Being Responsible Means Taking Responsibility

The tragic story is out of Norene, Tennessee. Douglas Cronberger took out his .380 caliber black Smith & Wesson to investigate a possible prowler, then left it on a table and forgot about it. His three year old step-daughter unfortunately mistook it for a Wii game controller that looks eeriely close to the real thing. The little girl accidently shot and killed herself with it, her mother three feet away.

I don't really know where to begin on this tragedy. I truly believe in the right to bear arms, so this lament isn't about how guns are bad and nobody should have them. It's also not about how this in Nintendo's fault, because one - the controller in question was not made by Nintendo itself, but by a third party, and two - how can a company control what happens in ones own home? Unfortunately, the harsh truth of the matter is this accident has to fall on the shoulders of the parents.

Before anybody spits at me and tries to say, "If there weren't any guns in the home, there wouldn't be this tragedy," I will just say that it could have happened anywhere. No, the tragic mistake is that the stepdad put it down on the table. It's easy to do as a parent - you make dinner, you put a hot pot down on the counter and go to the fridge to grab something, in those few seconds your child comes along and touches it, burning his hand. In one case, a family had moved into a new house and their youngest child wanted to play with her new boat toy in the tub, running her bath, the water was too hot because the water heater malfunctioned and burnt the child badly. It happens time and time again and all one can say is "Vigilance."

In this case the mother was close to her child, but it only takes a second for the wrong thing to happen and two to move. It is a hard lesson learned that if you have anything that could harm a child you need to know where it is at all times. Comments on this story at abcnews.com suggest this father had many guns that were unloaded and locked up in the house, but as he found out, it takes only one to do damage.

Part of me does have to wonder what a three year old is doing playing a shooting game (Wii or otherwise) anyway. However, I have been informed by many people that this is quite normal. Whether it be little kids that want to play the same as their bigger siblings, to be like mom or dad or just because it's fun. In this case it's been hinted that the child played it to improve their hand eye coordination to overcome a mental handicap. Personally, I think there are other games, other things you can do to help reinforce hand eye coordination. Honestly, I have no problem with shooting games for older children, children who are old enough to be taught and to understand that guns kill and to know gun safety. Three year olds don't understand dead yet.

And again, in the end, it's our responsibility as a parent, to teach our kids the ins and outs of life. By not means is this an easy task, and sometimes they will fall and have to learn from their own mistakes. But that's just it, let them learn from little mistakes, so they don't make big mistakes, such as this one. These parents have payed a hefty price for their big mistakes: 1. Leaving a loaded and unlocked weapon where a child could reach it. 2. The weapon had a chambered round and 3. The safety was off.

So please let this be a reminder that parenting is a 24/7 job and letting your guard down for even a few seconds can change the rest of your life.