Three Year Old Dies After Stray Bullet Strikes Her In The Head

[struggle4progress]

Three year old Allison Schnieder from Owensville, MO was shot in the head Monday night by a stray bullet. She was taken to Children's Hospital in St. Louis where she died Tuesday afternoon from her injuries. It appears Schnieder was the unintended victim of a neighbor out target practicing with a 9 mm handgun ...

http://www.fox2now.com/ktvi-girl-shot-in-head-110209,0,5518573.story

[darkstar3]

1. Not too far from my old stomping grounds...

This man took a paper plate, stapled it to the trunk of a skinny tree in his backyard (the plate more than covered the width of the tree) and then fired a full clip at from (I think) 100 ft. away.

Now here's the thing: Bullets, especially any caliber under .40, have the ability to travel over a mile when fired on the correct trajectory, and can ricochet for several hundred yards. I know this from personal experience. When I was a kid, my dad and I were shooting at soda cans for target practice with our .22 rifles in the backyard, until we received a very angry phone call from the nearest neighbor .75 miles away, who stated that he heard a pop while he was feeding his pigs, and checked the nearby tree to find a bullet. He was understandably upset, and after that, we put up a backstop.

Now, back to the story at hand. This man was obviously careless with his weapon, and as such killed a little girl, but it is unclear here in MO whether or not he actually broke any laws, and therefore he has yet to be charged. It is likely that if he does end up in court, he will be hit with an involuntary manslaughter charge that they will plea down to nothing.

In many counties in Missouri (the ones with higher population density), firearms are legal to possess, but illegal to discharge except in certain zoned areas. It is also illegal to discharge firearms inside the city limits of just about any town. These laws are not intended to be repressive, but rather to protect innocents from incidents just like this one, and I think it's high time we start implementing them statewide. Sadly, rural voters will never vote for such a law, as they consider it as "their land, their business." I would agree with that sentiment, if not for the fact that the bullets can very easily leave said land...

[eqfan592]

2. You make an interesting argument...

...though I would say that, as long as somebody can put up an effective backstop, their property is large enough, and their neighbor is far enough away, a person should still be able to shoot on their own property. If they can't meet these requirements, then restrictions may be in order, because as you said, bullets really can travel a ridiculous distance.

[darkstar3]

3. Well, if they can meet the restrictions required,

then they should be able to file as a "zoned area". But of course that's extra paperwork which may or may not require a filing fee.

I suppose there is another option: Mandatory firearm safety education. Let everyone have their right to bear arms, but first they must attend a firearm safety class. A similar law is already in place to allow children to hunt with their parents. In order to hunt, they must first pass a hunter's safety course and get what's called a heritage card before they can be given a hunting license. I would suggest that we expand this to everyone, and rather than making it mandatory for hunting, making it mandatory for firearm purchase.

One way or another, though, the death of this girl demonstrates that not quite enough is being done to protect the bystanders from irresponsibility.

[CanonRay]

4. I live in a rural area

and I hear guns going off all the time. I usually go inside when I hear them, no way to know where some idiot is aiming. On of my neighbors caught a guy about to shoot at a deer, which was between the "hunter" and my neighbors front porch. He considered just shooting the idiot, but thought better of it.