Six-year-old in custody after shooting teacher

I assume that real guns are heavy so wouldn't it take some strength for a 6/7 year old child to hold, aim and fire a gun? Would it also be difficult for a child to load a gun? I guess the child would have had to have had some experience in handling a gun? It's difficult to imagine a young child being able to shoot someone other than by accident i.e. the gun going off and hitting someone but, the reports are very clearly saying that it was a deliberate act.
 

Catballou said:
Your attitude is typical of many Americans. I can't imagine being so paranoid that I feel it's necessary to "plan ahead" and purchase a gun. I'd love to know how many home invasions there are in the U.S. Do they happen on a daily basis? Has it happened to anyone you know? Is it a real threat or a perceived threat? If you have this much fear, why not install an alarm system and/or get a large dog? There are other alternatives for protection that don't involve blowing someone's brains out. Also, please don't call me an idiot. I'm actually very intelligent.
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Personally, if I lived in US I would favour security lighting, CCTV and a large, noisy dog before I would dream of having one or more firearms inside the house.

Luckily I live in Australia and have no need to turn my house into an armed fortress. I only lock the back door when I go out or I am heading to bed.
 
CallMeKate said:
I'll try to answer some of them, but just the stats for my own relatively small town (population slightly under 9,000) because I don't know the stats for the whole country. I don't have a gun... let me just get that said. But I am hellishly proud to be an American and be afforded the right to bear arms as stated in my constitution. Anyhow, your questions... yes, my town has many home invasions... 37% more now than in 2019. Old ladies in their beds get raped. Homeowners get hacked to death. My "little" and "safe" town saw 11 murders in 2022. Do I personally know anyone who's had a home invasion? Crap, yes. Do I know anyone who was killed in one? If you visit the area sometime, I'll take you to his gravesite. I will never own a gun, but if the time comes when the government takes that right away for those who want to protect their home and family with them, we are going to be in sorry shape. (ADDING: I'm appalled at the news story of the 6 year old, of course, and his parents... I'm just stating my feelings on the overall issue.)
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You have more patience than I have when dealing with people who don't live in the real world.
As I've mentioned previously, I live in a nice quiet area - with many celebrities as neighbors. The house next door had a violent home invasion robbery where an elderly couple were hospitalized after being beaten.
 

Trish said:
I assume that real guns are heavy so wouldn't it take some strength for a 6/7 year old child to hold, aim and fire a gun? Would it also be difficult for a child to load a gun? I guess the child would have had to have had some experience in handling a gun? It's difficult to imagine a young child being able to shoot someone other than by accident i.e. the gun going off and hitting someone but, the reports are very clearly saying that it was a deliberate act.
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No, not all real guns are heavy. There are modern materials that make use of light weight polymers that replace some of the metal parts. Some guns today weigh less than the ammo in them.
Loading an auto does require some strength, but loading a revolver doesn't. It's likely the child had access to the gun when it was already loaded by his brain-dead parents.
 
win231 said:
You have more patience than I have when dealing with people who don't live in the real world.
As I've mentioned previously, I live in a nice quiet area - with many celebrities as neighbors. The house next door had a violent home invasion robbery where an elderly couple were hospitalized after being beaten.
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I'm sorry to hear about your neighbors, @win231 . I'd love to live in la-la-land where nothing bad happens, but when I pop into a convenience store for a candy bar and come home to see breaking local news that someone was just stabbed in that store 10 minutes after I left, it tends to take the blinders off real fast. Utopia, if it ever existed, is dead.
 
Warrigal said:
Personally, if I lived in US I would favour security lighting, CCTV and a large, noisy dog before I would dream of having one or more firearms inside the house.

Luckily I live in Australia and have no need to turn my house into an armed fortress. I only lock the back door when I go out or I am heading to bed.
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I wouldn't even consider living in the U.S. It's a broken country in many ways. I'm quite happy to live in Canada where we don't think there's bad guys with guns lurking around every corner.
 
