Not too long ago a Grade 7 student in Negros Oriental took his gun to school and fired it outside the window of his classroom. That incident raised issues regarding gun safety because the student just reportedly found the gun lying around in his house.
And now the issue of gun safety becomes relevant again after an incident in Manila involving kids and guns. But while the Negros Oriental incident didn’t have any casualties or fatalities, this one turned tragic after a seven-year-old boy was accidentally shot dead by his 13-year-old brother.
According to a GMA report, the older boy was able to get the gun, a 9mm pistol from a cabinet in their house. It went off while he was fiddling with it, and the slug passed through the wall and killed his younger brother who was sleeping in the next room. The gun was the service firearm of their father who was a policeman.
We don’t want to add insult to injury here when it comes to the policeman, he is already suffering a lot from this tragedy, but it must be said that he should have better secured his service firearm.
Those who have guns already have the responsibility of making sure others who aren’t familiar with handling firearms don’t find them easily, but this responsibility goes double for policemen who handle guns on a daily basis as it is a tool of their trade.
Although we deem it unnecessary as he has suffered enough, the policeman is set to face administrative and criminal charges as a matter of procedure.
For sure he has learned his lesson, and the price paid for this one was costly as it was one of the lives of his children. Because like we said before that any incident, even the most tragic ones, can become a teachable moment, we hope that this tragedy will serve as a warning for cops with young kids, as well as gun owners in general, to always keep these dangerous tools out of easy reach.