You can't fix stupid. These parents are just idiots and I blame them for not keeping deadly weapons safely away from their children. Truth is, most of these people would probably pass background checks.

I'm at a loss. What can we do?

Unsubstantiated statements and a "What can we do?" response is negligent behavior and counterproductive. Let me offer a start - I would begin with the dysfunctional family down the street. Would they pass a background check - absolutely not - but, hey, they don't need to worry about that - one of young men in the family just bought a new gun at a gun show (this according to his young son [the one who drowned his grandma's little dogs - did I mention that they're a troubled family]). - This family is unstable - one of the uncles marched down to the local elementary school with a tazer because of a perceived slight to his nephew by the Principal. - I can go on and on about this family - but suffice it to say they scare me and they have a whole lot of guns.

Serious discussion needs to begin taking place, and counterproductive sound bites and slogans need to stop.

Unloaded handgun and bullets where kids could get them.

What's your plan to deal with dysfunctional families with guns?

A background check would prevent the man in my neighborhood from legally buying a gun. That's a real start for me. I don't have a lot of control about certain situations, but I would feel better if the law was against him and with our neighborhood. When searching for solutions, honest discussion needs to take place, not inflammatory rhetoric, not attacks, not gotcha accusations - honest discussion and solutions

Unless fairies with little pink wings gave them the gun then someone's parent was negligent.

I don't know for certain if they would have passed a background check or even if one was required for that particular gun.

Anyway, I took your rather nasty answer the first time but if you want honest discussion you'll have to improve your technique. I really don't care to chat with you anymore.

Bu-bye!

requiring parents to keep guns in a safe out of the hands of children, unless of course their goal is too see kids killed.

And, if someone DUers would call a "gun nut" tries to tell me prison is extreme in light of losing a child, my answer to that is a hearty fuck you. The unmitigated idiocy of the parent who owns the gun cost a young child his life.

"Lock it up or get locked up." A responsible gun law if I ever heard one.

but we had some on her yesterday talking about how keeping a gun in a safe violated the Second Amendment.

fuck you.

The gun owners in my family kept their firearms in a locked safe.

As callous as it may sound, people who feel their 2nd amendment rights are being curtailed by not having a firearm at the ready, 'locked and loaded', are learning harsh lessons of living and dying by the sword.

For people who are doing it out of plain ignorance, carelessness, or forgetfulness, they're learning the hardest way possible.

weapons in a safe away from children, and their followers here on DU agree. Meanwhile, more children die.

To allow kids access to deadly weapons? I don't know why guns get special treatment.

But they do seem to get special treatment. If you let your kid near a bottle of Draino, you go to jail. Your kid kills himself with a gun, nothing happens.

And I asked if he thought the parents had got rid of the guns in their house after 1 child killed the other and we both agreed they probably didn't.

It's is a cultural thing I think. I have 6 and 9 year old boys and would never dream of buying them a gun. For that matter we don't own any. It's hard for me to get my head around parents who give a .22 to a kindergartener.