“Ja’Mecca Smith was the youngest of seven children, the baby of the family,” washingtonpost.com reports. “She loved tic-tac-toe and the Disney movie ‘Frozen’ and the color red. She was a member of the first grade honor roll, a cheerful little girl with a sense of humor and a gap-toothed smile. But police say a combination of negligence, a child’s curiosity and cruel circumstance ended her life Saturday, when Ja’Mecca accidentally shot herself in the head with a loaded gun she found tucked between the cushions of a sofa in her father’s home.” Needless to say, the Post peppered their story about a negligent discharge with quotes from the usual gun control suspects . . .
“The fact that a child got a gun isn’t an accident, that’s negligence” Viviana Goldenberg, a member of the Georgia chapter of Moms Demand Action, told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution after Clay’s death.
“It’s literally terrifying, and this is happening all over the country,” she continued. “There is no gun owner responsibility. They’re not thinking of what measures to do to prevent access of the children to the gun.” . . .
The advocacy group Everytown for Gun Safety says that its own review of accidental gun deaths revealed a number that was almost twice as high: It found 100 children had been killed in unintentional shootings between December 2012 and December 2013. Most of the deaths took place in a home or vehicle belonging to the victim’s family and involved guns that were legally owned but not secured.
The group said that roughly 70 percent of cases might have been avoided if the gun had been stored locked and unloaded. About 2 million American children live in homes with unsecured guns.
Posterior pulling stats much? Anyway, would a “safe storage law” – as championed by gun control advocates – have saved Ja’Mecca’s life? Before answering that, consider this: according to Everytown for Gun Safety (yes them), 28 U.S. states already have “child access prevention statutes.” That list includes Georgia, where Ja’Mecca met her end. All states have laws regarding child endangerment.
I reckon all six-year-olds should be taught gun safety (if not sooner). And safe storage laws – which require guns to be locked away, unloaded, separate from ammunition – put lives in danger by preventing quick access. Besides, government intrusion. Your thoughts?