What punishment should he get ? - 4th episode

[Masklinn]

OTOH, if you and all law abiding citizens destroyed their weapons, the only ones with guns would be the bad guys.

Hmmm, first there would be less bad guys with guns if they werent so easy to get.
Then soldiers and cops, who have guns, would chase bad guys, who have guns, and less citizens would get involved.

But that is just my point of view, and let's not derail this thread [img]smile.gif[/img]

Too late Donut, it's spoiled, and I'm lazy [img]smile.gif[/img]
(though we aren't in august !)

But don't worry I was about to do it anyway

[Cerek the Barbaric]

Originally posted by Masklinn: [QB]Cerek : Quote: look towards our house, reach behind his seat and pull out a rifle

So this guy was dangerous cause he had a gun...therefor you feel the need to have one yourself for protection, then the bad guys can't do bad stuff without guns cause all good guys have one, so they get themselves one etc...etc...[/QUOTE]Yes, the man was dangerous - even more so because he had a gun. If he had just jumped out of his truck and ran into the woods, I wouldn't have felt nearly as threatened. However, he looked towards the house, then pulled a rifle out of the truck, then looked BACK towards our house. At that moment, I honostly didn't know if this guy was going to shoot at the house, use the gun to try to force his way in, or what. I DID know that my father was watching his every move from the living room and had his own gun out in case the guy tried to do any of the above. And I most assuredly felt "safer" knowing that fact than I would have if we had NO guns in the house and would have had to face this guy unarmed.

It turns out that he was being chased by the police and had come down our driveway by accident - so that makes him even more dangerous. I am certain that he briefly considered trying to break into the house and prepare for a standoff with the police. However, I live in the Southern part of the U.S. - where many people DO own guns and WILL shoot you if they feel threatened. Apparantly, this guy had a sudden attack of common sense and fled away from the house rather than towards it.

Originally posted by Masklinn This is a vicious circle. And that results in more domestic accidents like this one.

Sorry, but you're wrong here. It is not a "vicious circle" because most of the "bad guys" have guns already. The only thing that kept the guy from coming towards our house that night was the thought that we MIGHT have a gun too...and that we would use it if necessary. As it turns out...there was NO violence at all that night. Neither the "bad guy" nor my dad had to fire a single shot....and the police managed to catch the guy without incident the next day.

As for "more domestic accidents" - I've grown up with guns. We always had one (or more) in the house....and I've never had any "accidents" with them. That's because my father taught me how to handle a gun safely at a young age. He also let me know that I was NEVER to touch the gun unless he was with me - and I never did.

I've kept a loaded gun in a house with children for 6 years now. My boys have never gone near my guns, even though they know where they are. They also know they are forbidden to go near them. I know they won't always follow that rule..so that is why I will most likely keep them unloaded from now on and keep the bullets in a separate (and safe) place. That means I'm "compromising" my ability to defend my family from an intruder - to a certain degree anyway, but that's a trade-off I have to consider making.

[Timber Loftis]

I feel reasonably sure that NYC has a law like Chicago does placing an absolute ban on handguns within the city limits. Plus, it wasn't registered. Are you sure {spoiler} is all he got, Donut, because in Chicago he could have served a bit of time - like 6 mos - 1yr.

[gaunty]

make sure that the fauther pay's (out of poket) all expences. No insurance pay outs, and no tax right offs. He failed to get a gun lock and/or put it in a adault place (some where a child will not be looking) like mommy and daddies under ware.

[Bungleau]

from Masklinn: I can't think of a place unreachable by children. They can have a great imagination when it comes to reaching forbidden/unreachable places

Gun safe? Yeah, they can look around for keys or spend hours working on the combination, but you should have a clue before then.

Trigger lock? If no gun safe (and perhaps even with one), some additional protection.

Safety switch? Was the one on the gun enabled or disabled? I realize that a child can play with the gun and flip the switch, but that takes time.

There are lots of right answers in hindsight. For example, I never got around to attaching my childrens' furniture to the walls until one of them pulled a dresser down on top of his head. Next morning, everything was attached so that wouldn't happen again.

Of course, I still haven't attached the major household furniture, like the bookshelves and refrigerator. Hopefully I won't learn another lesson there.

[Pyrius]

I have a pistol in the house in an easily accessible place. I also have have children in the house. I live in a pretty burglarized part of town. The kids in the house are 6-11 years old. I figure the best way to avoid serious harm to the kids and still keep a threat is to load the gun with blanks. If the kids got to it and accidentally fired it, the gun would go off, doing only minor damage. If someone were to break in, they would have gunshots goin off all around them. The fear factor would keep them at bay. I belive that is the only safe way to have one in the house. In the case of the gentleman whos sun died, no he should not be punished severely. If he needed protection that badly he could have always gone out and legally bought the gun instead of using one he found in the bushes. If he couldnt legally get a gun there are several other non-lethal weapons he could get without a permit etc. I think his punishment should be nothing more than the same awarded to those responsible of accidental homicide-light jail sentence or probation and a fine.

[Ziroc]

Let's not make this a daily or weekly thread/topic. Once was ok...