SPRINGFIELD, MO — When a 14-year-old boy thought that someone was trying to break into his house, he grabbed a handgun to defend himself.
He didn’t defend himself. He shot himself in the leg instead.
As the Springfield News-Leader reports:
When he heard someone knocking at the front door of his Springfield home, a 14-year-old boy grabbed a handgun and accidentally shot himself in the leg, police say. According to Sgt. Tonya Price, the boy was home alone and thought someone was trying to break into the home shortly before noon Friday.
Price said the 14-year-old picked up the gun, which immediately fired. The boy suffered non-life threatening injuries, Price said, and it’s unclear what happened to the person who was knocking at the door.
According to Price, the family recently moved into the home in the 2100 block of North Nettleton Avenue and told police that people have been trying to break into the residence.
There are two things going on here, really, and I think you can make the argument that the fault for both of these lies with the parents.
First of all, if the gun is going off as soon as the teenager has it in his hands, obviously he has either not been trained with firearms, or he has not been trained enough.
There’s not really any arguing the point, given the end-result. Sure, one might point out that the kid was scared and could have thrown the training out the window. That would just lead us back to the original point. If there is any scenario in which this kid can hurt himself with this firearm while it’s in his possession, he has not been trained enough.
Which leads to the second point: if the teenage boy has not been trained enough, then he does not need to have access to firearms. If he does not need to have access to firearms, how on God’s good earth did he get one in his hand?
There’s no judgment here — folks need to learn this stuff. Maybe this will help him sort it out or receive the training he needs.
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