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Georgia 6-year-old finds gun in couch cushion, fatally shoots herself

Anomalism

Anomalism

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Too bad her father wasn't smart enough to not have a loaded firearm within reach of a child.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...-gun-in-couch-cushion-fatally-shoots-herself/

Ja’Mecca Smith was the youngest of seven children, the baby of the family. 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.
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We have a remedy for that, the article mentions that the responsible party, 25-year-old Demarqo Smith, was charged with involuntary manslaughter and reckless conduct.

Not perfect, but you cannot bubble wrap society into a perfectly safe environment no matter what is said about gun control legislation. Law is about dealing with consequences, if it were otherwise you end up with society and law being nothing more than something like what you see in the movie 'Minority Report.'

It is sad that we have more loss of life due to negligence with a gun, but gun control in itself is no definitive proof of assurance that negligence goes away. Stupid and reckless people will still be stupid and reckless no matter what legislation is crafted.
 
Biometric sensors on guns would have stopped this.
 
Am surprized this doesn't happen more often. With the number of gangster wannabes, morons trying to be Rambo, and the number of lazy fat asses who don't secure their weapon properly that this doesn't happen daily.

I don't always agree with TurtleDude but you know when you walk in his house you aren't going to find a loaded pistol laying on a coffee table covered with Doritoes and Pepsi cans.

You have to have respect for the gun or should just have it taken it away from you.
 
Anomalism said:
Too bad her father wasn't smart enough to not have a loaded firearm within reach of a child.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...-gun-in-couch-cushion-fatally-shoots-herself/
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I'm pro-second amendment, but I'm also someone that believes that with the 2nd amendment comes great responsibility.

The person who is responsible for that gun being loaded and so accessible to that child without a trigger lock on it, should be held legally responsible for that child's death as if they had pulled the trigger themselves.

.
 
MaggieD said:
As a deterrent. As a lesson. As a punishment exacted by the citizens if the state you live in.
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so lets think this through


another parent will be deterred more by the news that some idiot went to jail over losing their kid to an accidental gun shot wound?
 
TurtleDude said:
for what purpose?
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Punishment? Pour encourager les autres?
Do you really think the guy isn't criminally culpable? If he isn't there's definitely one law needed in Georgia.
 
TurtleDude said:
so lets think this through


another parent will be deterred more by the news that some idiot went to jail over losing their kid to an accidental gun shot wound?
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Ohferfvcksakes.
Not like another junkie will be deterred by hearing someone got time for a home-invasion robbery.
Listen. If it's not against the law in Georgia to leave a loaded gun in a child's access, it needs to be. Damn. How come gun advocates don't understand that they also need to be responsibility advocates?
 
TurtleDude said:
so lets think this through

another parent will be deterred more by the news that some idiot went to jail over losing their kid to an accidental gun shot wound?
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Sometimes society has the right to punish stupidity.
 
truthatallcost said:
So he doesn't lose anymore loaded guns in da couch.
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I can understand punishing the guy for being negligent. But seriously claiming its going to deter others is idiotic. If having your kid's brains blown out all over your new sofa doesn't cause you to keep your gun secure, the threat of a couple years in jail won't either
 
MaggieD said:
Sometimes society has the right to punish stupidity.
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just don't pretend it will deter others. people that stupid aren't going to worry about down the road consequences
 
MaggieD said:
Sometimes society has the right to punish stupidity.
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When stupidity becomes criminal, yes.
If I was King, the guy would be charged with the death, criminal negligence and manslaughter.
 
TurtleDude said:
so lets think this through


another parent will be deterred more by the news that some idiot went to jail over losing their kid to an accidental gun shot wound?
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It has nothing to do with the relationship of the perp and victim or the specific hazard being a loaded gun. It has to do with criminal negligence. If it had been a bottle of prescription medicine found and ingested by a neighbor's visiting child it would have been the same crime.
 
ttwtt78640 said:
It has nothing to do with the relationship of the perp and victim or the specific hazard being a loaded gun. It has to do with criminal negligence. If it had been a bottle of prescription medicine found and ingested by a neighbor's visiting child it would have been the same crime.
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sure, but just don't pretend its about deterrence. In this type of "crime" deterrence is not at issue
 
Father should go directly to jail with extra years for naming his kid "Ja’Mecca". Not the brightest bunch we're dealing with here.
 
TurtleDude said:
sure, but just don't pretend its about deterrence. In this type of "crime" deterrence is not at issue
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Deterrents is rarely the point of most "crime" legislation anyway.
 
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