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| Alex;
>The child is obviously not
>responsible enough yet for independant control of a gun, even apart from
>the legalities. I do question, however, why the father was not charged.
No "child" is responsible for control of a gun. If the kid wants to
hunt or target shoot, an adult should be present and in full control of
the weapon.
The idea that the guns were "his" is ridiculous. If you gave your
underage kid a car, s/he still wouldn't be able to drive it until legal
age, and a license would still have to be obtained. Even then, in a
lot of states and towns, kids driving after a certain hour are still
driving illegally. Just because he "owns" it doesn't mean the kid can
use it.
IMO, anyone under a certain age is not resposible to own a gun;
reasoning and judgement in younger kids just isn't there. Of course,
there are other weapons that can be used, but nothing is as efficient
as a gun. That's what the things are made for: killing people or
animals.
Your idea about registering alcohol purchases wouldn't work because too
much alcohol is bought every day. Around here, if an underage drinker
gets into trouble, the police do make every effort to find out where
the alcohol was obtained. In a lot of cases, the alcohol was stolen
from parents. I remember several instances where people were unaware
that kids were drinking at parties in their house. I don't know what
blinders some parents wear; in a case in the house across the street
from my house, anybody watching the party for 5 minutes could tell
those kids were drunk.
Of couse, ignorance is no excuse, as those parents found out in court.
Sylvia
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