[Vision2020] Saving Children From Guns

Sat Mar 23 14:49:12 PDT 2013

Hi Paul,

Do you consider a 10-month-old an infant?  Then here is your statistic:

*Reports: Father accidentally shoots, kills 10-month-old son in front of
family*

*By John Newland, Staff Writer, NBC News*

A 10-month-old boy was shot and killed by his father Thursday in an
apparent accident at a Nashville, Tenn., hotel, local media reported.

Two police detectives from the Hermitage Precinct were close to the hotel
when the call went out and made it to the scene within about three minutes
but were unable to resuscitate the child, NBC affiliate WSMV-TV
Channel 4<http://www.wsmv.com/story/21647213/10-month-old-baby-dies-after-being-shot>
 reported.

The child's mother Jacquelin Bass, 28, and the couple's other sons, aged 3
and 2, were in the room when the gun went off, the station said.

The baby was shot once in the chest as his father, Larry Bass, 30, handled
the semi-automatic handgun, the Nashville
Tennessean<http://www.tennessean.com/article/20130314/NEWS03/130314025/Shooting-hotel-kills-10-month-old-boy?nclick_check=1>
 reported.

NBCNews was unable to independently confirm the accounts early Friday.

Both news outlets reported that the family, from Texas, was at the Extended
Stay America hotel near Nashville International Airport when the incident
happened. Larry Bass was in town to work on construction of the Music City
Center, a 1.2-million-square foot convention center.

The newspaper said the family had checked in on Jan. 29.

Ten-month-old Adam Bass would have had turned 1 in May, the Tennessean
reported, quoting police spokesman Don Aaron as saying that the family was
"very, very distraught over what's happened" and that "the police
department does not believe this was an intentional act."

Attempts to reach the police department were unsuccessful early Friday.
WSMV said a police investigation was continuing.

