Guns and Kids

For all of the gun lovers, second Amendment defenders, and guns-don't-kill-people-people-kill-people advocates, tell me this: if a handgun hadn't been easily available to this child is it more likely or less likely that his injuries would be less severe or that the other children wouldn't have been as traumatized?

From WPTZ..

A New Hampshire elementary school was placed under lockdown Friday after a 14-year-old student shot himself in the face in the cafeteria with about 70 students present. As of Friday afternoon, the student was in serious condition in the intensive care unit.

Ethan Symonds, a seventh-grader who was sitting at a table near the boy in the cafeteria, said he heard something "a little bit louder than a chip bag popping." He said he did a double-take, saw blood and ran. 

Eighth-grader Nick Phillips, who shares homeroom with the student, told WPTZ the boy had been passing notes during the week saying he was depressed.

From a 2010 Children's Defense Fund report...

The latest data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that 3,042 children and teens died from gunfire in the United States in 2007—one child or teen every three hours, eight every day, 58 every week.

2,161 were homicide victims

683 committed suicide

198 died in accidental or undetermined circumstances

2,665 were boys

377 were girls

397 were under age 15

154 were under age 10

85 were under age 5

Almost six times as many children and teens — 17,523 — suffered

non-fatal gun injuries. 

There are a few things I have zero tolerance for and one of them is handguns.