A 15-year-old boy was taken to the hospital Saturday afternoon in extremely critical condition after accidentally shooting himself in the head with a .45-caliber handgun while target shooting with his father at the Wasatch Shooters Association Public Shooting Range.Some 15-year-olds are small and frail, others are strapping young men. I don't know about this one, but regardless of his physical ability to handle a .45, which not all 15-year-olds can, we can probably assume the dad had provided some instructions beforehand.
Education is the key, the pro-gun crowd keeps telling us. Teaching young people about muzzle and trigger control is all it takes. How many personal accounts have we read of gun bloggers who learned from their dads when they were young?
Well, what I say is it's all in the percentages. Like everything else, the vast majority is fine, but you're always going to have that minority that isn't.
As a general rule, I'd say no 15-year-old kid should be handed a .45 caliber handgun and expected to handle it safely. There are exceptions to that rule, but unfortunately this story is not one of them.
What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.