CallMeKate said:
I'll try to answer some of them, but just the stats for my own relatively small town (population slightly under 9,000) because I don't know the stats for the whole country. I don't have a gun... let me just get that said. But I am hellishly proud to be an American and be afforded the right to bear arms as stated in my constitution. Anyhow, your questions... yes, my town has many home invasions... 37% more now than in 2019. Old ladies in their beds get raped. Homeowners get hacked to death. My "little" and "safe" town saw 11 murders in 2022. Do I personally know anyone who's had a home invasion? Crap, yes. Do I know anyone who was killed in one? If you visit the area sometime, I'll take you to his gravesite. I will never own a gun, but if the time comes when the government takes that right away for those who want to protect their home and family with them, we are going to be in sorry shape. (ADDING: I'm appalled at the news story of the 6 year old, of course, and his parents... I'm just stating my feelings on the overall issue.)
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That is pretty appalling that your town has had so many murders. BUT I have to wonder how many of those murders would have been prevented if the homeowners had guns. Again, if someone invades your house with a weapon, they're not going to wait for you to go to your lockbox or gun cabinet to get your weapon. Owning a gun is not the answer. Implementing home security measures is.
 
Catballou said:
I wouldn't even consider living in the U.S. It's a broken country in many ways. I'm quite happy to live in Canada where we don't think there's bad guys with guns lurking around every corner.
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I don't feel threatened where I live, but if I lived in a neighborhood where there's a lot of violence, I'd own a gun... at least until I could afford to move to a better neighborhood.
 
win231 said:
No, not all real guns are heavy. There are modern materials that make use of light weight polymers that replace some of the metal parts. Some guns today weigh less than the ammo in them.
Loading an auto does require some strength, but loading a revolver doesn't. It's likely the child had access to the gun when it was already loaded by his brain-dead parents.
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Thank you @win231 So sad. Hopefully the teacher will make a full recovery. It is difficult to believe that a young child could have any real appreciation of the consequences or even the intention to kill. :(
 
I was a social worker and worked in child protective services. They are going to have a difficult time finding a regular foster home if it’s ever deemed appropriate. I had a 5 year old boy on my caseload so severely abused and disturbed that I would have been afraid to fall asleep in the same house with him.

He once asked me to run over his mother and started a fire in a worker’s car when she was driving. I always put him in the front seat even though it was more dangerous so I could keep a close eye on him. Of course none of this behavior was his fault because of the abuse.
 
CallMeKate said:
I never heard of this publication... is it reputable?
https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/gang-shootings-push-canada-murder-rates
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It is a reputable publication, yes. I am aware of increased gun violence in Canada. But, as the article states, the increase is almost exclusively due to gang violence. Our government is taking steps to further strengthen our gun laws to address this problem. Unlike the U.S. government, which does nothing to protect its citizens from gun violence because of some outdated constitutional "right" to bear arms.

Canada has not had anywhere near the mass shootings that the U.S. has had...especially not school shootings of innocent little children. In your country, firearms are the leading cause of death for American children and teens. That is beyond appalling.

There is absolutely no need for the average Canadian citizen to own or conceal a gun, unless it's used for hunting or target practice. The bottom line is, the fewer guns available, the less gun violence.

Take a look at this and tell me again how "hellishly proud" you are to be an American: Gun violence in America, told through seven charts - The Globe and Mail
 
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Catballou said:
It is a reputable publication, yes. I am aware of increased gun violence in Canada. But, as the article states, the increase is almost exclusively due to gang violence. Our government is taking steps to further strengthen our gun laws to address this problem. Unlike the U.S. government, which does nothing to protect its citizens from gun violence because of some outdated constitutional "right" to bear arms.

Canada has not had anywhere near the mass shootings that the U.S. has had...especially not school shootings of innocent little children. Here, there is no talk of arming teachers with weapons. There is absolutely no need for the average Canadian citizen to own or conceal a gun, unless it's used for hunting or target practice. The bottom line is, the fewer guns available, the less gun violence.

Take a look at this and tell me again how proud you are to be an American: Gun violence in America, told through seven charts - The Globe and Mail
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Catballou said:
It is a reputable publication, yes. I am aware of increased gun violence in Canada. But, as the article states, the increase is almost exclusively due to gang violence. Our government is taking steps to further strengthen our gun laws to address this problem. Unlike the U.S. government, which does nothing to protect its citizens from gun violence because of some outdated constitutional "right" to bear arms.

