I too have a few phobias.

Snakes are one of them and guns are another.

The constitution allows the right to bear arms. I agree with the right to self protection, but I have the right to walk down the street without fear of a trigger-happy gun-toter shooting me.

To have a gun in the house is someone’s personal preference. If they feel more protected knowing they can shoot first, hey it’s their house, their family and their security. As well as their right as an American citizen.

I hope they are responsible enough to keep the gun in a safe place, so children don’t have access to it. I feel that most people who choose to have guns in their house take the proper safety procedures to use them correctly.

But a law giving someone the right to shoot a “perceived” assailant on the street is crazy. The key word in this sentence is perceived.

What?

Isn’t that what police are for?

How are police supposed to differentiate between people protecting themselves and a person dead because they were a “perceived” threat?

What about diplomacy? It is everyone’s right to feel safe. The streets are public places, and I try not to think about how many people around me are carrying.

As a bartender at Sweeney’s Saloon in St. Paul, I once came across a person with a concealed weapon.

He was a cop.

He probably shouldn’t have had his gun on him when he was 10 drinks deep, but he did.

He was a good guy. I got to know him well, but one night he had too many cocktails and headed outside on the patio to have a cigarette.

He ended up in an argument with this guy.

Two minutes later, I was looking at a ghost-faced manager telling me to call the police.

I was about to call, then came to my senses. There was an officer in the bar, so I asked my manager why he wanted me to call.

He told me two guys were arguing on the patio and one of them dropped a gun on the ground.

I went outside to see who was arguing, and where the off-duty officer was to help me.

One of the guys arguing was the cop.

His gun had fallen out of its holster and onto the ground.

Before he noticed his gun was missing, I had time to pick the gun up, and separate the argument saying, “Officer, is this your gun?”

Now both of the men who were arguing were as ghost-faced as my manager. The officer took his gun and left.

The other man’s wife was hysterical.

It was an accident, but that’s my point.

The right to have guns in one’s house is one thing. The right to protect one’s self with deadly force in the street is another.

If the other man had a gun, and saw the officer’s gun fall out of its holster, could he shoot?

Was he in danger? Or was it a lapse of judgment by an officer that could have gotten my favorite pub shot up.

Who would have been to blame, when that went to court?

Would there have been two men dead over a drunken argument?

Wasn’t everyone on that patio’s life in danger? Could the entire patio have been shooting?

It’s a slippery slope. The right to bear and conceal is justified by our constitution, but the right to protect one’s self in public with deadly force, is outright scary.

This recent news story about a 6-year-old girl who shot her 3-year-old brother in Rice County is exactly the type of accident that freaks me out about guns.

For gun owners with kids out there, you can get gun locks at the police department (for free, I think). It's a good time to think about where and how you're storing firearms if you have them at home.

See story at:
http://www.startribune.com/local/south/26318674.html?elr=KArksLckD8EQDUo...

No one was accidentally shot -
Someone pointed a weapon at someone else and pulled the trigger.
Guns don't go bang unless someone pulls the trigger.
Dropping a gun on your foot is an accident.

When the idiot put a firearm loose in an unlocked drawer, it stopped being an accident and become negligence.

It still astounds me what we don't do for our kids - Try to smoke or throw away a plastic bottle or even leave the water running while you brush your teeth around a child.
You will get a lecture about how you are killing yourself or killing mother earth or the fishes.
But somehow, showing kids Eddie Eagle and the "Stop, Don't Touch, Leave the Area, Tell an adult" will somehow harm kids.

Every one of my children (and any child who spends time at my house) has seen the tapes and done the workbook.
And it works - When the kids found a used shotgun shell at the park - one told the other kids to go away and came and got us.

In addition to handguns, Minnesota is a hunting state - so kids are going to be around weapons sooner or later.

Instead of just telling kids guns are bad (which even kids know is not true) - I recommend teaching them safety, you can find info at:
http://www.nrahq.org/safety/eddie

And I hope they prosecute the boyfriend.
If the facts are as stated, he was criminally negligent.
Leaving an unattended firearm around is no different then getting in a car drunk.

Thanks for the link, Robert. It sounds like your approach to discussing gun safety for children is another way to prevent a situation like this one.

It's probably a smart conversation to have, even if a parent doesn't personally have a gun in the house, as kids may go to a friend's house where there are guns.

I don't even have kids...this story just makes me want parents to double check their procedures at home. It's so tragic.