8‑Year-Old Boy Shot And Killed In The Hill

This is a tragedy, but an "accident" it is not. This child's death was entirely preventable. The owner of the firearm should be charged with manslaughter for their reckless and negligent behavior (leaving a loaded weapon accessible to a child).

My sincerest condolences to the child's loved ones. This is a preventable tragedy, but I'm sure the persons responsible are in agony with their grief over the loss of the child.

If we as a society are unwilling to give up our love affair with guns, and can only open our smartphones with facial recognition or fingerprint recognition, a law requiring all gun makers to have guns unable to fire without the same kind of identification, and require guns to be retrofitted with the similar technology, would prevent these kind of accidental shootings and prevent stolen guns and illegally sold guns to be able to be fired by an unauthorized person.
I long for the day when not one more child will die due to an accidental shooting.

@engaged citizen...my thoughts exactly! I give no condolences to parents who r this reckless in causing a premeditated murder.

Estimate of Civilian Firearms per 100 persons, 2017

United States of America, 120.5

Canada, 34.7
France, 19.6
Germany, 19.6
Greece, 17.6
Italy, 14.4

Russia, 12.3
Denmark, 9.9
Brazil, 8.3
Spain, 7.5
Israel, 6.7

England & Wales, 4.6
China, 3.6
Netherlands, 2.6
Japan, 0.3
South Korea, 0.2
North Korea, 0.3

It appears from the data that the best place to get your child accidentally killed by a privately owned, civilian gun is in the United States.

Which country do YOU feel safer in?

Condolences to the beloved family, friends and community for having lost this beautiful child much too early.

For whatever reason, this tragedy did not need to happen.

I grew up with firearms and still have them. The only accidental discharge is a mechanical failure of the weapon, which is incredibly rare nowadays. Barring that, this is a negligent discharge and the shooter needs to be held fully legally responsible for the child's death and not treated like a victim. Forgiveness came only come once the 8 year old child is brought back to life and the pain of everyone involved is erased - which means never. There is no rewind or undo button in life, especially with firearms. RIP little guy, I'm so sorry some reckless person has stolen your future...

God bless this child and his family.

greyhound - thanks there was a lot of vision and wisdom in what you wrote. Thank you for that.

But, as the data shows, compared to other civilized countries, the U.S. has a disproportionate number of guns per 100 people.

Reading the book, "Dying for Whiteness" written by a doctor who spent two years in the places like
Kentucky and West Virginia, the astounding thing his data showed is that it is young WHITE MEN who top the list in suicides per capita in the U.S.

So, given our population there is almost a gun per person in the hands of who knows?

And, that's the problem. You need a driver's license to drive another killer - the automobile, but with a gun what training is required State by State?

In regard to suicides, when the gun laws were relaxed in many states the suicide rate by young WHITE men skyrocketed. The doctor who wrote "Dying for Whiteness" who went to a support group for survivors said the incredible thing was that the people said it was not the proliferation of guns that killed so many and that they had to figure out WHY these young men were killing themselves (no jobs?). I think it's BOTH. Too many guns and too many economic and social problems for people to cope with them.

Understandable. But, I'll bet a lot of people would feel more relaxed if they got the gun out of the house - especially if there is a remote chance that the owner does not understand how to handle a gun.

I know gun owners. They have a right to own a gun, and I have no problem with people who respect the weapon and care for it properly.

However, real security comes in not having the gun in the house at all.

To stop this kind of needless gun slaughter, we need good paying jobs, healthcare, good schools, and communities where people are connected and can help each other. We need to stop buying into the fear of the "other" - the Chinese, the Russians, the whoevers.

In countries where gun slaughter is low, they have societal safety nets. We don't.

VOTE.

I agree with everyone challenging the police department's vacuous phrasing ("accidental discharge.")

There are no details, so it's hard to know whether this tragedy is the result of negligent storage and the child gaining possession of the gun, or someone else mishandling it. Either way, the responsible should face criminal sanctions.

Cue the gun apologists in 3 . . . 2. . . 1. . .

Heather C,

Do You want to apply smart technology to any other constitutional rights? Maybe fingerprint ID to vote, go to church, or report the news? Leftists never run out of ideas on how to limit the 2nd amendment.

Oh Fitzy, did anything on your list of lefty ideas lead to children being killed? I agree that her idea was maybe not a great one but maybe try harder to come up with a better argument next time?

This city needs some help. Nobody should ever ever have to deal with a stupid accident like this.

This did not have to happen. More guns, more deaths.

States with more guns see more accidental deaths from firearms, and children ages 5 to 14 are 11 times more likely to be killed with a gun in the US compared to other developed countries, where gun ownership is much less common.

About half of gun accident fatalities happen to people under 25, and some recent analyses suggest that the official count of gun accident deaths among children is understated.

