ac·ci·dent [ áksidənt ]

I was going to let this one go...another stupid gun-related fatality...  An "ACCIDENT" they'll call it but it was anything BUT an ACCIDENT.

And yet, I was going to let it go.  I mean I had already done one post this week about a gun-related fatality.  Surely, once per week is sufficient for ranting on this particular topic.

And despite the fact that this involved two children - a five-year-old who "accidentally" killed his own two-year-old sister WHILE the mother was at home at 1 pm.  So no alcohol, no 3 am decision to target practice.  Just a little guy...playing with his own .22-caliber rifle that someone had thoughtfully supplied him with as a "gift" (such a generous token!) and that his family had safely stored...IN THE CORNER!

Nope.  I was determined to let this one ride.  No point harping, yet again, on how senseless these gun-related deaths are.  No way - not this time...

...that is...

Until I read the article and saw this final quote by the Cumberland County (Kentucky) Coroner Gary White:  "It's a little rifle for a kid.  The little boy's used to shooting the little gun...just one of those crazy accidents."

ac·ci·dent [ áksidənt ]  chance: the way things happen without any planning, apparent cause, or deliberate intent

Yeah, people really need to stop using this particular word inappropriately.  A bit of planning could have prevented this completely from ever happening - maybe we don't give a 5-year-old a gun?  Maybe, if we must give him the gun, we also provide him with lessons (and modeling by adults as well) of basic gun safety (there was a 2-year-old in the house who I'm pretty certain could have reached that gun just as easily)?  Maybe we don't just assume there's no shell in the weapon - we, the adults, CONFIRM this.

While I'm sure this little boy didn't intend to kill his sister, he's got a long life ahead of him knowing that he did exactly.  And he's got his entire lifetime to realize that the adults in his life, those whose mission it is (or should be) to protect him from precisely this kind of thing happening, have failed him horribly. 

My heart breaks for both these victims of this "accident."

~Wondering when people will ever, EVER learn, tw