Give me a gun, daddy!
File this under "Kids get the funniest things." Or something.
Over in the land of Lincoln, a 30 year old father got his 10 month old son a gun permit. For the 12-gauge Beretta shotgun the boy's grandfather bought him.
That's right. I'm not making it up. On the positive side, the father followed the letter of the law and got a permit for the gun, and doesn't plan to give the gun to the boy until he's at least 14. But Illinois has a gun permit law that does not impose an age limit.
Another clear sign we need a sane gun control discussion in this country, and that we must stop letting the NRA drive policies that most of the country simply doesn't support.
There were 29,569 gun deaths in the U.S. in 2004, the latest year for which data is available. That's about 80 gun deaths a day. Almost half of them were suicides with firearms by white males. So that blows the NRA theory that most gun violence can be tied to illegally obtained firearms and criminals.
Comments
Now I would think a computer, or an electric guitar, or maybe even a baseball bat would be a stupid ass gift for a new baby. "Thanks for this shit we have to carry around for 10 years because he won't be able to use it."
But a shotgun??!! Jesus, is hunting that fucking important to you? "Oh you have a new baby? Here's a deadly weapon, congrats! Don't forget to smear him in the blood of his first kill!"
Posted by: barabajagal | May 16, 2007 9:16 AM
Mind you, the child's name is Bubba.
Posted by: Derek Phillips | May 16, 2007 9:42 AM
It's funny in the little CNN piece on this that they put Bubba in quotes, as if to imply "yep, we're not making this up... the kid's name is "Bubba"." If the kid's name was Mike or Derek, I bet there'd be no quotes around it...
Posted by: Mike Visser | May 16, 2007 10:29 AM
To be fair, it's his nickname, which justifies the quotes.
Posted by: Derek Phillips | May 16, 2007 11:05 AM
Phil,
It's only fair if I say it is. But you're right - his real name is Howard. Not "Bubba".
I wish it really was Bubba, though. That would be funnier.
Posted by: Mike Visser | May 16, 2007 11:14 AM