http://www.philly.com/philly/hp/news...s_himself.html

2 items on this story.

1) Roughly a half-hour later, the 4-year-old lay dying from an apparently self-inflicted bullet wound, another young victim of Philadelphia's gun epidemic.

I don't think this should be characterized as part of the "gun epidemic". This is faulty parenting. They apparently left a loaded gun (and I would assume safety off) within reach of a 4 year old child.

2) Meanwhile, police and fire crews were searching the house and the area outside, even looking on the roof of the rowhouse for the magazine of the weapon that killed Dyshon.

Why were the police looking for the magazine? Shouldn't it have been in the gun? Are they implying the magazine was gotten rid of?

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Czar of the 26th Ward.

This is tragic.

Some guns don't have a safety.

Also the safety is not that difficult to switch off.

If you have guns in the home with children...they have to be locked up. A safety is not a gun lock.

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http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/be30300653

Wasn't saying the safety was the issue. The issue is that it was loaded and accessible. And I agree, locked up is the only safe place for the gun in a home.

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Czar of the 26th Ward.

Jaamar said Djuan Boyd was "a great father" to Dyshon.
"Everywhere you saw Dyshon, his father wasn't far behind," she said.
"He gave Dyshon the world."






What a f'ing joke. This is the problem. People think that idiots like this father are actually good? What the hell is good by these peoples standards? Just being there at all?

How about an epidemic of irresponsible gun owners? Is that better?

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A song that says it all.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqITJFGyq4s

And this is why I'm in favor of gun control laws, because I haven't yet heard of any legal gun owner being described as a bad parent, as someone negligent with their guns, as someone who would leave loaded guns around, etc. -- until the unthinkable happens.

It's not that I don't believe Random and Cerberus and Mr. Brightsides all the other gun owners who post here -- I'm sure that you all think you are the most careful gun owners on the planet, and you probably are ... most of the time. But unfortunately, "most of the time" is not good enough -- at least not for dead 4 year olds.

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---Shosh

Yes that is better because that is the issue. People with guns who are not trained in their care and use and that do not engage in safe practices. This did not have to happen.

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The post-Bush-Rove Republican Party is in the minority because it has driven away women, the young, suburbanites, black Americans, Latino-Americans, Asian-Americans, educated Americans, gay Americans and, increasingly, working-class Americans. Who’s left?

Frank Rich
The new York Times

So if this guy had to get a permit and keep his name on file, you think he would not have left a loaded gun laying around?

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Czar of the 26th Ward.

What gun control law would have prevented this?

The report I read stated that the guy did not have a permit to carry, but the gun was in his jacket pocket. Obviously, this guy was carrying illegally. So if he was willing to break that law, do you think he would have obeyed a law to keep the gun in a safe?

Tell me what law would have specifically prevented this exact incident?

You say that you never hear about legal gun owners being described as bad parents, then you go on to blame a lack of legislation. How about this....HE'S A BAD PARENT, and and IDIOT. And no law would have fixed that.

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Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that. -George Carlin

I'm not sure what the implication of them looking for the magazine is. But it does seem to me that if there wasn't a clip in the gun, the owners might have taken what they thought were reasonable precautions with the gun. It's not that hard to pull the clip and forget you've got a round chambered. A simple, stupid, deadly mistake.

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“Stupidity has a certain charm - ignorance does not”