bandit383

I guess if you trust your son not to touch the gun...unless in self-defense...what's the problem?

Rick

MMABC

I agree with you, only what surprises me is how gun owners, who would normally take a gun activist position, are supportive of the state making gun owners criminally negligent for accidents. Even to the point of agreeing with the state making it illegal for a youth to possess a firearm without immediate supervision by an adult. I would think people here would think that's my decision to decide what is responsible for me and my children as a parent, not anti-gun activists and the state government.

bandit383

Aah...but you assume too much...that ALL parents are rational and responsible.

Rick

MMABC

Why am I criminally irresponsible for misjudging the responsibility of someone under 17? In what other circumstance is a parent criminally negligent for the actions of a minor?

Why is it criminally negligent for me and not for a farmer? Here's item 4 under defenses to prosecution that I didn't post earlier:

(4) occurred during a time when the actor was engaged
in an agricultural enterprise.

If a farmer leaves his home to go to his job, and his 16 year old has an accident with a gun, that's not criminally negligent. If I do it, I'm a criminal?

MMABC

It's not really the responsibility of the parent though is it? It's the ability of the parent to judge the responsibility of the minor. The state is effectively making it criminally negligent to misjudge the responsibility of a minor.

And you know why too. The anti-gun activists got a law on the books that effectively makes it illegal to keep an operable gun in the home in that most homes have children under 17.

bandit383

Actually, I don't think so...and the number of children deaths by an unsecured gun prove it so...I believe it is directly the responsibility of the parent(s). Reminds me of the police captain whose 6 yr old daughter shot herself in the cheek...even though his children were well versed in handguns...and he was a firearms instructor.

Rick

MMABC

You don't think what is so? That Texas has made it criminally negligent to misjudge the maturity and irresponsibility of someone under 17 around a firearm? That anti-gun lobbyists have gotten a law on the books that effectively outlaws operable guns in a substantial portion of all Texas homes? What does the number of accidental firearm deaths have anything to do with either of those statements?

Have you heard that in Houston, I think 28 children have already drowned in pools? Are the parents of those children going to be criminally prosecuted? On firearms, if it's criminally negligent, why does a farmer not get prosecuted if his child has an accident with a gun?

That's not what Texas law says. It's not your responsibility if you're a farmer. They also hold that 16 y.o. responsible as an adult, in a heart beat, for murder. Which is it? Is the 16 y.o. responsible or is the parent?


It seems to me that there is a very wide line somewhere between 0 - 16 years old where the parent isn't criminally negligent. It's a line that only the parent can determine, not the state.

Let me ask you this. If we have a constitutional right to keep operable firearms in our homes for self defense, how can that be criminally negligent? Only parents of children over 16 years old have that right?