I have often railed about the fact that a car is recognized as a dangerous item in the hands of anyone and hence we require an age requirement, training, and certification before people are allowed to use one. And yet people in the US can just walk into some places and with little or no checks can buy a gun, which is equally if not more lethal than a car, with hardly any effort made to ensure that they are competent to use it.

That can result in tragedies like this one.

A Cheshire woman who was shot dead by her “reckless” father while visiting him in the US after a row about Donald Trump was unlawfully killed, a coroner has ruled.

Lucy Harrison, 23, who lived in Warrington and worked as a fashion buyer for Boohoo, was shot in the chest with a semi-automatic handgun by Kris Harrison while staying at his home in Prosper, Texas, on 10 January last year.

Kris Harrison, an alcoholic who had been drinking earlier in the day, pointed the gun at his daughter and pulled the trigger, senior coroner Jacqueline Devonish ruled.

He was never charged by Texas police in relation to her death, after claiming the gun went off accidentally while he “lifted it to show her”.

At the conclusion of the two-day hearing at Cheshire coroner’s court, Devonish found Harrison “knew full well he had shot his own daughter, pointing a gun at chest height and pulling the trigger”.

She ruled Lucy died due to unlawful killing on the grounds of gross negligence manslaughter.
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However, the coroner ruled that Harrison was a “secret drinker” who had, on the balance of probabilities, been teasing his daughter with the gun when he shot her dead. She said she accepted that he did not know the gun was loaded when he pointed it at her and pulled the trigger.

She added: “His actions have killed his own daughter and in the cold light of day it is hoped that he now recognises the risk he posed to her life in circumstances in which he had no experience of guns, had undertaken no training and had never fired a gun.” [My emphasis-MS]

“[H]e did not know the gun was loaded when he pointed it at her and pulled the trigger”? That statement alone shows that he is not competent to possess a gun.

I have never had the need or desire to own a gun but if I did, I would first make sure that I had some training with a professional about how it works, what safety precautions should be taken to prevent accidental discharge, and how and when it should be used.

Films and TV shows give a highly misleading impression that guns are easy to use and that can give people the impression that anyone can pick one up and use it appropriately. And yet, it never seems to strike them that this very ease of use requires that it be carefully stored away, and so we hear numerous stories of children coming across loaded guns and, imitating what they see on the screen, firing them and killing people. The statistics are shocking (as can be seen in the infographics accompanying the article).

Children often find or handle firearms in the home without their parents’ knowledge. In the United States, 2,600,000 children live in homes with unlocked firearms that are stored loaded or with ammunition. Child Access to Firearms in the US discusses the number of children who have firearms in their household, how the firearms are stored, and how often children handle firearms.
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1 in 3 homes with children* have firearms. 22 million children* live in homes with firearms(Schuster, Franke, Bastian, Sor, & Halfon, 2000)

According to Shuster (2000):

12.8 million children* (61%) live in homes with locked firearms
5.7 million children* (27%) live in homes with unlocked firearms with no ammunition
2.6 million children* (12%) live in homes with unlocked, loaded firearms or unlocked firearms stored with ammunition.
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3 in 4 children ages 5-14 knew where firearms were hidden in the home, but 39% of their parents mistakenly thought that their child did not know the location of firearms (Baxley & Miller, 2006)

1 in 3 children ages 5-14 had handled a firearm in the home, but 22% of their parents mistakenly thought that their child had never handled a firearm (Baxley & Miller, 2006)

By the age of 3, some children are strong enough to pull the trigger of a handgun (90% of 7- to 8-year-olds, 70% of 5- to 6-year-olds, 25% of 3- to 4-year-olds) (Naureckas, Galanter, Naureckas, Donovan, & Christoffel, 1995)

*Children are defined as under 18, unless otherwise specified.

I recall one occasion when our children were little and they had invited a friend over, the child’s mother first called to ask if we had a gun in the home. At that time, we were a bit naive about the dangers posed by guns and were surprised at the question but now I see that it was eminently sensible and that we too should have asked it when our children went to other people’s homes. You tend to assume that people like you are as cautious about guns but clearly that assurance is unwarranted.