19-Month-Old Shot to Death in Crib While Mom Was Unloading Gun

[SecularMotion]

Did you ever see one of those bumper stickers that insists, "Guns don't kill people; people kill people"? Technically, it's true. That's why a mom who was unloading a gun in her apartment is in jail right now for the involuntary manslaughter of her 19-month-old son.

Holly Pallone told cops she accidentally shot little Anthony Pallone Jr. while she was trying to remove the bullets from a gun that wasn't hers that she didn't know how to unload. Sadly, the gun fired, and the baby boy took a gunshot right in the middle of his forehead. So the gun killed the child, but more importantly, a woman who didn't know how to use a gun allegedly killed the child.

http://thestir.cafemom.com/in_the_news/144653/19monthold_shot_to_death_in

[slackmaster]

1. Basic gun safety should be taught in public schools

Everyone who graduates from high school should know the basic rules of firearm safety, and how to properly unload the most common types of firearms.

[spin]

4. Exactly. 80 million people own 300 million firearms in our nation. ...

With firearms so common very high school student should know basic firearm safety.

It's only logical.

The only reason those who favor disarming citizens oppose this idea is because they fear that teaching firearm safety in high school will interest students in purchasing firearms. Any good class should fairly point out that guns are not for everybody and should emphasize the dangers of owning a firearm to the owners and their families.

The media through TV and movies glamorizes firearms. Any realistic course should point out that owning a firearm involves great responsibly. Movies and TV clips could be used effectively to point out numerous incidents where actors handle firearms in an unsafe manner.

Despite the hopes of many who wish to eliminate civilian ownership of firearms such a result is unlikely to occur anytime in the near future. Safety training in high school would help prevent many avoidable accidents.

It often distresses me when those who believe in draconian gun laws publicize stupid accidents to prove why the average citizen should be allowed to not own firearms but fail to support basic gun safety classes for our youth. No matter what side of the gun control issue you support you should support firearm safety training.

I also feel that all high schools should be required to teach a class in emergency first aid. Such a class would save far more lives than a class on gun safety.

[GreenStormCloud]

2. Don't attempt to operate any machinery that you don't know how to use.

Especially guns.

About 25 years ago I got a call from my ex-wife. Her boy friend had left a loaded gun at her house. She didn't know how to unload it, and couldn't get hold of him. (Cell phones were rare back then.) Would I come over and unload it. (We had a two year old girl that she had primary custody of.) I came over right away. It was a 1911A1 .45. I not only unloaded it, but made sure that she learned how.

She knew how to use a revolver OK, but a semi-auto was unfamiliar to her. She was smart enough to not fool with it and and to get help from someone who knew.

No, I didn't say anything about her BF leaving a loaded gun at her place.

[Eleanors38]

3. Look both ways before crossing streets, don't look

Up while operating machinery, get proper training before picking up a firearm. Basic stuff.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

5. If you don't know how to unload a particular gun ...

then you probably shouldn't point it at the kid, the dog, the car, the tv, when you fool around with it. There are safer directions to point it while you attempt to do something you know nothing about.

Middle of the forehead? I think there's more to the story than "it just went off".

[Trunk Monkey]

6. Or we could state it another way

If you don't know how to unload a particular gun then you probably shouldn't.... fool around with it.

[Atypical Liberal]

7. I find this story hard to believe.

http://www.wfmz.com/news/news-regional-lehighvalley/Officials-Holly-Pallone-of-Slatington-fatally-shot-son-19-month-old-Anthony-Pallone-Junior/-/132502/16889604/-/i1m5fnz/-/index.html

"Court records outline how Pallone told police she planned to sell a .44 caliber Smith and Wesson revolver for $200 to a man she used to buy drugs from. The handgun belongs to the man Pallone and her son live with. He wasn't home at the time of the shooting."

I own a S&W .44.

This is a double-action revolver. Very simple to operate, no safety, and a very long trigger pull if you fire it in double-action, but a very light trigger pull if you cock the hammer back first.

It's very hard to imagine how you could manipulate this firearm in such a way that it would accidentally go off and center-punch your baby in the forehead.

[Remmah2]

8. Stupid people shouldn't breed.

I've read stories where parents lock their kids in the car and go shopping, gambling, drinking and to parties. There are irresponsible parents who fail to put their kids in car seats and ones who don't properly secure the car seat. There's even the stories out there of the parents who leave the baby carrier on top of the car. There were three stories this past year out of Niagara Falls NY where the dad was drunk/stoned, passed out on the couch and the toddler wandered out the door, under dressed into the winter night.

Not fair to blame guns for the acts of irresponsible parents.

And she was going to sell the gun to a drug dealer? WTF, another model citizen. Good reason for mandatory neutering for some of the adult population. NO SARCASM INTENDED.

[AtheistCrusader]

11. Bullet hit the kid right between the eyes?

Trying to 'unload' it?

Bullshit.

[ileus]

9. involuntary....Yeah right.

[AtheistCrusader]

10. That wasn't a goddamn accident. She intentionally murdered that kid.