Gun Control

admin —  December 19, 2005 — 2 Comments

I’m no pull on the heart strings lefty, but if there was ever a better argument for gun control in the United States this story would be it…how do you hold a 9 year old responsible??

Girl, 9, shoots brother with parents’ gun (SMH)

“A nine-year-old Chicago girl accidentally shot and killed her 13-year-old brother while playing with a semiautomatic handgun found in her parents’ bedroom.

The parents could now face charges over not having a trigger lock on the weapon, police said.

The children’s mother had left the house for about half an hour to visit a sick relative on Friday and the father was at work when the children found the loaded, unlocked .380-calibre pistol on a bookshelf built into a headboard, authorities said.

A short time later, while playing with her brother, the girl apparently pulled the trigger accidentally, striking him once in the chest. He died a short time later at a hospital.

“She didn’t mean to hurt her brother. They were just playing,” police Sergeant Dan Dempsey said.

Although possessing a handgun in the Chicago area was allowed, police said no one in the house had the proper firearm owner’s identification card.”