Sadness. Third grader shoots fellow third grader at school.

[kj]

Grace62 wrote:
In 2007, 3,042 children and teens died from gunfire in the United States and another 17,523 suffered non-fatal gun injuries.

http://www.childrensdefense.org/child-re...report.pdf

My town already had bike helmet laws, for all ages.

Doesn't even compare to the number killed or injured by head injuries. And most of the circumstances of those killed in your stats are completely different from those in the story you linked. AND, you didn't address to what level you would have to reduce the availability of guns to change these figures.

Your town has bike helmet laws? Does it help? Would it help to have the same elsewhere? At any rate, I think it is wise to spend limited resources where it would have the most effect. If we were to completely rid our country of guns, it wouldn't be that much safer for them, unfortunately. And it's not possible anyway. kj.

[OWC Jamie]

What a horrible and disgusting place to live Washington is.

A gun accidently self-fires and is considered an "attack", murder, extreme violence .
I'm surprised the gun hasn't become an automatic assault weapon firing taser voltages.

[Black]

kj wrote:
[quote=Grace62]
In 2007, 3,042 children and teens died from gunfire in the United States and another 17,523 suffered non-fatal gun injuries.

http://www.childrensdefense.org/child-re...report.pdf

My town already had bike helmet laws, for all ages.

Doesn't even compare to the number killed or injured by head injuries. And most of the circumstances of those killed in your stats are completely different from those in the story you linked. AND, you didn't address to what level you would have to reduce the availability of guns to change these figures.

Your town has bike helmet laws? Does it help? Would it help to have the same elsewhere? At any rate, I think it is wise to spend limited resources where it would have the most effect. If we were to completely rid our country of guns, it wouldn't be that much safer for them, unfortunately. And it's not possible anyway. kj.
Why would one possibly compare gun deaths to bicycle head injuries? Next you'll be extolling the dangers of a piece of toast . . .
Can you show me where head injuries from bicycling ranks on this table?


Selected Causes of Death, Ages 0-19, per 100,000 Population (2007)
Cause Number of Deaths Mortality Rate
Natural 36,272 44.1
Perinatal Conditions 14,570 17.7
Congenital Anomalies 6,896 8.4
Neoplasms 2,302 2.8
Respiratory Disease 1,442 1.8
Circulatory Disease 1,666 2.0
Nervous System Disease 1,609 2.0
SIDS 2,453 3.0
Unintentional Injury 11,560 14.0
Motor Vehicle 6,683 8.1
Drowning 1,056 1.3
Fire/Burn 544 0.7
Poisoning 972 1.2
Suffocation/Strangulation 1,263 1.5
Firearm 138 0.2
Homicide 3,345 4.1
Firearm 2,186 2.7
Suicide 1,665 2.0
Firearm 683 0.8
Suffocation/Strangulation 739 0.9
Poisoning 133 0.2
Source: National Center for Health Statistics
Rates based on 20 or fewer deaths may be unstable. Use with caution.

[Black]

billb wrote:
What a horrible and disgusting place to live Washington is.

A gun accidently self-fires and is considered an "attack", murder, extreme violence .
I'm surprised the gun hasn't become an automatic assault weapon firing taser voltages.

That small print can be so hard to read sometimes . . .


Originally published February 22, 2012 at 3:15 PM | Page modified February 22, 2012 at 10:30 PM

[Black]

mattkime wrote:
but its clear that this thread isn't going anywhere. pretty much anyone who has spoken has their mind made up. there's hardly any point in talking when thats the case

Oh, but it got so much better after you posted this . . . kj and billb to the rescue!

[davester]

kj wrote:
Would reducing the number of guns in the U.S. save kids like this? Can you imagine how many lives would be saved if children were required by law to wear helmets when they rode a bicycle? And it could actually be done. Heck, it'd be easier to make kids wear helmets all the time than to reduce the number of guns sufficiently to prevent these types of incidents. If you really want to "save the children", there are better things to put your energy into. Why does a gun incident cause a gun control frenzy, when other incidents that are much more preventable (not to mention far more numerous) are essentially ignored? kj.

This is a nonsense comparison. Also, many states do have child helmet laws that save lives...what of it?

[Grace62]

Will there be apologies from cbelt and kj about their assertions that the gun isn't the very specific problem here?
Apparently this student had no violent intent, at least not at the moment towards this particular child.
The gun went off accidentally while inside a backpack.
I can't remember the last time a knife did that.
Absent the gun, this girl is in class today, smiling with her friends.
Insert gun into picture, she's in intensive care.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/home/index.html

"But moments before the end of school, a single gunshot was fired in a third-grade classroom, striking 8-year-old Amina Bowman. The girl was flown to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, where she remains listed in critical condition this morning.

Bremerton police believe the shooting was accidental.

Another student had brought the loaded handgun to school, police said. The handgun accidentally discharged while it was in the boy's backpack, and the bullet struck Amina, police said.

Police said a handgun was recovered in the classroom.

The student who took the handgun to school has been booked into the Kitsap County Juvenile Detention Center for investigation of unlawful possession of a firearm, bringing a dangerous weapon onto school grounds and third-degree assault.

Investigators are trying to determine where the boy obtained the handgun."

[Grace62]

I can't believe we're talking about bike helmets here, but here are the stats. 74 children 14 and younger killed in bike accidents in 2009, 630 deaths among people of all ages.

Gun deaths of kids are in the thousands each year, tens of thousands total.

http://www.helmets.org/stats.htm

[mattkime]

>>Will there be apologies from cbelt and kj about their assertions that the gun isn't the very specific problem here?

No, nor would they expect one from you if the circumstances of the incident were different.

besides, one incident is hardly representative of societal problems.

[Spock]

Cars don't kill people, people in cars kill people. What to do to reduce the carnage?

Do we try and make drivers safer by only improving their driving skills, No.

We make the roads we drive on better and we make the cars safer by improving the brakes and steering, installing seat belts, airbags, crumple zones and stability control.



Guns don't kill people, people with guns kill people. What to do to reduce the carnage?

We increase the capacity of magazines, increase the calibre of ammunition, we sell more guns. Brilliant.