Oregon: "Shirley Stageberg: 'I never want to see another child shot' "

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from the Oregonian

http://www.oregonlive.com/commentary/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/editorial/105179062331920.xml
Shirley Stageberg: 'I never want to see another child shot'

05/01/03

SHIRLEY STAGEBERG

L arry, my 12-year-old son's new friend, pounded on my window. "I shot your son," he screamed.

My mind and legs exploded as I ran across the parking lot. Darin lay curled on the sidewalk, shot in the head. "Call an ambulance. Call an ambulance," I yelled at the motionless people circled around him, and I tore through an open door into someone's apartment. As I grabbed the phone, all I could think was, "He looks dead."

Each time I hear of another child being shot, I relive our family's trauma years ago. In 2001 in the United States, 3,365 children were killed by guns. Children are dying at a rate of eight per day; four times that number are injured.

My son was a lucky statistic who would go on to graduate from college and marry. The bullet that entered his nose ricocheted off his cheekbone, missing his brain. Most parents believe, as I did, that an unintentional shooting is unlikely. After all, I never owned a gun. Now I know that there are 193 million guns in the United States; half the guns in homes are loaded, not locked, or both. In 2000, 29 children were killed in Oregon and 49 in the state of Washington.

Larry's mother's boyfriend had let the boys into his apartment to watch television. He went to the grocery store, leaving a .22-caliber rifle behind the davenport. Larry raised what he thought was an unloaded rifle, aimed and pulled the trigger. Fifty-five percent of unintentional shootings are committed by a child or teenager.

The emotional and health costs are immense. The repercussion from the shot created a hole in one of Darin's main arteries. In an all-day brain surgery his skull was opened and the artery clamped shut, saving his life. Larry called three days after the shooting, still not knowing whether or not Darin had lived. I believe the trauma probably still haunts him, for certainly I have struggled with post-traumatic stress from the shooting.

Who is responsible? Children are curious and immature even into their early teens. Larry was never charged, for the police called it an accident. Had the shooting occurred today with "get tough" laws for children, he would have faced criminal charges. The 13-year-old from Clark County who killed his sister with his father's police revolver was convicted of manslaughter and will spend five years in detention. A year ago a 12-year-old in Yamhill County found his parents' gun and accidentally shot his best friend. He was immediately taken into custody and charged with second-degree assault, recklessly endangering another, and pointing a firearm at another.

None of the adults were charged in any of the cases. Although 18 states (including California) have Child Access Prevention laws, neither Oregon nor Washington does. CAP laws require adults to store guns in a place not accessible to those under 18 years of age or to use a safety device to lock the gun. In states that have enacted such laws deaths of children decreased 23 percent two years after they went into effect.

Organizations such as Ceasefire Oregon, The Brady Campaign and the Million Moms March collect national statistics and support legislation to promote responsible adult gun ownership. The NRA opposes CAP laws, preferring instead to publish gun safety material aimed only at children through the cartoon figure "Eddie Eagle."

I never want to see another child shot. I believe that only when "safe storage" laws become a reality will the number of unintentional gun deaths decline. The fact is this: A gun in the home is 22 times more likely to kill a family member than an intruder.

Shirley Stageberg of Milwaukie is a writer and retired teacher.
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If you don't want to see a child shot, you should not shoot them.

Who is responsible? You are. Your failure to teach your children the Four Rules nearly cost your son his life. That is your fault. You almost killed your son. That is terrible, you should not have done that, but it is not my fault.

I will store my guns as I see fit just as I store my fire extinguishers. Ready to go.
 
IMHO, if a child shoots another person, the parent/gun owner should be held accountable, along with the child.
It is up to the parents to ingrain in childrens heads that guns are not toys and what to do around guns.
I all too often see where it is the boyfriend or "live in" whatever that brought the gun into the abode. It is up to the homeowner to make sure these people also follow the proper methods needed to keep the arms out of reach of the children that are not accustomed to guns.
Unfortunately, most of the times it is the unlawful owner of a gun that allows it to come in contact with kids, sometimes unbeknownst to the parent. The parent will always say "but I didn't know about the gun". BS, it's a fact of either not caring or not being responsible.

I have a soon to be 3 year old, a 1 year old, and another on the way.
I have promised myself that I will teach them the proper way to treat weapons; at first the "Eddie Eagle" way, not touch them and tell an adult. When I feel they are responsible enough I will start them on the path to responsible use and safety.

I only wish other adults had half the brains that many here seem to possess. (I use the term adults loosely, as many people in the adult category shouldn't belong)
 
Sorry, not an accident...

"Larry raised what he thought was an unloaded rifle, aimed and pulled the trigger." You point a rifle at me or mine and pull the trigger, it Damn well better be loaded. 'Cause I'm going to react like it is. One of us is not going home.
:fire:
 
It's sad that a huge percentage of parents have a "don't ask, don't tell" policy with regards to guns. They'll talk to the kids about drugs, all right. Sex, no problem. But guns? Never. They assume that because they don't have a gun in the house, their kid lives in a protected little bubble where nothing could ever go wrong. They don't talk to their kids about guns because they don't KNOW about guns. And they don't want to know. They assume it's somebody else's responsibility.

