Well there's your problem. Where was mom with her gun?
An 11-year-old boy in White Pine, Tennessee, has been arrested for murdering his 8-year-old neighbor Saturday after she refused to show him a puppy. The boy shot the girl from the window of his family's mobile home using his father's 12-gauge shotgun, which was no doubt kept handy for home protection and, in a pinch, the deadly resolution to childhood disputes. As of Oct. 5, 559 children under the age of 11 have been shot to death in America in 2015, according to the Gun Violence Archive. On the other hand, it should once again be pointed out that our nation has not fallen to a tyrannical dictatorship yet, so it all probably balances out.
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WATE-TV reports:
According to her mother, McKayla Dyer, 8, was found lying on the ground with a gunshot wound to her chest. She was taken to Morristown-Hamblen hospital, where she later died“She was a precious little girl, she was a mommy’s girl, no matter how bad of a mood you were in she could always make you smile,” said McKayla Dyer’s mother, Latasha Dyer.
Latasha Dyer said her daughter was outside playing when her next door neighbor, an 11-year-old boy, asked to see her puppy. She said her daughter told the boy “no” and shortly after the 11-year-old boy shot her.
The family had previously had difficulties with the boy, who Latasha Dyer said had bullied McKayla shortly after they first moved to White Pine:
“He was making fun of her, calling her names just being mean to her, I had to go the principal about him and he quit for a while and then all of a sudden yesterday he shot her.”
The tragedy could have been prevented if the family's shotgun had been kept locked up and unloaded, but the National Rifle Association has opposed bills requiring that guns be kept locked in a gun safe.
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Not that Tennessee would ever even consider such laws, but the NRA is very much against them anyway, because obviously, you need to have your gun handy to protect your children at any given moment, as this compelling image posted to Facebook illustrates:
For better aim, shouldn't he set down the baby and use both hands? Better yet, get a Kevlar Snuggli?
Just in case that image looks familiar, it was also posted to the Facebook page of the open-carrying dad who got drunk and shot his wife and two preschool sons to death during an August domestic dispute. Just another part of the price America happily pays for the freedom to potentially mount a popular uprising against a hypothetical tyrannical government armed with tanks, bombers, and helicopter gunships. Oh, and to protect ourselves from bad guys with guns, of course.
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The 11-year-old boy was charged with first-degree murder in juvenile court, but a judge may decide later to try the kid as an adult. There were five other children in the boy's mobile home at the time he shot McKayla from the window, but it was unclear whether any of them were removed from the parents' care, or whether the parents would be charged for negligence. Tennessee law only allows for the prosecution of parents for providing a handgun to a minor if they know of a "substantial risk that such juvenile will use the handgun to commit a felony," or if any person over the age of 18, including parents or guardians, knows of a juvenile illegally possessing a firearm at a school or school athletic facility, and fails to report it to law enforcement, according to the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, which adds, "Tennessee does not otherwise impose criminal liability on adults who allow children access to firearms." Probably because they trust Responsible Gun Owners to behave Responsibly, as they always do. Except for now and then, like 559 times so far this year -- but some of those kids were shot by criminal gangs, so let's not fly off the handle and get all emotional, OK?
A GoFundMe account has been set up to help the Dyers with McKayla's funeral expenses.
[RawStory / Daily Beast / WATE.com]
