On March 3, a three-year-old boy in Arizona was hanging out with his mom while she worked on her laptop computer in the kitchen. He pulled a small chair up to the counter, picked up?a .32-caliber semi-automatic pistol that was laying there, and shot himself in the abdomen.
The gun was in an ankle holster with the trigger exposed. A report said that the trigger??could easily be pulled by almost anyone.”
From Green Valley News:
Sharina Marion [the boy’s mother] put the boy on a table and used a cloth to slow the bleeding as she called 9-1-1 and her husband. Don Marion [the boy’s father] spoke to the boy, who was in and out of consciousness, and who according to one account asked his dad to come home.
As my friend who shared this story said “Ignore this post and go back to what you were doing.”
Because that’s what too many people will do. The right wing doesn’t care (it was an accident, they say!) and we on the left who do care have become desensitized to an extent. These stories have become so commonplace that we seldom feel shock when we see the headlines.
Here’s what makes this story different. These “responsible gun owners” had other unsecured guns in the house. 20 guns, to be precise, including a shotgun, rifles, a Ruger, and a Colt .45 handgun in a holster hanging from the headboard in the master bedroom. And thousands of rounds of ammunition. Sheriff’s detectives also found a gun safe chock-full of guns and guess what? It wasn’t locked and according to one of the kids, Daddy kept it unlocked because he had forgotten the combination.
Many of the guns in the house had rounds in the chambers and others had rounds in magazines. And check this out:
Sharina Marion told a detective she wasn’t aware that there were unsecured guns in the home and indicated she believed the gun safe was locked. The family said the pistol in the shooting was usually kept atop a kitchen cupboard, out of reach of the couple’s children, and said it must have fallen.
The Marion family was ready to keep their family safe! Well…from everyone but themselves, it seems.
If “guns don’t kill people, people kill people,” do we convict these parents of murder? Or was it the gun’s fault? Is that too hard a choice for the right wing gun nuts to make? Oops. It would seem that they’re in a bit of a pickle, eh?
This couple has four children: ages 3, 7, 9, and 10. The?Marions?reported to the sheriff that they had taught their children gun safety and that the kids “knew that the guns were for protection and only to be accessed in an emergency with parental approval.” What? These little kids had permission to use these guns in an emergency? Wow.
But these kids were “responsible gun owners” too! The Marions reported that all of their children had experience using guns, including the three-year-old who shot himself.
The boy was flown to a Tuscon hospital, where he underwent surgery. The case has been referred to the Pima County Attorney’s Office, but the boy’s parents haven’t been arrested or charged.
So…are we going to blame the gun? I’ll wait for an answer from the gun nut brigade.
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Tiffany Willis is the founder and editor-in-chief of Liberal America. An unapologetic member of the Christian Left, she has spent most of her career actively working with ?the least of these? and disadvantaged and oppressed populations. She’s passionate about their struggles. To stay on top of topics she discusses,?like her?Facebook page,?follow her on Twitter, or?connect with her via LinkedIn. She also has a?grossly neglected personal blog?and a?literary quotes blog that is a labor of love. Find her somewhere and join the discussion.
