1. Lots of people make terrible mistakes behind the wheel of a car. Some are smart some are not. It is no fairer to limit who can purchase a car based on IQ as it is to limit the purchase of firearms, household chemicals, lawnmowers, swimming pools, propane bbq grills, fireworks or other potentially dangerous devices.

2. The problem is not with the IQ level, but with the lack of training. The four safety rules are good but they are not taught to be strictly adhered too. People far too often do not treat unloaded guns as if they were loaded because It’s unloaded. The flag each other, they do not check the weapon multiple times during the course of carry, before a dry fire, when picking up or putting down.

3. Another common problem is a lack of familiarity. Many police only touch their weapons once a year when they qualify. Weapons have been found unloaded, uncleaned, with bits of food in them on the annual qualification range. This leads to unfamiliarity and improper execution of procedure.

4. Guns are simple… This often leads to overconfidence on the part of many users. Too often shooters are to busy being macho then they are being professional and following safety rules.

5. The military does a poor job of teaching and enforcing firearms safety. Often soldiers have unloaded weapons that they must carry all the time and this leads to severe complacency. Range events are tightly controlled for safety and weapons are kept unloaded for the maximum amount of time, increasing the complacency and negative habit patterns become instilled for when loaded weapons are actually handled.

6. Every gun owner must understand the responsibility and grave consequences of their carelessness. Just as Drinking and Driving is an insanely stupid thing to do, so is not being sure of your target and what is beyond.

7. The unfortunate fact of life is that there are no guarantees. There are plenty of things you can do to completely alter your life for the worse. Find out what they are and keep form doing them.

Life is hard. It’s harder when you’re stupid.

The only restriction I in good conscience can recommend, is strict training in a variety of subjects. Weapons handling, loading unloading, and a long case study of typical tragedies that occur, as well as storage methods, and emergency procedures (break ins). The training would not make gun fighters out of people, but would make them highly competent.

Following the training, they would be issued a card, that was not tracked, but was required for the purchase of any firearm, or the possession of a firearm. It would expire every two-seven or so years, based on the performance of the individual. The cards would be available for a nominal fee and could only be issued by schools that taught to standard.

Alcohol would probably knock me out next.

I have seen guys in the Marines who were dumber than a box of rocks but could shoot and handled the firearms with expert care. And per the above, some of the smartest folks I know would shoot their foot of and kill 3 neigbors in the condo below them if given access to firearms.

Go figure.

It was their own stupidity that caused the death of another human and they defied the most basic of hunting rules. Never take a shot unless you are 100% sure of your target. I mean, if your mistaking a human for a turkey then how in the heck did you know you werent shooting a tom instead of a hen?

People who do these things are few and far between. I do believe they shouldnt walk away with a slap on the wrist, as they are acting in a neglegent manner.

My idea is that there be a gun competency test where you must demonstrate you have enough knowledge about firearms and firearm safety in order to own a gun. I get real tired of people asking if they can shoot a 357 in a 38 b/c you can shoot a 38 from a 357, if you can shoot a 12 ga shell from a 20 gauge, people shooting themselves or others from lack of firearm safety knowledge and all the other ridiculous and stupid things ignorant gun owners do. Too many people that are ignorant about firearms and firearm safety own firearms and that hurts the shooting and hunting community b/c it gives us a bad rap and the liberal media always puts there anti spin on it… I don’t know about the IQ argument b/c I’m sure there are people with high IQs that don’t know crap about firearms and how to safely use them but I’m sure there are a ton of rednecks and country boys with low IQs that do know how to own and use a firearm safely… If anything, at least the dumb ones kind of weed themselves out either by going to jail, shooting themselves, someone else or just scaring them out of gun ownership by a negligent discharge or something similar.

We all have the right to freedom of speech. Freedom of speech does not entitle you to yell FIRE in a crowded theater. Mentally less advanced people are more likely to fail to understand the ramifications of this, should we therefore keep them gagged? I say no. The only people we should gag are those who HAVE yelled FIRE in a crowded theater.

Second, parents do many dumb things that endanger children. How many children are killed because a parent was drinking while driving, or driving while overly tired, or speeding? How many children die because simple precautions at home like keeping household chemicals out of low cabnets aren’t followed?

Unfortunately, accidents happen.

Also, this guy was found to have been drinking and smoking pot beforehand. It seems to me that these are the key issues in this accident, the firearm was just the tool he happened to have been using.

Statistically I am far more likely to be killed by a teenage or elderly driver who simply isn’t paying attention to the road. It’s far more reasonable to call for restrictions on those two groups of drivers in an effort to save lives.

Additionally those hunting accidents are the exception rather than the rule, all studies show hunting related deaths have been on the decline for years now while traffic related deaths continue to increase. Go figure.

maybe this was a real accident but I assure you that many aren’t

If people started doing real time the already rare occurences would go to zero