With the recent deaths of several children involved in “accidental” shootings,  I wondered, in the wake of the hysteria about 4 people killed in Benghazi that knew they were doing dangerous work,  how many children per year are killed by guns….

The answer is, in the under 5 year old category, between 75 and 100 depending on year surveyed. I don’t recall Fox leading with this for weeks on end. Are we to conclude these children are unwitting and innocent sacrifices on the altar of our Second Amendment freedoms?

We hear the NRA’s Wayne LaPierre stridently pointing out the rights of gun ownership, but I’m not sure what he means when he says he supports “responsible” gun ownership. Most people think they are responsible….the trained deputy who left his gun “for just a second” – long enough for a 4 year old to pick it up and shoot his wife dead – would probably call himself responsible, but until the adults in such situations face serious penalties for such actions, then kids will continue to be the victims of those who are supposed to protecting them. This little boy will grow up knowing he killed someone. What a horrible thing, brought to him by the easy availability of a gun provided by a “responsible” adult.

My position here is not anti-gun. It’s pro-accountability. How differently might adult gun owners behave if a prison term awaited them should their improperly secured firearm fall into the hands of a child and injury or death occurred? As it stands now, charges against the responsible adult seldom occur. But in a recent case, a 4 year old child was able to simply walk into his home, pick up a loaded .22 rifle, walk outside, and shoot his playmate in the head, killing the child. That shouldn’t be able to happen in the home of a responsible gun owner, and I’d like to know how the NRA plans to deal with that within their “more guns = more safety” push…

Now, if one concludes that the gun owners in these situations are not, in fact, responsible, then they need to at least be held accountable, and it is a little disconcerting that the NRA has, through friendly legislators, fought regulations that would hold gun owners accountable for failing to reasonably secure their firearms.

Securing guns is the responsibility of the owner, who should then be responsible for the consequences of failing to properly secure them.