New parents should be given brochures by the hospital: How to educate your child about [Sex / Drugs / Peer Pressure / GUNS] in 5 easy steps.
 
"3,365 children were killed by guns.":barf:

"Larry raised what he thought was an unloaded rifle, aimed and pulled the trigger.":fire: This guy needs to be punished dearly.


edited for quotation marks.
 
People who teach their children nothing about firearms shouldn't be surprised when their children demonstrate complete ignorance of firearms.

People who believe their ignorance and irrational hoplophobia trump the nation's civil rights are wannabe tyrants.
 
Ladies and Gentlemen...

If you think this article was one-sided and unfair to gun owners...

Follow the web site listed. Go to the bottom of the page and click on the "feedback" link. You can write a note to the editor of the paper outlining your objections.

Think before you write. It'll probably get taken out of context anyway, but editors, like politicians, pay attention to numbers.
 
I have no sympathy whatsoever for a woman who neglected teaching the most minimal, rudimentary, basic gun safety to her child for the 12 years before this happened. Women like her should be charged with felony child neglect.

Before my own kids were three years old they were conditioned against touching firearms, putting their fingers into electrical outlets, walking into traffic...and they could swim. the youngest could swim before he could walk in fact.

I thought this to be an appropriate place for this info from the NCPA Digest:

CHILDREN'S ACCIDENTAL DEATH RATE FALLS

Children's death rates from unintentional injury have dropped by
almost 40 percent since 1987, according to a 13-year study
released by the National SAFE KIDS Campaign.
Unintentional injury is the top killer of children under 14,
ahead of cancer and birth defects. More than 5,600 children in
the United States die annually from unintentional injuries.

o Motor vehicle occupant injury declined 16 percent but
remained the leading cause of unintentional injury death,
followed by drowning and pedestrian injury.

o Bicycle-related deaths dropped 60 percent.

o Firearms deaths showed the largest decrease, down 72
percent.

o The least progress was made in poisoning prevention, down
just 5 percent, although the category saw a 41 percent
decline from 1981 to 1987.

Poverty is the primary predictor of fatal injury, the report
says. Sex and race also are factors: boys and minorities are
affected at significantly higher rates. Native American and
black children are the highest risk groups, about twice as prone
to fatal injury as white children.

Children under 1 year old were the most at-risk overall, with a
death rate more than twice that of all children. Airway
obstruction posed the most serious threat, accounting for 60
percent of deaths.

The study, which was sponsored by Johnson & Johnson, is based on
data from the National Vital Statistics System of the National
Center for Health Statistics and the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention for the years 1987 to 2000.

Source: In-Sung Yoo, "Study: Kids' Deadly Accidents Down 40
percent," USA Today, May 1, 2003.

For USA Today text http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2003-04-30-injuries-usat_x.htm

For more on SAFE KIDS
http://www.safekids.org

For more on Health Issues
http://www.ncpa.org/iss/hea/
 
People who teach their children nothing about firearms shouldn't be surprised when their children demonstrate complete ignorance of firearms.
Click to expand...

Hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil.

The assumption is if you don't talk about it or acknowledge it then it must not exist and therefore nothing bad will happen.

These kids (that survive) will go on to have kids of their own. Shudder.

It doesn’t take an Einstein to see how this insanity will eventually play out.
 
If she would apply a roll of duct tape around her head seeing another shooting wouldn't be a problem. She is blind to everything else so it wouldn't make her life any different.
 
Here's the letter I sent to the editor:

On the article by Shirley Stageberg: 'I never want to see another child shot', does anyone think a special law would have stopped this? This tragedy occured not because of lack of legislation, but because one person negligenty fired a rifle at another person. Firearms safety education could have prevented this, and apparently Mrs. Stageberg has not educated her child on this topic. It's time to stop asking the goverment to raise your children, or to clean up your sloppy parenting.

Here's the link, if anyone feels like writing them:editor
 
"3,365" That number sounds wrong to me. Didn't some group that Hillary belonged to come up with a number like that? It INCLUDED "Children" (youths?) up to age 25. Of course this included many gang bangers in the big cities.

As I recall the real number is less than half of the above quoted and has been falling for many years.
 
Another reason whay there should be mandatory firearms saftey training and range time in public schools!
 
For those who would celebrate the holding of the parent responsible for the crime of their child -- you were born about 227 years too late.

If you will recall, this issue was one of the yokes we threw off at the inception of this country. The British would regularly lock up an entire family for the wrongdoing of any member of that family.

Our country was founded on the premise that, with the exception of treason, the sins of the father should not be visited upon the son but now you want to visit the sins of the son upon the father.

Those who don't remember America, pre 1776, are doomed to repeat it.
 
Sure, but the mother in this case failed to educate her child. The idiot who pulled the trigger is at fault, but the mommy who refuses to teach safety to her kid is just plain stupid.
 
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