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Police: 10-Year-Old Boy Playing With Gun Kills 11-Year-Old [View all]
Police say a 10-year-old fatally shot an 11-year-old after the boys found a handgun in a home in Virginia.
Roanoke police said in a statement that the boys were playing with the gun about 12:20 p.m. Thursday when the younger boy shot the older. Police say the 10-year-old called 911.
Police spokesman Scott Leamon tells The Roanoke Times that the 11-year-old was pronounced dead at the scene. He says no one else was in the house when the shooting occurred and the boys were related.
The statement says no charges have been filed but detectives are consulting with the Roanoke commonwealth's attorney's office.
The Times reports that under Virginia law, leaving a loaded, unsecured firearm so that it endangers any child younger than 14 is a misdemeanor.
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/police-10-year-boy-playing-gun-kills-11-39415793
Roanoke police said in a statement that the boys were playing with the gun about 12:20 p.m. Thursday when the younger boy shot the older. Police say the 10-year-old called 911.
Police spokesman Scott Leamon tells The Roanoke Times that the 11-year-old was pronounced dead at the scene. He says no one else was in the house when the shooting occurred and the boys were related.
The statement says no charges have been filed but detectives are consulting with the Roanoke commonwealth's attorney's office.
The Times reports that under Virginia law, leaving a loaded, unsecured firearm so that it endangers any child younger than 14 is a misdemeanor.
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/police-10-year-boy-playing-gun-kills-11-39415793
A misdemeanor? Really? Causing a child's death only warrants a slap on the wrist? The right-wing gun lobby and it's supporters and apologists are directly responsible for a misapplication of justice like this. ALEC/NRA write most of the gun laws that allow people to be killed every day so that gun manufacturers and dealers can make blood money profits, and the corrupt politicians do their bidding by enacting those weak, ineffective laws.
Strict responsibility laws must be tied to the ownership of lethal weapons, and must be enacted through legislation, and then vigorously enforced in order to reduce the obscene amount of gun violence in this country.
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