"When 34 injury prevention experts were asked to prioritize home injury hazards for young children, based on frequency, severity, and preventability of the injury, the experts rated access to firearms in the home as the most significant hazard," Harvard gun expert David Hemenway writes.

The American Academy of Pediatrics has stated that "the absence of guns from children's homes and communities is the most reliable and effective measure to prevent firearm-related injuries in children and adolescents."

This did not have to happen. More guns, more deaths by guns.

Guns can kill you in three ways: homicide, suicide, and by accident. Owning a gun or having one readily accessible makes all three more likely. One meta-analysis "found strong evidence for increased odds of suicide among persons with access to firearms compared with those without access and moderate evidence for an attenuated increased odds of homicide victimization when persons with and without access to firearms were compared." The latter finding is stronger for women, a reminder that guns are also a risk factor for domestic violence.

The U.S. is the biggest exporter of weaponry and it's population is more armed than any other civilized country in the world.

This accident happened because there are too many guns out there.

More guns, more children getting killed.

This did not have to happen.

I think instead of presenting statistics and making talking points most should just say their condolences to the family and keep it moving. The NHI comments never cease to amaze in how one wants to politicize a horrifically sad incident. I hope the family members that loved that child find peace at some point. I'm sure the guilt of having a weapon unsecured is enough at this point before anything else happens criminally.

The U. S. has made its choice. We love our firearms. People -- young, old, and in-between -- will continue to die in large numbers every day until we stop loving guns so much. Newspapers should simply report shootings the way they report the weather, except in retrospect, under the daily header BEYOND STUPID: "Yesterday saw a flurry of gunfire in Neighborhood X, with 3 wounded and 1 dead. Neighborhood Y was quiet."

Fitzy14- A responsible gun owner wouldn't want anyone other than themselves to be able to fire their gun. I don't understand why technology that would protect someone's child from firing a gun, or their gun being stolen and used illegally, or their gun being taken by someone and used against themselves, would be a bad thing. It doesn't restrict your second amendment, it would simply protect your gun from being used by anyone other than yourself as a legal gun owner.
Elmcitybornandraised- gun violence is a political topic because the horrific toll it takes on our country. Every child lost to a gun, every innocent person lost to a gun, is directly a result of our society's laws on gun ownership and our society's love affair with firearms. If you look at the gun violence statistics in every other country on this planet, you'll see America has to address this issue. It is all of our responsibility to do something. Thoughts and prayers and condolences aren't going to prevent the next innocent victim.

elmcitybornand raised...you pointed a finger without having read my condolence message to the family.

I posted it on August 8th.

Who doesn't agree what a horrific thing this was?

Does that mean we should not, as a society, try to understand WHY?

No one that I could find on this website did not give condolences to the family - including me.

If you don't want to learn about why the proliferation of guns kills so many children, then keep your head in the sand.

Someone has to take responsibility for what happened here because it appears that the young man did not kill himself!

And, until we, as a society come to grips with why so many guns (profits?), then more and more youngsters will be killed.

This did not need to happen and the family and community will NEVER get over it.

Too many guns, too many children dying. That's the reality of this.

Wild West,
I think abortion is a leftist idea that has led to the death of many children. I think NY has bail reform which has led to the deaths of people also.

Heather C

I know hundreds of gun owners and none want smart guns. They are unreliable and overly complicated. People aren't supposed to steal guns and use them illegally. Instead of mandating regulations for people who exercise their constitutional rights, why don't we severely punish those who steal guns and those who commit gun crimes?

elmcitybornandraised: "I'm sure the guilt of having a weapon unsecured is enough at this point before anything else happens criminally."

Yeah, no. It's not enough. If it was enough, idiot gunslingers would have learned the first few hundred times it happened:

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/investigations/2019/03/19/gun-deaths-shooting-accidents-killed-73-kids-last-year/3032060002/

Fitzy: "People aren't supposed to steal guns and use them illegally. Instead of mandating regulations for people who exercise their constitutional rights, why don't we severely punish those who steal guns and those who commit gun crimes?"

But . . . wait . . . stolen guns? Surely that can't happen, because guns are our last bulwark against crime and tyranny. Nothing can bad can happen to a person with a gun. Surely no gun owner is weak and lax enough to get his guns stolen . . . why didn't he just shoot the would-be thief with one of his <i>other</i> guns? It's almost as if the fantasies about gun ownership are all bullshit.

Wild West,
I think abortion is a leftist idea that has led to the death of many children. I think NY has bail reform which has led to the deaths of people also.

Fitzy14, I thought this conversation was about a young 8 year old child dying from a gunshot wound?

Anyway, if you're not in favor of abortion, then don't have one.

William, I would think most guns are stolen when the owner isn't home and is going somewhere that is gun free. Maybe less thefts would happen if people were allowed to carry more.

Wes, i would say if you aren't not a fan of guns, don't own one