Canada has not had anywhere near the mass shootings that the U.S. has had...especially not school shootings of innocent little children. In your country, firearms are the leading cause of death for American children and teens. That is beyond appalling.

There is absolutely no need for the average Canadian citizen to own or conceal a gun, unless it's used for hunting or target practice. The bottom line is, the fewer guns available, the less gun violence.

Take a look at this and tell me again how "hellishly proud" you are to be an American: Gun violence in America, told through seven charts - The Globe and Mail
Click to expand...
 
Trish said:
I assume that real guns are heavy so wouldn't it take some strength for a 6/7 year old child to hold, aim and fire a gun? Would it also be difficult for a child to load a gun? I guess the child would have had to have had some experience in handling a gun? It's difficult to imagine a young child being able to shoot someone other than by accident i.e. the gun going off and hitting someone but, the reports are very clearly saying that it was a deliberate act.
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Assuming a normal sized 6 year old, any model of handgun would be very hard to hold and fire, not to mention load and prep.

It's almost as if the child had been instructed in how to handle/shoot, or had watched someone who did it often.
 
win231 said:
No, not all real guns are heavy. There are modern materials that make use of light weight polymers that replace some of the metal parts. Some guns today weigh less than the ammo in them.
Loading an auto does require some strength, but loading a revolver doesn't. It's likely the child had access to the gun when it was already loaded by his brain-dead parents.
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The minimum for any loaded common firearm would be may be 20 oz. However, these are very often fairly expensive "carry" hand guns and no commonly seen.
 
Teacher Terry said:
I was a social worker and worked in child protective services. They are going to have a difficult time finding a regular foster home if it’s ever deemed appropriate. I had a 5 year old boy on my caseload so severely abused and disturbed that I would have been afraid to fall asleep in the same house with him.

He once asked me to run over his mother and started a fire in a worker’s car when she was driving. I always put him in the front seat even though it was more dangerous so I could keep a close eye on him. Of course none of this behavior was his fault because of the abuse.
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At what age does it become his fault?
 
Ok. Going there in a fantasy. Grandma keeps a loaded gun easily accessible because she needs to enter her garage several times a day….( for explanation see posts about elderly woman killed in her garage)
 
CallMeKate said:
*Excellent* question, @Pepper ... I've been wondering, too. Age of accountability... shouldn't that be when a child understands right from wrong? I don't know... I'll watch the responses to this because this news story is so out of the ordinary and I'm curious.
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I do not know of any legal historical facts concerning age, but the... Mens Rea/Actus Reus...or culpable mental state doctrine, has its roots many hundreds of years ago. In short, "The person can not be guilty if the mind is not guilty". I could not find Virginia's in the statutes, but surely it is in the Case law. As an example, here is Ohio's. The Model Penal Code, seems to list "Blamelessly" as one also!

https://codes.ohio.gov/ohio-revised-code/section-2901.22
 
Teacher Terry said:
I was a social worker and worked in child protective services. They are going to have a difficult time finding a regular foster home if it’s ever deemed appropriate. I had a 5 year old boy on my caseload so severely abused and disturbed that I would have been afraid to fall asleep in the same house with him.

He once asked me to run over his mother and started a fire in a worker’s car when she was driving. I always put him in the front seat even though it was more dangerous so I could keep a close eye on him. Of course none of this behavior was his fault because of the abuse.
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how does this happen ?...Don't get me wrong, I know it happens that's well documented, but how ?.. really I suppose it's rhetorical question because no one person could answer this.. but as many people who've been here for a long time already know.. I had a particularly horrendous childhood.. which included everything but murder.. I'll leave it at that..my siblings and I also watched while our mother was badly abused.. yet we're not murderers, we're not drug or alcohol or child abusers,... That's not to say we're not scarred by our childhoods.. and that as children we were angry.. yes we were and we got into fights with other kids, we took our anger and yes, rage.. out on other kids in playground fights ...but kill someone ?.. even think of killing someone.. ?.. No.. never crossed our minds ( aside from a 1/2 serious discussion between us as kids of what we might do to our father )
 
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