This past Thursday there was yet another story of a child accidentally killing himself with a firearm.
"The past month or so has seen a seeming glut of shootings carried out by children and toddlers, and on Thursday, another tragedy was added to the trend. Two year-old Kinsler Allen Davis was just a few feet away from his father when the child found his father’s handgun, and fired it. The bullet struck Kinsler in the head, and he was pronounced dead a few hours later at a Dallas hospital. Aside from mentions on several of MSNBC’s primetime programs, the recent rash of child-involved shootings has gotten little attention from the national media, which has been concentrating on a tiny number of other stories.
Corsicana Police Chief Randy Bratton said the boy’s 35-year-old father called 911 just before 9 p.m. and told dispatchers his son shot himself at the family’s home on North 30th Street.
Kinsler Allen Davis was taken to Navarro Regional Hospital and then flown by helicopter to Children’s Medical Center in Dallas, where doctors pronounced him dead just after 11 p.m. The boy was less than a month away from his third birthday.
A preliminary investigation shows the boy found the handgun inside a bedroom and fired it. The bullet hit him in the head, Chief Bratton said. The boy’s father was in a walk-in closet in the bedroom where the boy was, feet away from where the accident occured. Initially, the chief reported the father to be in another room but he later said that was incorrect.
Bratton said the initial investigation points to the incident being accidental. No one has been arrested. However, after the investigation is complete, Bratton said the case will be forwarded to the district attorney’s office to determine if any charges will be filed.MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow and Lawrence O’Donnell have each devoted short segments to recent child-involved shootings, but so far, the rapidly-mounting reports of children tragically gaining access to firearms has escaped the notice of the national media. That’s a shame, because this story is one in which they could easily, painlessly fulfill their duty to serve the public and almost certainly save lives.
It’s true that there are political aspects to these stories, but kids getting their hands on guns is something we should all be able to agree shouldn’t happen.
We should, but those NRA folks are not like the rest of us.
Finally, I see that the Heritage Foundation let their racist in- residence go. Given what the GOP has been trying to do with Latino voters of late I guess this latest little racial dust up was unacceptable. Now they are acting like they had no idea that this guy had views like this. How could they not know them when the guy stated his views publicly back in 2008?
"Jason Richwine let us know he’s decided to resign from his position,” the Heritage Foundation said in a terse e-mail statement. “He’s no longer employed by Heritage.”The foundation declined to comment further, saying, “It is our longstanding policy not to discuss internal personnel matters.”
Let me translate that for you: Jason should have known better than to make or private views known to the public at large.
"We believe that every person is created equal and that everyone should have equal opportunity to reach the ladder of success and climb as high as they can dream."
Yes, but some people are "more equal than others".
*Pic from Think Progress.
