Monday, December 08, 2014

His Brother Just Wasn't Lucky At All


Stupidity and a lack of gun safety training sadly strikes yet again.

The Detroit Free Press: Michigan boy, 16, accidentally kills brother, 21
Police say a 16-year-old boy accidentally shot and killed his 21-year-old brother with a handgun that he believed to be unloaded when he pointed it at the man.
Blackman-Leoni Department of Public Safety Deputy Director Jon Johnston tells the Jackson Citizen Patriot in an email that the younger brother went into his brother's room Saturday night and reportedly asked "Do you feel lucky?" before pulling the trigger.
This is why you should never believe a gun is unloaded.  It either is after you've positively checked, or its not, again after you've actually checked.  It's also why you never point a gun at someone else's head and do a bad Clint Eastwood imitation.

Assuming this isn't a made-up story to cover a murder of a brother, the lack of common sense involved in pointing a firearm at someone else's head and pulling the trigger makes it not an accident but a negligent homicide.

According to the report, the gun was not owned by either the parents nor the 21-year-old who was killed. As such,  it'll be an interesting question as to how the 16-year-old obtained the handgun.

Time to make gun safety training mandatory in schools.

After all, if it saves just one life by getting through to kids that you never point an "unloaded" gun at anyone or anything you don't mean to destroy, it could stop a lot of these stupid and life-altering "accidents".

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