> The article I was responding to was talking about gun safety, so I was
> looking at gun accident statistics only.  Since the CDC is the go-to place
> for death statistics, I went there.  Unfortunately, they only have data
> through 2010, with some 2011 non-official data, but no 2011 data on gun
> accidents that I could find, let alone data from 2012 and beyond.
>
> Paul
>
>
> On 03/23/2013 10:23 AM, Tom Hansen wrote:
>
> Pick a source, Mr. Rumelhart.  ANY source.  They are all reporting gun
> deaths in excess of 2,000 since Newtown.
>
>
> https://www.google.com/search?q=gun+deaths+since+sandy+hook&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en&client=safari#q=gun+deaths+since+sandy+hook&hl=en&client=safari&ei=a-RNUeDmNYHeiALVoIGQDQ&start=20&sa=N&bav=on.2,or.&bvm=bv.44158598,d.cGE&fp=c1cc9d4856fbbb93&biw=1024&bih=644
>
>  Seeya round town, Moscow, because . . .
>
>  "Moscow Cares" (the most fun you can have with your pants on)
> http://www.MoscowCares.com
>
>  Tom Hansen
> Moscow, Idaho
>
>  "There's room at the top they are telling you still
> But first you must learn how to smile as you kill
> If you want to be like the folks on the hill."
>
>  - John Lennon
>
>
> On Mar 23, 2013, at 9:46 AM, Paul Rumelhart <godshatter at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>
> Gun safety is, perhaps, a place where a lot of people on this list could
> potentially agree on this debate (at least to some degree).  I think using
> RFID chips to enable guns to fire is just asking for a mis-fire or non-fire
> of the gun just when you need it most, though.  If we want to child-proof
> anything, I'd suggest child-proofing gun cases.  I'd like to find some
> incentive to ensure that people are storing their guns properly, but the
> only things I can think of that would help is more safety training and laws
> that affect the gun owner if a death occurs as a result of a firearm
> discharging accidentally.  I'm open to suggestions.
>
> I took a quick look at the statistics for gun accidents, since the article
> only describes them as having "new examples almost every day".  According
> to the CDC, in 2010 (under "Nontransport accidents"), "Accidental discharge
> of firearms" accounted for 606 deaths.  I haven't found a breakdown by
> child/adult, but I'll keep looking.  The only other age-related statistic I
> have found so far is that there were 0 infant mortality deaths due to gun
> accidents.
>
> In case you're curious, here is the number of deaths for each
> non-transport accident type, from the "2010 Mortality Multiple Cause Micro
> Data Files" PDF (http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/dvs/deaths_2010_release.pdf
> ):
>
> Falls                             26,009
> Accidental discharge of firearms     606
> Accidental drowning                3,782
> Accidental exposure to fire        2,782
> Accidental poisoning              33,041
> Other unspecified                 16,678
> Total                             82,898
>
> Firearm accidents are the smallest number in that list, but that doesn't
> mean we couldn't do more to reduce that number.  What I'd like to know is
> why accidental poisoning is so high.  More than 54 times as many deaths by
> accidental poisoning as by accidental discharge of firearms.  Looking into
> it, I see it consists mainly of drug causes (91%), including prescription
> pain killers, cocaine, and heroin at the top of the list.
>
> Paul
>
>
> On 03/23/2013 05:36 AM, Art Deco wrote:
>
>   [image: The New York Times] <http://www.nytimes.com/>
>
> ------------------------------
> March 22, 2013
> Saving Children From Guns By JOE NOCERA
>
> For nearly two months, my assistant, Jennifer Mascia<http://www.jennifermascia.com/>,
> and I have been publishing a daily blog<http://nocera.blogs.nytimes.com/category/gun-report/>in which we aggregate articles about shootings from the previous day. Of
> all the stories we link to, the ones I find hardest to read are those about
> young children who accidentally shoot themselves or another child. They
> just break my heart. Yet Jennifer and I find new examples almost every day<https://www.google.com/search?q=child+shoots&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a#q=child+shoots&hl=en&safe=off&client=firefox-a&hs=xgX&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&source=lnms&tbm=nws&sa=X&psj=1&ei=m-xMUYWkAdSp4AOFzYDYCg&ved=0CA0Q_AUoBA&fp=1&biw=1730&bih=774&bav=on.2,or.r_qf.&cad=b&sei=KPZMUeOdKafE4APM9IHgCw>.
>
>
> Partly, I react by thinking, “How can anyone be so stupid as to leave a
> loaded gun within reach of a small child?” But I also have another
> reaction. In 1970, Congress passed a law that resulted in childproofing
> medicine bottles. The Consumer Product Safety Commission regulates the
> paint used in children’s toys. State laws mandate that young children be
> required to use car seats.
>
> So why can’t we childproof guns? In an age of technological wizardry — not
> to mention a time of deep sensitivity to the welfare of children — why
> can’t we come up with a technology that would keep a gun from going off
> when it is being held by a child? Or, for that matter, by a thief using a
> stolen gun? Or an angry teenager who is plotting to use his parents’
> arsenal to wreak havoc in a mall?
>
> It turns out — why is this not a surprise? — that such technologies
> already exist. A German company, Armartix, will soon be marketing a
> pistol that uses radio frequencies<http://www.gizmag.com/armatrix-wristwatch-safety-system-for-handguns/14044/>that prevent a gun from being used by anyone except its owner. At the New
> Jersey Institute of Technology, the senior vice president for research and
> development, Donald Sebastian, has long spearheaded an effort to develop
> biometrics for “gun personalization,” as it’s called. Guns employing this
> technology fire only when they recognize the hand of the owner. There are
> others who have invented similar technologies.
>
> Why aren’t these lifesaving technologies<http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-shuster/smart-gun-technology_b_2324978.html>in widespread use? No surprise here, either: The usual irrational
> opposition from the National Rifle Association and gun absolutists, who
> claim, absurdly, that a gun that only can be fired by its owner somehow
> violates the Second Amendment. Pro-gun bloggers were furious when they saw
> James Bond, in “Skyfall,” proudly showing off his new biometrically
> protected weapon<http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/future_tense/2012/11/skyfall_someone_should_make_james_bond_s_biometric_walther_ppk_s_gun.html>.
> They were convinced it was a Hollywood plot to undermine their rights.
>
> Yet there is reason for at least some hope that the day when these
> technologies are in widespread use will soon be here. Last week, there were
> two important meetings about gun personalization technology. On March 13,
> in Washington, Attorney General Eric Holder Jr. met with several dozen
> advocates, including Sebastian and Stephen Teret, the co-director of the
> Center for Law and the Public Health at Johns Hopkins University. The
> purpose of the meeting was to get Holder up to speed on the technologies so
> he could make recommendations to President Obama.
>
> The following day, in San Francisco, Sandy Hook Promise<http://www.sandyhookpromise.org/>,
> an organization founded by citizens of Newtown, Conn., publicly launched<http://newtownbee.com/news/news/0001/11/30/sandy-hook-promise-launches-innovation-initiative/10397>its “innovation initiative” in collaboration with some Silicon Valley
> venture capitalists and entrepreneurs. One of the leaders in the effort is
> the venture capitalist Ron Conway, who coincidentally threw a Christmas
> party on the day of the Newtown massacre. Gabrielle Giffords was among
> those who attended. Like so many others, Conway decided he had to do
> something about guns after Newtown.
>
> The innovation initiative, which will make grants, and even award prize
> money for good ideas, includes an emphasis on gun personalization
> technology. A member of the group, Alan Boinus<http://www.lagunabeachindependent.com/2012/07/26/guest-column-mirror-america/>,
> who applied for a patent on a biometric technology back in 1994, has
> founded a company, Allied Biometrics, that is devoted to commercializing
> biometric gun technology. He has already begun a collaboration with
> Sebastian in New Jersey.
>
> In classic Silicon Valley fashion, Boinus told me that the government has
> been hopeless, and that innovation and the market itself would solve the
> problem. “The market will prove this out,” he said. “People want to be
> responsible. People want safety.”
>
> I agree with him that Congress has been hopeless and then some, unable to
> even work up the courage<http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2013/03/19/feinstein-assault-weapons-ban-reid-senate-bill/2000119/>to vote on an assault weapons ban for fear of offending gun owners. But I’m
> not convinced that the market alone can create mass acceptance of this
> technology. It took years, after all, for Congress to overcome the car
> industry’s resistance to air bags, ultimately requiring a law that made air
> bags mandatory.
>
> Thousands of lives<http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/crime/2012/12/gun_death_tally_every_american_gun_death_since_newtown_sandy_hook_shooting.html>could be saved each year if gun personalization technology became the law
> of the land. In mid-April, Representative John Tierney, a Massachusetts
> Democrat, plans to introduce a House bill requiring that all guns include
> personalization technology within two years.
>
> Congress once cared enough about the safety of its citizens to pass laws
> about air bags and childproof bottles. We’ll soon find out if it still
> cares enough about the safety of its constituents to make childproofing
> guns the law of the land. It should.
>
>
> --
> Art Deco (Wayne A. Fox)
> art.deco.studios at gmail.com
>
>
>
>
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