Students protest outside the White House in Washington, demanding stricter gun control laws. EFE Photo / File
While the debate on gun control divides society in the United States, mainly due to the mass shootings that appear there from time to time, a new incident has shocked the country.
This weekend it was learned that while playing with his father’s gun, an eight-year-old boy killed a child and injured another girl in Florida – a tragedy that, sadly, is no longer surprising.
The father of the little accidental killer, Roderick Randall (45), was arrested and charged with “guilty negligence, illegal possession of firearms and concealment of evidence”, confirmed Chip Simmonsthe Sheriff of Escambia, a county in the northwest of the state.
The drama took place in a hotel where the man, who had a “heavy record”, had met his girlfriend. He had gone with her son and she with her two-year-old twins and a one-year-old.
According to investigators, the man was absent for a moment and left the gun in a closet. “Her son grabbed her and started playing with her“explained the bailiff.
“He shot the one-year-old girl and killed her. After passing, the bullet wounded one of the twins, but she is expected to recover, “she continued, noting that the victims’ mother was asleep while this was happening.
When the man returned, “he removed the weapon and some substances, probably drugs, from the bedroom before the police arrived,” the spokesman explained.
This death is part of a series of similar firearm incidents.
“Every year, hundreds of children in America have access to guns loaded uninsured in bedside wardrobes and drawers, backpacks and bags, or simply left lying around “, reads a recent NGO report Everytown for gun safety.
“With tragic regularity, children find these weapons unlocked and inadvertently shoot yourself or someone else“, He added.
The organization, which campaigns for better supervision of firearms, estimates that these “involuntary firings” by minors cause an average of 350 deaths each year.
More generally, firearms cause approx 40,000 deaths a year in that countryincluding suicides, according to the website Armed violence archive.
The debate, even in court
The US Supreme Court ruling overturning a New York gun licensing law has prompted states with heavy gun restrictions to respond on two fronts: understanding what covert transportation measures they might impose, as they prepare to advocate a wide range of arms control policies.
The language of opinion of the court’s majority has escalated concerns that other state laws, from setting an age limit for gun purchases to banning high-capacity ammunition magazines, may now be in jeopardy.
“The court has called for an open hunting season against our gun control laws, so I anticipate litigation across the board,” said the New Jersey Attorney General, the Democrat. Matt Plakin.
An employee of a gun shop in Hempstead, New York shows one of the available models. AP photo
“We will defend our gun laws tooth and nail because these gun laws save lives,” he added.
The court ruling issued last Thursday specifically overturned a 1913 New York law that required people applying for a covert transportation permit to prove the specific need to have a gun in public, such as proving an imminent threat to the your safety.
The conservative majority of the court argued that this violated the Second Amendment, which it interpreted as a protection of people’s right to carry a gun in self-defense outside the home.
With information from agencies
DB
Source: Clarin
