Guns Don't Kill People....

You've heard the quote: Guns don't kill people, people do.


About three weeks ago an eight year old girl was shot and seriously wounded at school when a gun went off in the backpack of a classmate as he dropped it on his desk.  Amina has been in intensive care ever since, fighting for her life.


The boy lives with an uncle since his custodial grandmother died.  Both his mother and father lost custody of him, although he also lives with his father, and was visiting his mother, where he got the gun.  Both Mother and her boyfriend have guns, even though they have criminal records.  The boy  brought the gun to school, he says, because he was going to run away, and/or he was being bullied, and needed protection.


Three days ago a seven year old girl was in the family van with her siblings.  Mom and Dad, a Marysville police officer, were nearby, talking to friends.  A younger sibling got the service revolver out of the glove compartment and shot the seven year old girl.  She died.


Last night a family stopped for gas in Tacoma.  Mom went into the convenience store.  Dad took off his pistol and holster and tucked them under the seat, then went out to pump gas, leaving the infant daughter and the three year old son in the car.  The little boy scrambled out of his car seat, got the gun, and shot himself in the head.  He's dead.


All of these cases are local.


Now, of course, it's time to talk about blame. Who's at fault?  


The boy with the gun in his backpack was expelled from school.  In his troubled life, now he no longer has that stability.  The legal process is trying to find something to charge his mother with.  After all, someone else's child was shot.


The other two grieving families provided the guns themselves that killed their children.


Who did the shooting?  Kids. After all, guns don't kill people, people do.  Really?


Now I do understand the need for guns.  My son-in-law is in law enforcement.  I have close family members in the military.  I grew up in a family of hunters.  And we actually ate the meat and it helped with being able to put food on the table.


But I don't understand strapping on a gun for "protection", or, and especially, leaving a loaded gun where children can get to it.


Once we're talking about blame and punishment, it's too late.


Guns kill.