The death has convulsed this rural community of 1,800 in south-central Kentucky, where everyone seems to know the extended Sparks family, which is now riven by grief. But as mourners gathered for Caroline’s funeral on Saturday, there were equally strong emotions directed at the outside world, which has been quick to pass judgment on the parents and a way of life in which many see nothing unusual about introducing children to firearms while they are still in kindergarten.
via Kentucky Town Rejects Girl’s Gun Death as a Symbol – NYTimes.com.
Reporter Trip Gabriel is very butthurt because the rednecks in a small Kentucky town did not allow the “Intelligentsia” that invaded them to sensationalize a sad death.
I am not shocked any longer about journalists, I just maintain this constant state of disgust at their lack of basic human decency. Sort of like a chronic cases of amebiasis.
i come from a southern family, my old man introduced me to shooting at 5 or 6, wanted me to know how dangerous a gun could be. got me my first shotgun at 8 or 9, a New England .410 single shot i still own. this kind of thing does not happen often in such gun wise communities.
My first shooting experience was when I was young enough I can not clearly remember it. I was given my first rifle at age 7 as a Christmas present.
When my best friend suggested that his daughter be taught to shoot at age 3, I told him “Not yet. I want to be sure she knows enough to follow directions before I trust her to hold a gun.” He respected my input and agreed.
Personally, I have to applaud the community members driving the blood-sport news stations out of town.
Again my message to the anti-gun crowd: If you want headlines, stop hiding behind hired killers. Do your own wetwork.
This is my favorite part of the article;
After the funeral service, two men advanced across North Main Street toward a single television crew present, from the German network RTL, and punched the cameraman, bloodying his face and knocking him down.
Two other men told a newspaper reporter, “If you had any sense, you’d get out of here. You’re next, buddy.”
Maybe a few ass whoopin’s and some of these vultures will learn a little respect.
That happens when the media behaves like the Westboro Baptist Church and some folks don’t take kindly about strangers being assholes when they are in mourning.
Love those small towns, everyone watches out for (and gossips about, if its nothing serious or life-threatening) everyone else.
My daughter’s 4. She’s been around guns all her life, and has been handling them since she was old enough to know what to ask for. She knows that if she wants to hold them, all she has to do is ask, and we’ll let her. With help (the Mosin probably weighs as much as she does!). She also knows what we have to do in order to hold the guns (check the chamber, keep it pointed at the wall/floor, don’t look in the wrong end of the barrel, etc). She recently had the opportunity to fire several of them. I asked her if she wanted to shoot, and she decided she did. She got to shoot the .22 handgun, but didn’t want to shoot any of the rifles. She did well, listened to everything I told her, and was very closely supervised the entire time (she was literally sitting on my knee, with my arms wrapped around her helping her aim). She even knew to keep her finger off the trigger when she wasn’t shooting. There’s no well-defined age at which I would point to and say “if you’re this old, you can learn to shoot”. I know 30 year old adults whom I would not take to the range. Same with driving, or anything else in Life. It depends on the individual. But I do not lose any sleep at night, knowing that my daughter is on her way to being able to defend herself. Heh. I actually look forward to the day that her Christmas list starts with “ammo”.
That’s awesome. maybe if the press were the recipients of sound beatings more often…they’d be just a bit more respectful of folks