Idiots like these parents should be charged with criminal negligence

Lets not blame the manufactures or the lobbyists who foster the mindset that this kind of behavior is ok. Seems to me they are loudly silent in cases like this. The original NRA which was lagit and not bought off would say "WHAT ARE YOU NUTS"

No lets not blame the makers or the NRA because they don't market a "no rules" attitude. OH WAIT!

Funny how grenade makers dont go around selling to just anyone. You don't see grenade makers openly create heat shield "right to own grenade" lobbyists.

If you sell something like a gun, sure it is not your fault if someone missuses it. But you also have a duty to promote safety not just sales. This parent bought your no rules bullshit and bought from and industry that didn't care who they sold their product to.

So please don't fucking make this a rights issue when it is climate issue. The gun hugers, not the majority of gun owners, just the extreme nuts who have been lead by the nose by the NRA and the manufactures, allow this climate to fester.

The part you always miss not just on guns but on the economy is with rights come responsibility. You want all the rights but no responsibility as to how your voting habits create the climate that lead to people doing stupid shit like this. It is not just about blame, it is also about fostering a climate to REDUCE the chance of this happening.

So if you want to hand out guns like Skittles don't be surprised when a stupid parent gets their kid killed because "it aint my fault". No but you didn't do a damned thing to help the conditions other than say "NO RULES NO RULES".

And remember this because not just this kid, but on average 32 people a day die of gun use. But who cares you didn't do it yourself. But you also don't want to change the system to improve the conditions either.

Funny how Japan only had a total of 11 gun deaths last year in a population of 150 million. Every day we surpass that almost triple with twice their population.

Oh but I forgot, the only thing that stops a bad kid with a grenade is a good kid with a grenade. Maybe if the kid had a gun to shoot back they would have survived.

How many five year olds know how to load something other than a revolver or a slingshot with ammo?

 And that is the problem. Idiots like these parents do something stupid and it brings out all the Brian37's screaming about the gun problem. It isn't a problem with guns- yes guns are dangerous tools that are potentially deadly. What these parents did was the equivalent of strapping a 5 year old in the front seat of a running car and walking away, then being surprised when the kid figures out how to put it in neutral and runs over his sister. I doubt in that situation that Brian would be sitting here decrying the dangerous "climate" of cars.

You have irresponsible parents that left a weapon in the hands of an unsupervised child. That should have no bearing on the rights of adults like me to own and use a firearm. Punish the parents for what they are, negligent. The real problem is all of these damn kids that have terrible and irresponsible parents. We seriously should consider kid control. There is absolutely no excuse for a five year old to have access to any weapon without significant supervision. It is stupid to let a five year old use a sharp kitchen knife without supervision, let alone a gun.  

Lets face some facts. Guns are cool, and they are marketted towards children. Go into a toy store and see all the toy guns yourself.
It is not, however, gun companies who market to kids. Other than bb gun manufacturer's I've never seen an add for anything actually dangerous for kids. For clarity, I've never seen Smith & Weston do a commercial with kids firing rifles at targets. It's toy companies that market guns to kids, not gun companies.
Now unless you homeschool your kid, forbid them friends, have no internet/cable/tv/pc/videogame system/etc., and live in the middle of nowhere, you CANNOT reasonably expect your child to be unexposed to the existence and coolness of firearms. And yet the reality of the danger they can represent is almost always missing. In cartoons and with toys, things don't generally die. Shoot the badguy and he'll just come back next episode, giving the impression guns aren't really dangerous.
Therefore it becomes critical that parents teach their kids about the reality of guns.

Show them what actually happens when you fire one. Let them fire one under controlled conditions. Teach them everything you can as quickly as you can, because by 2 years old they'll probably already be making that finger gun gesture. But they won't have a clue about what it actually represents.

Like guns or hate them, they must be respected. They cannot be left around for children. I liken this to a tornado, or earthquake, or volcano. These are dangers which exist. For some more than others, but they exist regardless. You wouldn't let your kid wander around in an earthquake and you wouldn't let them go outside in a tornado. You'd tell them the dangers and protect them as long as they were protectable.

Guns are really no different. They may not be natural disasters, but they are a clear and present danger to most people on the planet. Ignore them at your own peril. And if you don't teach your kids and keep guns away from them, don't be surprised when this happens.

This would be fine UNDER the conditions and AMOUNT of guns, made,  under the original NRA when it was founded, not the corporate cum dumpsters they have become bent on expanding the market.

You flood the market like we have now, you can blame the parents all you want, those stats will not go down with mere lip service. If merely telling people "do this" or "do that" worked, this wouldn't have happened. The mother of the Newtown shooter wouldn't have be so naive or dead as a result.

This is really stupid logic. You can teach many kids to drive cars illegally and MIGHT BE mature enough to handle it under the age of 16, but there is a reason that age exists. Stupidly saying "well I didn't" or "my kid doesn't" does mean shit to that dead kid because of the stupidity of that parent. Laws are made, not to oppress people, but because they are there to protect the welfare of EVERYONE, not just the jackass who thinks they are entitled to something but doesn't want any responsibility.

Please remember this because in the next 24 hours an average of 32 more people nation wide will DIE because of using a gun. I am fucking sick of the argument that this is about rights. NO this is about an industry that makes guns like candy and hands them out like candy.

I'm not denying guns are a problem, but unless or until they are heavily restricted or banned they are common, and therefore you must teach your kids about them and you must make it impactfull. You must also keep your kids far away from them unless you want them shooting each other. If you do not, you are as bad a parent as one who kicks their kid outside during a tornado.

Honestly I think if you guys gave up your drug war that figure would plunge. I am not a fan of banning the tool. Here in south africa we have all the gun laws short of banning, doesn't make a difference, our fire arm related murder rate is far far worse than America's. We don't even have a gun culture. Poverty breeds violence not guns.

I agree.

Parents have to teach their kids not to play in the street, not to play with matches, not to accept candy from strangers, not to put toys in their mouth, etc.

I don't think this should be any different.

If I was a parent and was going to own a gun, I think I would either put it on the top shelf of a closet, or keep it in my bedroom and lock the bedroom door when I was not present.

However, I have to ask what a 5 year old and a 2 year old were doing alone in the first place ? Even without a weapon in the house, I wouldn't think that a 5 and 2 year old should be left unsupervised anyway. All sorts of unfortunate things could occur in a situation with unsupervised children that young.

Now THAT type of thinking is what really pisses me off.

Granted, people develop all sorts of coping mechanicisms in order to get through tragedies, but it is still annoys me to no end that people use the LORD for things like this.

If something good happens, it was a blessing from the LORD, if something bad happens it is his will or he works in mysterious ways.

Either way, the LORD gets off the hook.

The stats of firearm deaths have gone done dramatically over the last 20 years. Especially accidental deaths, which can be directly attributed to the NRA which has spent millions on firearm safety/education programs, and gun manufacturers who have made many safety features standard making accidental discharges less common. 

You can also legally teach your child to drive a car on private property at any age you want to. Age restrictions for drivers licenses only apply if you plan on driving on public roads. Where I grew up, it was very common for farm kids to drive cars around their farm as young as 12. Most states have laws restricting the use of guns for children who hunt, the age they can carry the gun and how close they have to be to a supervising adult. 

Like candy?!?!?!? That is some damn expensive candy. How much do they charge for toffee in your neck of the woods? Never had to go through a background check to buy candy either. Sometimes I wonder if you are secretly a right winger just Poeing me.