You are speculating with no facts. I'm guessing most of them are like the NYC high school kid finds it in a dumpster and takes out a school urnial while showing how cool it is to his friends.

[slackmaster]

28. Maybe some of them weren't taught well enough

I can tell you that my dad did such a good job, all with gentle persuasion and encouragement, that I instinctively avoid pointing even a broom handle at a person, pet, or valuable object.

[Atypical Liberal]

12. And here is some more hard data for you

From 1999 to 2010 there were an average of 3,484 drowning deaths. That is 5 times as many deaths as from firearms.

Should everyone who suffers a drowning injury or death have to bulldoze their swimming pools and rip out their bathtubs?

There were over 40,000 automobile deaths each year and over 2.5 million injuries.

Should everyone who gets into a feder-bender have to give up driving forever? I mean, clearly they have demonstrated their inability to safely handle an automobile.

[4th law of robotics]

13. I think the solution to drowning deaths

is to ban swimming instruction (teaching them how only encourages them to try it) and instead get them to sign forms saying they won't drown. (http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1172&pid=79589)

Any sensible person can see what that would be a smashing success. Right?

[mikeb302000]

23. when the argument falters, use comparisons. nt

[Atypical Liberal]

26. The comparison makes YOUR argument falter. You are the one advocating "one strike" for things.

It is YOUR argument that is faltering Mike.

You are the one making the assertion that if you make ONE mistake with a firearm, then you lose the right to own firearms.

But people make mistakes with other objects that cause over 150 times as many injuries and deaths, and you aren't calling for people to lose the right to drive if they make one mistake while driving.

Why the inconsistency? A death is a death, an injury is an injury. If your argument is that anyone who makes a mistake with an object that can cause death or injury has "demonstrated their inability to safely handle" that object, why not call for abolishing their rights to use those objects, too? Especially when they are far, far more dangerous?

Why the inconsistency?

Whose argument is faltering again?

[mikeb302000]

29. One strike for gun misuse - guns are weapons, that's why. nt

[hack89]

31. So it is not negligence leading to death and injury that is the issue

just negligence with guns that leads to death and injury. At least you don't try to hide your agenda like most gun grabbers.

[Atypical Liberal]

34. So one strike for guns, even though they kill and injure hundreds of times fewer people?

And you say my argument is faltering?

There are many other implements that when misused cause hundreds of times more human damage than guns do in this country.

But you want to ban guns because "guns are weapons".

Just goes to show, it's not about saving lives at all. It's an irrational fear of weapons.

[gejohnston]

15. urban Texas?

Let's take some wild guesses. In San Antonio, Texas, teenage boys are raised with guns, right? Their dads and uncles all have 'em. They're taught gun safety from the very beginning.

San Antonio is a big city, not as likely. Chances are he found it in a street. Kids who are raised with guns know they are not toys.

[mikeb302000]

24. Bullshit, some kids who are raised with guns shoot each other by accident. nt

[ileus]

25. But not in this case...

This wasn't a country boy one can pretty much guarantee that.


Most people here in the States don't equate 'apartment complex' with rural living.

[mikeb302000]

30. Oh, an apartment complex in San Antonio is full of what,

cty slickers from up north?

[hack89]

32. Texans raised in either the suburbs or the city? Only 14% of Texans live in rural areas.

Although population growth in rural Texas has been slow, the state’s overall population increased by about 35 percent from 1990 to 2005. The entire state is expected to continue to grow over the next 40 years, with the urban areas growing the most and rural areas growing more slowly than urban areas. Population trends show that more people are moving from rural areas to urban/suburban areas. An estimated 86 percent of the 23 million people living in Texas in 2005 resided in urban areas, while an estimated 14 percent lived in rural areas

http://www.window.state.tx.us/specialrpt/tif/population.html

[ileus]

33. Yup...country living.

https://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&safe=active&q=400+Utopia+Rd,+San+Antonio,+Bexar,+Texas+78223&ie=UTF-8

I bet they shoot and hunt in the backyard all the time during family BBQ's

[petronius]

16. Who should be charged? There's nothing in the article to suggest that a crime

was committed.

Rather, it's an anecdote suggesting that a basic module on firearm safety (among many other in-home safety topics) should be included in school. Not just for the kids in gun-owning households - a basic safety primer would give other kids (friends who are unexpectedly exposed to firearms, for example) the tools to recognize and respond to unsafe behavior.

And setting the topic of firearms entirely aside, I think that one/two/three strike, zero-tolerance, type rule structures are nearly always problematic and unjust. Applying such an idea to non-criminal, non-willful human error is wildly excessive...

[Glaug-Eldare]

17. One incident = Systemic failure

One ship spills oil at the dock -> Decertify all ships, revoke all mariner credentials

One surgeon leaves a sponge -> Close all hospitals, revoke all MD cards

One electrician miswires an outlet -> Delist all UL outlets, revoke all contractor certs

One barber botches a haircut -> Bulldoze all barber shops, revoke all barber licenses

One hiker is injured at Grand Canyon -> Close all national parks, fill canyons with concrete

[4th law of robotics]

18. It's the only way to be safe

also forbid anyone to receive training for properly using a ship, or performing surgery or . .