A 4-year-old boy in Houston died early Sunday morning after finding his father’s handgun and shooting himself in the stomach.
Houston Police Sgt. Harris told KTRK that 4-year-old Jaiden Pratt’s weekend with his father, 23-year-old Marquez Pratt, ended in tragedy. The father and son had gone to sleep on the couch. After waking up, Jaiden picked up the gun and accidentally fired a round into his own stomach.
Paramedics tried to revive child, but he was pronounced dead at the scene.
“This is not a case of a responsible homeowner having a weapon for protection,” Harris said.
According to the Houston Chronicle, the serial number of the handgun was listed as stolen. Marquez Pratt was expected to face charges resulting from drugs and several weapons found in the home.
Of course the 2nd Amendment crowd will point out that this was a stolen gun and therefore gun laws that affect the ability of law abiding citizens to purchase and own firearms would have little effect. But I disagree.
You see I think that once you go through a background check and take possession of a firearm it is your responsibility, until you have either sold it in lawful manner (Complete with insisting that the purchaser have the gun registered in their name) or until you die.
In other words EVERY crime or accident that occurs with the weapons stolen out of your house, if it is discovered that you did not do EVERYTHING in your power to keep that from happening, should open you up to both criminal and civil legal proceedings.
No more of this, "Well officer that gun was stolen out of my house so I am not responsible for how it was used." If you are responsible enough to own a weapon, then by the gods you should be responsible enough to maintain control over that weapon.
I can guarantee you that if we had laws like that on the books there would be a HELL of a lot less guns sold, and a a whole HELL of a lot fewer guns stolen. Which also means less crime, and fewer terrible accidents like this one.
Why is it harder to have an abortion in the country than to buy a gun?
ReplyDeleteGood question. I am sickened and saddened by all these accidents in homes with so-called safety conscience responsible gun enthusiasm.
Deleteot but Rush is admitting failure. May sponsors and supporters wake up and smell the fumes and dump the lard. http://tinyurl.com/a8czyxa
Why is it harder to have an abortion than to kill your living children? There is something weird about the fact that the so called "Pro Life" crowd are also pro guns and pro capital punishment.
DeleteIt seems it is now impossible to send a child to school or leave them with a non custodial parent without worrying as to whether you will ever see them again. I cannot imagine the mother's anguish.
Because they can't stand women's disgustingly alluring, sin-inspiring lady parts and their sexuality.
DeleteWhatever health care exists under a Christian-Right Regime would involve clitoridectomy, married-off at puberty and barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen.
We women fail when we let them have the high moral ground by letting them call us baby killers just because we believe health care involves all aspects of our bodies and mind.
I'd never pick up a gun and menace them, ever, but I will use my votes and advocacy of universal women's health against them.
TS "There is something weird about the fact that the so called "Pro Life" crowd are also pro guns and pro capital punishment."
DeleteEXACTLY my thoughts, too.
Don't forget the "Pro Life" crowd is also, in most cases, very pro war.
DeleteAll good reasons for not calling the anti-choice/forced birthers by their preferred title. By continuing to use it, even in quotation marks, it perpetuates their propaganda and implies that those who oppose them are anti-life.
DeleteThis happened the other day in Garland, TX...
ReplyDeletehttp://www.myfoxdfw.com/story/21291383/child-shot-in-garland
So sad.
These pro-lifers are against abortion and want all the babies born, but once they're here they don't care if they get murdered in school in a mass shooting, or shot at home when they find a parents gun, or shot during a drive-by shooting. The pro-life gun enthusiasts are absolutely crazy! They make no sense. I cannot agree with their deranged logic. I think everyone that goes to buy a gun--no matter where they buy it--must not only pass a background check but a psychological test as well. It's not people with mental illness we need to be afraid of, it's the undiagnosed people who we really need to be afraid of--the individuals who never seek treatment! The ones who seek treatment and are following their treatment protocols are not the ones to be afraid of.
ReplyDeleteIsn't it interesting that Paul Ryan and his co-anti-abortion-GOP members of Congress are willing to take money from desperately needed programs for the poor (most of whom are children) for their political goal of sequester? And yes, it should be harder to buy a gun than it is to have an abortion. We live in a weird world.
DeleteBeaglemom
His dad imagined himself to be quiet the bad-ass, with a stolen hand-gun laying around next to the couch.
ReplyDeleteThat poor poor baby. My heart breaks and aches for that innocent child.
Remember in 2009 stupid Sarah gives a NRA speech somewhere out of Alassska and at the same time as her speech a 1 1/2 yrs old Anchorage kids grabs a gun off the TV stand and blows his brains out. When.She.was.still.Gov!
ReplyDeleteWonder how many kids these NRA jerks will let die before they admit that, hey, gun registration might be a good thing?
ReplyDeleteThere's no answer to that question because there is no number of dead children that can turn them away from their fetish.
DeleteMy toddler handled a hand gun. I was working at a tiny consignment shop sitting at a desk with my toddler in my lap doing paperwork. My toddler pulled a gun out of the desk drawer. The shop owner had left the gun in an unlocked center drawer. She had not informed me of a gun on the premise.
ReplyDeleteIn a split second, glancing down seeing my child holding a gun every story of accidental shootings
came to life. This was a consignment shop for
infants to age 5 or 7 years.
Gun owners like this think of themselves only as a hero of an unlikely scenario thwarting an attacker.
