What happens when you don’t teach young people the fundamentals of firearm safety? A case out of Indianapolis demonstrates the worst-case scenario: An 11-year-old “got ahold” of a gun and shot himself in the throat. Instead of campaigning for more basic gun safety education for young people, the grieving family now wants the state of Indiana to require that other gun owners lock up their safety implements in their homes.
First and foremost, how did an 11-year-old “get ahold” of a gun? The Indy Star very much glossed over the answer to that question and other very relevant queries. Who did the gun belong to? Were they a prohibited person? Why did they leave a loaded firearm where an 11-year-old had access to it?
Instead of investigating these relevant questions, the Indy Star profiles “the family” and their quest to mandate people lock up their guns, under penalty of law.
From the Indianapolis Star . . .
‘100% preventable’: Indiana kids killed by unsecured guns hits record. Would new laws help?
Jordan Robertson, 11. Robertson died Aug. 20, 2023 after an early investigation by Indianapolis police revealed he got ahold of a gun, then accidentally shot and killed himself. He was entering the sixth grade.
Before Jordan Robertson’s tragic death, the 11-year-old was doing what many kids do as summer winds to a close. The preteen and his older brother went to a friend’s house to get in some hangout time. Sixth grade was around the corner.
But, in ways that are still being investigated, an unsecured loaded gun in the home on East Market Street was picked up by the friends. Along the way, the trigger was pulled. The bullet struck Jordan Robertson, killing him. His death was reported as an accidental, self-inflicted shooting.
The death of the sports-loving boy left his siblings with an empty chair at the dinner table and their birthday parties.
Amidst their grief, Jordan’s uncle, David Barnes, said the family felt something else: A need to act. In the months since the shooting, while also tending to funeral arrangements, Barnes and his relatives have met with Indiana legislators to see how they can prevent another family from going through the same.
They are pushing for what they see as a solution: Laws on the books that would prosecute gun owners who don’t properly store their weapons. Such legislation, the most common being safe storage or child access prevention laws, is in place in 26 states.
New laws cannot mandate good parenting and personal responsibility. But more gun control is the reliable answer of those who would strip us of our right and ability to defend ourselves from the criminal element in society. Freedom is scary. Deal with it.
What happens when governments mandate the most effective tools for self-defense remain under lock and key instead of accessible to family members? From the NY Post . . .
A naked madman who “hated children” burst into an isolated California farmhouse and brutalized five kids, slaying two of them with a pitchfork before cops broke in and shot him dead.
Sheriff’s deputies stormed the house and shot Jonathon David Bruce 13 times after three of the youngsters escaped through a window, ran to a neighbor’s home and dialed 911.
“He looked possessed,” Anna Carpenter, 13, said yesterday, as she described how Bruce turned her home into a house of horrors, slaughtering her younger brother and sister.
“It’s such a shock,” said her father, John Carpenter. “You keep pinching yourself. I gotta wake up.”
Authorities said there’s no connection between Bruce, 27 – who had a 1999 arrest for drugs and fighting with cops – and the Carpenter family, and couldn’t find a reason why he broke into their home.
Ann Adams, a one-time neighbor of Bruce, said the former telemarketer hated kids – and often yelled at his girlfriend’s three children.
The tragedy unfolded in Merced, Calif. – about 60 miles north of Fresno – on Wednesday, after John Carpenter had left for work, and his wife, Tephanie, took her car to a mechanic.
At about 8 a.m., the oldest daughter, 14-year-old Jessica, spotted Bruce in the living room, naked and pulling his pants on.
Jessica ran to her bedroom and locked herself in – but the crazed killer followed her and pounded on her door. She tried to phone for help, but the line was dead.
She fled through a window and ran to a neighbor’s home for help. But no one was there.
Jessica frantically ran back home to help her younger siblings and found Anna and another sister, 11-year-old Vanessa, escaping through a window.
Anna told her big sister that Bruce had attacked her with the pitchfork, puncturing her hands as she tried to stave off the attack. The youngest sister, Ashley, 9, came into the room and screamed, “Stop it!”
At that point, Anna and Vanessa ran into the laundry room and bolted themselves in. Anna said Bruce came to the door and cooed, “Let me in, I’ll be nice to you.”
But the girls jumped out a window and ran to another neighbor’s house, where a horrified Jessica called 911 and told the operator, “There’s somebody in my house who I don’t know … stabbing my brother and sister with a pitchfork … He’s going to kill them.”
“They could hear Ashley screaming as they were running, and then she went quiet,” John Carpenter said.
The Carpenter family had a gun safe where they stored their firearms. Per California law, they kept those guns out of reach of the 14-year-old. As such, she was unable to deliver meaningful resistance against a naked lunatic home intruder. And the consequences of that remain something that family has lived with every day since.
As the father of a pair of five-year-old boys, I’ve taken steps to keep loaded firearms inaccessible to them. Prudent, responsible people do that. At the same time we started educating them on gun safety since they could walk and talk. They understand, “Stop. Don’t touch. Leave the area. Tell an adult.” Even the public schools teach this simple message.
When they hit those teenage years, if mom and I deem them appropriately responsible, they will absolutely have access to home defense tools. Just in case some naked lunatic with a pitchfork or a firewood log happens into my home when I’m not nearby.