Guns for Little Kids?

An American tragedy in Burkesville, Kentucky. On April 30, Stephanie
Sparks was paying little attention to her children, 5-year-old Kristian and
2-year old Caroline, when she stepped outside her kitchen door to pour some
grease from the frying pan into her dog's dish. Suddenly, Mrs. Sparks heard a
gun go off. When she rushed back inside, Mrs. Sparks discovered to her horror
that her son had killed her daughter with a single shot to the chest.

The son wasn't playing with his dad's firearm. You see 5-year-old Kristian had a gun of his own. His Crickett rifle was designed especially for small children by Keystone Sporting Goods of Milton, Pennsylvania. To make it more appealing to kids, the Crickett  comes in colors ranging from plain brown to hot pink to orange to royal blue to multi-color swirls. Keystone Sporting Goods claims that it produced 60,000 rifles for young children in 2008.

The rifle stood in a corner of the Sparks' kitchen. The gun had a lock to prevent a child from loading more bullets, but nothing to stop it from being fired. Unfortunately, a bullet was already in the chamber, and that bullet was the one that killed Caroline.

It is not my purpose to condemn the Sparks for their carelessness. Their grief is punishment enough. Certainly, in a nation of 310 million people, children can die for many reasons, a shot from a gun being just one of them. Let me save my anger for a company, Keystone Sporting Goods, that makes a lethal weapon for small children. According to the Louisville Courier-Journal (5/2/2013), "On its website, the company offers a 'Kids' Corner' with pictures of small boys and girls and testimonials from parents, including one who says the rifles are 'just the right size for my 5- and 7-year olds.'"

There is a reason kids aren't allowed to vote, to drink alcohol, to drive cars, and are required to attend school. They are minors. They haven't had enough life experiences to make wise decisions. While they mature, their parents and society in general are charged with protecting children, sometimes from themselves. Not only did Keystone Sporting Goods not protect their small customers, it actually contributed to the likelihood that they would harm themselves by providing them with guns.  Keystone Sporting Goods is truly a merchant of death.

The Courier-Journal adds, "In an interview, Dr. Denise Dowd, an emergency room pediatrician at Children's Mercy Hospitals in Kansas City who co-wrote the American Academy of Pediatricians policy on children and guns, said she was 'blown away' that anyone would give a rifle to a 5-year-old. 'We don't give our kids the keys to our car, and there is a good reason for it,' she said."

The Courier-Journal continues, "The pediatricians' group says on its website that the safest home for a child is one without guns, and that if a family keeps guns, they should be stored, locked and unloaded."

"Ah," you say, "don't these kids have their parents' permission to own Crickett rifles?" In rural areas of Kentucky, it is traditional  for small children to own guns,
sometimes for hunting. Well, there are traditions, and then there are
traditions. Many are helpful, but some are actually harmful. Few among us would
argue about the value of the traditional celebration of holidays such as
Thanksgiving, the 4th of July, Mother's Day, Father's Day, Labor Day, and
Memorial Day. On the other hand, the tradition of drinking too much on New
Year's Eve or St. Patrick's Day or your 21st birthday  leads to car accidents and, generally speaking, more harm than good. A classmate of mine entered the 5th grade minus two fingers because he engaged in the tradition of kids' setting off fireworks on the 4th of July.

Let's put the tradition of giving small children their own firearms in the category of a really bad idea and a really bad tradition. Let's make it illegal - everywhere.