Horrible! That could have easily been a tragedy. Thankfully, your little one (and you or anybody else in the place) didn't get hurt or killed.
DeleteI would have verbally punched the owner in the face.
Another scenario: My neighbor's husband believed rifles standing upright in their dining room was safe 'storage'. Cancel play dates at that house! Their son got in trouble shooting his BB gun at a passing train.
ReplyDeleteAnother one: country living family who hunt
Father is abusive and escalated from using his fists to putting a gun to his kids heads. The mother blames the kids sticking with her man. Considering social services interceeded after police reports of this man beating his teen daughter, arranging placement with relatives why does he have guns at his house still?
Someone who truley is so religious wouldn't even bring a gun into their home. Just on the slight chance they might kill somene, or an accident happen. They don't hold life sacred. I'll say it again you can't even get a minumin wage job without going through background checks all kinds of hoops, getting unemployment is becoming so cumbersome,takes months instead of weeks to get on, forcing ppl to attend classes on how to get a job, 40 to 50 miles way. How come some kind of restrants on purchases of guns is bad ? I think they want ppl to kill each other, less to provide jobs or benefits for.
ReplyDelete"someone truly religious" would celebrate their murder & scream thank you Jesus when being murdered . . . since they are the same people who claim victims are "in a better place" and EVERYTHING is god's plan.
DeleteA truly religious person would never defend their life nor others lives for the simple reason defending themselves is blatantly defying god's plan to take them to that "better place".
For that matter, a truly religious person would not look both ways when crossing a street . .
"In other words EVERY crime or accident that occurs with the weapons stolen out of your house, if it is discovered that you did not do EVERYTHING in your power to keep that from happening, should open you up to both criminal and civil legal proceedings."
ReplyDeleteIn other words, blame the victim of the crime (theft), not the perpetrator. That's as bad as blaming women for being raped because of the way they dress.
When are you going to wake up and realize there are bad people in the world who will do bad things no matter what the law is? Hold them accountable for their actions. Blaming the victim is foolishness.
Is it the victim's fault when their locked car is stolen?
Would it be your fault Gryphen if someone robbed you and used the money to buy heroin then died of an overdose? Or gave the Heroin to a teen age friend and they died of an overdose?
Would you be responsible for what your money bought after it was stolen from you?
Did you actually just compare an irresponsible parent who left a loaded gun for his 4 year old to grab and play with to a woman who's been raped? Should we blame the four year old?
DeleteGuns have one purpose, to shoot and kill things (including people). It is the responsibility of the owner of a gun to make sure it is securely stored.
It's absolutely not the same thing as someone breaking into your house and stealing 100 bucks to by drugs. Or having someone break your window to steal your car. And it absolutely is not the same as blaming women for being raped. Hyperbole does you no favors.
Statistically over 90% of murders are perpetrated by someone the victim knew = gun advocates & fanatics are confessing they need to be armed against their own families, friends & associates who are in the "over 90%" demographic.
DeleteWe then can conclude America is unable to market itself as the best country in the world since so, so many insist they need to be armed against their own family.
You have a simple mind.
DeleteHow many children have to die before you think any action is necessary to save some lives?
Give me a number.
Anonymous7:08 AM
DeleteGee G-picked up a NRA trollie I see...hey there...shouldn't you be out crossing the road or playing with your guns?
Nope, I didn't just "compare an irresponsible parent who left a loaded gun for his 4 year old to grab and play with to a woman who's been raped". I compared blaming someone who's gun was stolen by a CRIMINAL to a woman who was raped by a CRIMINAL. Learn to read.
DeleteAnd I'm also not an NRA member.
And 10:11, tell me, how many children have to die before you outlaw cars. Pick a number.
Guns and cars are both dangerous tools and both are misused. Punish the bad guys, not the tools.
And instead of more onerous laws, how about enforcing the ones we already have? How many laws did the father in this story break?
As for background checks, I have no problem with them. Except what's the point? In 2010, some 80,000 Americans were denied guns, according to the Justice Department, because they lied or provided inaccurate information about their criminal background check forms. But only 44 of those people were charged with a crime. Why weren't every one of them charged? Where is the disincentive to lie? These 80,000, if they really wanted a gun next went to their local druggies and bought an unregistered gun as compared to a registered one at a store.
PLEASE STOP with the CAR argument! How many children have been murdered in their kindergarten class with a fricking CAR??? How many four-year-olds jump in a car while dad is napping and go driving, wreaking havoc all over town or just driving themselves into a telephone pole or whatever? A CAR has a purpose besides putting holes in people, and its ownership and maintenance is very well regulated, which you can't do with guns because then of course you are violating the sacred second amendment that apparently we have to deal with a certain number of dead children to protect, so that assholes won't have to live in fear of their neighbors like the rest of us apparently are expected to do! So sick of this bullshit argument.
DeleteThank you Anonymous1:03 PM! I'm so sick of that NRA talking point also.
DeleteIts pure Bullshit!
Two year old shot himself in the face - to protect our freedoms - with daddy's gun he found in mommy's purse:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.wpxi.com/news/news/local/boy-2-shot-face-fayette-county-home-critical-condi/nWW8Z/?hpt=us_bn7
Every week is a tots with guns parade:
Delete3-year old killed: shot in head with gun - a Texas tradition.
http://www.myfoxdfw.com/story/21291383/child-shot-in-garland
Its Right wing abortion!!! Guns are the new RW abortion!(retroactive)
ReplyDelete