Not Entertainment

[Crusader]

Just saw this in the Google news list for Indiana:

WTHR - ‎1 hour ago‎
Entertainment News from AP Indianapolis - Metro Police say a three-year-old girl was shot in the head on the city's west side.

Has the state of society really come to this? How long until the movie The Running Man is not fiction?

I read up on that case, and it appears to be an accidental shooting where another child got hold of a gun (ostensibly there was drug dealing/using in that house). It's taken us a couple hundred years to learn that guns and children are really not a safe combination. Of course, drug dealing/use and child rearing are never very safe either.

Nor is allowing everyone to have guns. Why is a drug addict allowed to own a gun? Recipe for disaster if you ask me.

Over here in The Netherlands if you want to own a gun, you need to be free of criminal record, your background and family is checked and you are constantly screened. I suspect the local 'secret police' (sorta like a FBI/CIA/NSA in one) also checks you out. You also have to be a member of a registered firearms club for a year prior to applying. You have to complete a theoretical exam, do a practical exam in a firearms club and you have to show a proof of good behavior yearly. Finally you have to store your gun in a special environment (armored and locked I think). Only then are you allowed to have a permit to own a weapon over here, which is also registered.

Relatively few incidents with firearms here compared to the USA. If an incident with a firearm occurs here it's big news. Heavy (military grade) weapon incidents are almost unheard of. (the kind with Assault rifles, (sub) machine guns, etc).