[NOTE: This post has been modified from its original form. The initial version was based on the incorrect assumption that Ms. Rutledge held an Idaho concealed carry permit, which mandates firearms training. In fact, she held a Washington State CPL, which does not. TTAG regrets the error.]
It’s a tragedy. The Idaho toddler who reached into his mother’s handbag, pulled out her gun and shot her dead is also a lesson to all gun owners that off-body carry is an inherently dangerous, potentially deadly proposition. Other than that . . . Veronica Rutledge’s untimely end at an Idaho Walmart has captured the attention of the bloody shirt wavers of the civilian disarmament industrial complex. “Nearly two million American children live in homes with unsecured guns,” Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America’s Facebook page proclaims (without attribution). Over at The Coalition to Stop Gun Violence, Ladd Everitt has this to say about that . . .
The number and nature of shootings occurring at Walmart is grotesque. The mother in this case was a concealed handgun permit holder in Idaho, which as you know by now, means little in the way of required screening or training.
Ms. Rutledge held a Washington state Concealed Pistol License, which does not require any firearms training. Anyway, Everitt is implying that “rigorous” state control of the permitting process – including mandatory training and God knows what else – prevents accidents (a.k.a., negligent discharges) and “gun violence.” Where’s the evidence? And how much training is required to know to keep a firearm under your direct control (or in a safe) at all times? Millions of Americans practice that kind of “gun sense” every single day of the year.
Might mandatory firearms training have prevented this tragedy? Perhaps. Perhaps not. But the expense, time and registration information associated with mandatory training does discourage/prevent Americans from exercising their gun rights. Bottom line: despite (yes despite) this horrific incident, what part of “shall not be infringed” does Everitt and his fellow anti-gunners fail to understand – other than all of it?
As you’d expect, the mainstream media’s on the case, from the BBC to Russia’s RT. Closer to home, heres the New York Times‘ attempt to put the horrific incident into “context” . . .
Mr. Chatwin also said that guns are a part of the culture here. The city amended its gun laws just last week, he said, to conform with state laws and make it clear that a gun owner is justified in firing a weapon in defense of persons or property.
Judy Minter, a self-employed artist who was working on an art display at City Hall, said that she too supported the right to bear arms, though she said she did not carry a weapon herself. The wisdom of when to go armed or not seemed to her to be more the question at issue in Tuesday’s accident.
“There’s a lot of people who do carry guns in this area,” said Ms. Minter, who had spent most of the day photographing bald eagles, a common sight on Lake Coeur d’Alene. “But for her to have it within reach of her child — that was not very smart.”
True dat. But what Idaho’s stand your ground laws have to do with this tragic and preventable homicide is anybody’s guess. Other than as a harbinger of toddler-related anti-gun editorials to come. Watch this space.