NEWS: Three hurt after Houston boy, 6, brings gun to school

Three young children in the US state of Texas have been injured after a gun brought to school by a six-year-old boy accidentally discharged.

The gun went off after falling from the boy's pocket, and three children were injured by fragments, police officials in the city of Houston said.

Read the rest at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-13135269

Anyway, I think this demonstrates yet again the problems of having guns so readily available to people.

*Sighs*

Guns should only be allowed to people once they've been through a series of examinations, tests etc. Now, I myself have an air pistol but I've been lectured by my father so many times about it's dangers that I daren't do anything stupid - I even take serious precautions in my own back garden (where I only ever shoot). People who know the dangers and risks of such things would know better than bringing a gun to school.

I moved it to the news section.

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Why don't they just hand out guns at the school doors?

I hope the gun-loving folk will get some senses and at least consider some form of compromise to prevent this crap from happening again.

What really concerns me is how the boy got the gun in the first place. Have the parents never heard of putting it in a locked cupboard/cabinet or whatever? Surely not that hard.

It's a shame. The gun laws in America are far too lax - and the 'self-defence' argument just doesn't sit when you consider that even when adjusting for population the US would have 34 times the level of gun-related crime than the UK.

http://www.eurospore.eu/t1602-section-information

Vektrix wrote:Posting in the News Section is limited to responding to topics only. Only Moderators and Administrators are allowed to create a topic here. This is because the stories posted here appear in the Portal - which is set as the default forum view.

If you, as a normal member, wish to post a news story, please post it in the appropriate section of this forum. If a Moderator or Administrator believes it to be worthy of this section, they will move it.

Andy beat me to moving it

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My opinion, if you refuse to, or cannot lock your fire-arms up at night. If you cannot control your children to the extent of preventing them from taking firearms to school, you should be banned from keeping ANY firearms. Incidents like this should hold the owner to account by charging them with the crime that has been committed by the child.

I am against firearms being available to anyone who has not got a good reason to have one or not had thorough testing proving both that they are responsible and can maintain their firearm. No exceptions. Of course, this bill (whichever country it made in) will include a list of exemptions, but those would be people trained in their use for military or security use only.

In fairness to the British system, we have some of the best firearm controls in the world and our low level of gun crime (among the lowest in Europe, unlike most things - lower than even Germany and France) is the result of that.

What I also find ridiculous is that the Second Amendment does not just grant a blanket right to bear firearms, but rather allows people to bear arms in the event that the country is under threat i.e. an invasion risk.

Perhaps I'm optimistic in thinking that it won't be long until more rigorous gun controls are introduced. There are only so many high school massacres that can take place before someone has to take action.

I live just north of Houston... D:

Hmm... I have a hard time understanding how certain parents can be that irresponsible in order let this happen.

It could have been a lot worse, that's for sure.

There's only one thing to do:

This incident really scares me, and really says how careless gun owners are, and how bad the Second Amendment actually is. It is really simple for someone in the U.S. to go and get themselves a gun, and then they are careless with handling it.

At times like these, I wish I didn't live in the U.S. o_o

There is a story like this every few months..... and yet gun owning parents still don't seem to get the message. If you have little kids, lock away your guns....

A 6 year old doesn't understand the danger of a gun, all he knows is it looks cool and if you point it at things, you make it dead. The child should not even know the parent has a gun.

@Thomas, sadly I think thats unfortunately too optimistic. The gun toting crowd aren't going to let a few child shootings or highschool massacres get in the way of their right to have guns, infact, their solution is probably to get more guns to protect themselves.......

I can certainly see America boiling to a crisis. The system there is a mess and the politics is just getting more and more extreme and polarised. It more resembles an extreme reality TV show than sensible politics, now.

It's too late to change anything there considering gun laws IMO.

At least when you've got the ultraconservative 'Tea Party' (what a ridiculous name) around. But I fear that you may be right.

It's times like this where I'm glad I know the danger of using my hunting rifle. One of my friends got shot in the arm by accident once, and died.

Oh no, horrible flashback!

It's times like these that make me wonder why parents would be so careless to let a six year old take their own gun. We should assume the best and say that it was there for protection, but they probably didn't care enough to lock it up so that their son wouldn't take it by "accident".

I have a six year old cousin, and I can't imagine ANY smart reason for him bringing a gun to school, no matter which country.