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Just what is needed....
Teen commits suicide with black powder muzzle loader, father lobbies to regulate them."
A loss like that one is always staggering -- I've seen death in the eye from my own standpoint and that of a child (google "alpha one antitrypsin") and, believe me, the first is far easier than the second -- but regulating behavior whose consequences are so rare as to be a "black swan event" is not really the best way of working off the pain.
Comments
Well, it was just a matter of time. I'm surprised it has taken this long.
Antique muzzle-loaders haven't been a factor in all that "blood-in-the streets" meme for well over a hundred years, but here we go.
"If it saves just one life".
Posted by: CDR D at June 17, 2012 04:24 PM
The death of a child, suicide or otherwise, is probably the worst thing a parent can experience and I empathize with the family of Joshua Eisner. There were some statements in the news story that need clarification.
The firearm was referenced as a black powder “gun”, a “pistol”, and a “rifle”. Which was it?
"I never showed him how to load that [gun] and he always kept the weapon at my house and kept the gunpowder at her [?] house so they were never at the same place at the same time," said Andy Eisner. If the powder and firearm were as well controlled as the father claims, how did the young man acquire the firearm, powder, percussion cap or flint, and ammunition to charge and load the firearm?
"I never showed him how to load that …” If the father never showed the boy how to load the firearm, there is a high probability that he was never instructed in the proper handling of the gun. Did either of the parents delegate that authority, and who assumed that responsibility?
Could a failure to properly train the young man have resulted in a tragic accident that just resembles a suicide?
[W3]
Posted by: Woody W Woodward at June 17, 2012 09:17 PM
In any event, the father's friend bought him the gun. He let him keep it. Nothing proposed in the story would have prevented that. No regulation would have prevented that.
Posted by: kahr40 at June 18, 2012 01:03 PM
My uncle knew a boy who was an honors student, popular, and seemed happy as can be. No one could understand why he committed suicide and he didn't leave a note. During spring break, his mother came home from work to find her son still in bed and his brain matter all over the wall.
Bottom line for me is to make sure you don't leave your weapons around for your teen to use when you're not around.
Posted by: Sarah at June 21, 2012 07:03 AM