General Discussion

Robb

(39,665 posts) Sat Oct 19, 2013, 08:20 AM Oct 2013

"I'm not sure what happiness means anymore. I know it will never mean to me what I thought it did."

COLUMBUS -- Jodi Sandoval is a smart, sweet, pretty woman with brown curly hair and a face so sad it breaks your heart.

(snip)

For weeks after her son was killed, Jodi rarely left this room. “I could do nothing but sit here and be with him.”

Soon, Jodi will take her sorrow to South Carolina, where she’ll live with her boyfriend, the father of her sixth child, due in February.

But on Oct. 29, Jodi will be at the Statehouse, where she will testify in favor of House Bill 31, a law that would require “safe storage” or a trigger lock on guns whenever the adult possessing the weapon “knows or reasonably should know a minor is able to gain access to the firearm.”

Inexplicably, Ohio has no such “safe storage” law. And a magnificent piece in the Sept. 28 New York Times documented that accidental shootings result in twice as many child firearm deaths nationwide as records seem to indicate.

The paper reported that, in Ohio, records show 21 children under age 15 were killed in accidental gun deaths between 1999 and 2012. Because of irregularities in how child shooting deaths are reported, the Times found the Ohio child death count was actually 47, more than double what the public has been told.

That story also gave lie to the National Rifle Association's assertion that a majority of those child deaths were caused by adult criminals mishandling guns. Instead, the Times reported a “vast majority” of the deaths were due to shootings that were done by another child or accidentally self-inflicted.

Read More: http://www.cleveland.com/opinion/index.ssf/2013/10/inexcusable_gaps_in_ohio_law_m.html

8 replies

= new reply since forum marked as read

Highlight:

"I'm not sure what happiness means anymore. I know it will never mean to me what I thought it did." (Original Post) Robb Oct 2013 OP

I think there is no excuse for keeping guns brer cat Oct 2013 #1

So sad. Poor woman. Poor child. Shrike47 Oct 2013 #2

It's about time. Johnny Ready Oct 2013 #3

My heartfelt condolences to the Mother and her family. Johnny Ready Oct 2013 #4

Thank goodness you weren't hurt BrotherIvan Oct 2013 #6

Thank you for that. Johnny Ready Oct 2013 #7

I wrote my mom's obituary. I said that life won't ever be happy again. it will roguevalley Oct 2013 #5

so 0.001% of all kids in Ohio. 47 kids out of 2.7 million kids over 13 years The Straight Story Oct 2013 #8

brer cat

(24,575 posts)

1. I think there is no excuse for keeping guns

Reply to Robb (Original post)

Sat Oct 19, 2013, 09:08 AM

Oct 2013

where they are accessible by children. Surely even the most ardent gun lover can see that requiring safe storage or gun locks is sensible.

My heart goes out to this mother.

Shrike47

(6,913 posts)

2. So sad. Poor woman. Poor child.

Reply to Robb (Original post)

Sat Oct 19, 2013, 09:30 AM

Oct 2013

Johnny Ready

(203 posts)

3. It's about time.

Reply to Robb (Original post)

Sat Oct 19, 2013, 09:41 AM

Oct 2013

For what it is worth, I can tell you first hand how easily it was for me to find my Uncle Don's 38 hidden in his favorite recliner, in which he sat everyday. For some reason I started to dig in the recliner, maybe I dropped something or was hoping to find change, granted I was 9 years old. What I found was the gun. I decided to take it out to the railroad tracks in back of the trailer park. My plan was to see if a gun could shoot through a rail road track made of steel. Fortunately I considered the sound of the gun would be way too loud to actually pull the trigger without being caught. So I passed and took the gun back to it's original hiding spot, in the recliner.

We definitely need to hold the parents responsible when a child finds their weapons stored in an unsafe manner. Looking back it says more about my Uncle to need to have a 38 in the recliner, than I ever realized. This is a true story.

Johnny Ready

(203 posts)

4. My heartfelt condolences to the Mother and her family.

Reply to Johnny Ready (Reply #3)

Sat Oct 19, 2013, 09:48 AM

Oct 2013

BrotherIvan

(9,126 posts)

6. Thank goodness you weren't hurt

Reply to Johnny Ready (Reply #3)

Sat Oct 19, 2013, 09:57 PM

Oct 2013

You could have dropped it or accidentally shot a playmate or accidentally shot yourself. I just can't believe that people think guns make them safer when in fact the opposite is true.

Johnny Ready

(203 posts)

7. Thank you for that.

Reply to BrotherIvan (Reply #6)

Sun Oct 20, 2013, 09:30 AM

Oct 2013

I have led a blessed life, like a cat with 9 lives. My concern is change, for the benefit of others.

roguevalley

(40,656 posts)

5. I wrote my mom's obituary. I said that life won't ever be happy again. it will

Reply to Robb (Original post)

Sat Oct 19, 2013, 11:40 AM

Oct 2013

just be different. I feel for this woman so much.

The Straight Story

(48,121 posts)

8. so 0.001% of all kids in Ohio. 47 kids out of 2.7 million kids over 13 years

Reply to Robb (Original post)

Sun Oct 20, 2013, 10:09 AM

Oct 2013

More than that drown in Ohio every year (avg 34 per year) - and I note that this was an opinion piece, which is probably why the writer didn't look for perspective or have any attempt to put in information for comparison to other issues.

Should we use that percent as a barometer when making laws?

I’ve written at length about my support for stricter child access prevention laws, and how they can help prevent unintentional child shooting deaths. Children wouldn’t shoot themselves or other children if they didn’t have access to guns, and they wouldn’t have access to guns if adult gun owners kept those guns locked up. By prosecuting parents and guardians who blatantly disregard common-sense gun safety procedures, states send a clear message that these gun incidents are not accidents, but foreseeable consequences of careless, negligent behavior. Prosecute enough people under these statutes, and, theoretically, other gun-owning, child-having adults will get the message and start taking the proper safety measures.

Theoretically. In practice, it’s challenging to gauge the efficacy of these laws. Many states do not have any child access prevention laws. In those that do, the laws are inconsistently enforced. This new California law, which penalizes adults for unsafe gun storage even when nothing bad comes of their negligence, seems more symbolic than prophylactic. How does the state know if a private citizen keeps her handgun on the nightstand rather than in a gun safe? Will they send squads of gun-safety goons house to house? Hire a bunch of telepaths? The Firearm Safe and Responsible Access Act will be almost impossible to enforce. So what’s the point?

http://www.slate.com/blogs/crime/2013/10/15/firearm_safe_and_responsible_access_act_california_s_strict_new_access_prevention.html?wpisrc=burger_bar

Basically it would be hard to enforce, might make people feel better of course, and it would turn a lot more people overnight into criminals (theoretically - unless folks want to have random home checks by the police, something like an open warrant to search any home at any time to see if there is anything at all laying around that should not be - guessing some would welcome such a law and that if it passed over half the people in the state would have their kids taken away for having swimming pools, knives in drawers, meds on the counter top after they took them and went to answer the phone, etc and so on).

Would be more effective to spend the time and money to educate people, starting in school, about safety in general.

Reply to this discussion