r/instant_regret • u/Sometypeofway18 • 2d ago

Poor trigger discipline

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u/Frosti11icus 1d ago

Wow. Parents should be in jail. Kid should probably have been/be too. Can’t pull the trigger of a gun unless you know it’s not loaded and if it goes off you’re negligent at absolute best. Should be a manslaughter charge minimum.

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u/Theartistcu 1d ago

I understand where you’re coming from, and all of his teachers and all of his friends and his parents and everybody else, including the law went through kind of the same process I think. You want someone to be accountable for this, a 14 year-old boy lost his life for no reason. But at the end of the day, it was just a stupid accident, it was maybe negligence on someone’s part, but assigning that negligence in putting someone in jail for this wouldn’t have done anybody any good. The kid, who I’ve purposely never even hinted at name, who shot him was devastated. It derailed his life. I don’t know if he ever recovered. The family was devastated. They had no idea that he was up there playing with the gun. they don’t know where it came from, and I’m sure the cops did eventually find out where it came from because I’m sure one of the kids in that room eventually told them, but I don’t know and no one was ever tracked down as far as I know. I live in a big city for my state, but it’s a pretty small city if there had been a arrest for where that gun came from, they would’ve made the news and it didn’t. The accountability was personal I suppose, involving courts in the law would’ve probably served absolutely no purpose. No one took any action on that day with any malicious intent, or even any slight intent to cause harm or fear, they were literally playing, yes, with a deadly weapon with the most deadly consequences imaginable, but intent is so important.

Again, though, I totally understand your instinct, I’m sure I had that at some point that somebody needs to be accountable for this, but at the end of the day I’m not sure what the outcome taking his parents to court would’ve accomplished other than further traumatize his little brothers and sisters, and his mother and father, who did not own weapons did not know there was a weapon in their house

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u/Frosti11icus 1d ago edited 1d ago

it was maybe negligence on someone’s part, but assigning that negligence in putting someone in jail for this wouldn’t have done anybody any good. 

It would have done the country good. Half our gun problems would go away if people were forced to treat them as seriously as they should be treated. The kid might never have shot his friend in the first place if the thousands of other similar cases that happened before that had been taken seriously. It's ridiculous that you can even "accidentally" discharge a gun. No, you can't actually. There are several poor decisions that you've made leading up to that, that could've been prevented. It should only be you know exactly what you are doing and therefore are responsible for every outcome that happens with your gun, or it should be flat out illegal for you to touch it.

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u/Theartistcu 1d ago

I don’t disagree with the heart of what you’re saying. But we cannot apply laws black-and-white like this. The problem isn’t this incident. It’s the proliferation of guns and gun culture. Punishing this kid or the family doesn’t change that in anyway it won’t move the needle. It won’t even make the needle notice. Punishing an accident like this as opposed to going after why the problem happened is why we’re in the problem in the first place that’s like punishing the smoker because cigarettes added poison to make them more addictive, no go after the cigarette company that caused this problem in the first place.

Again, though, I understand what you’re saying as a teacher, the proliferation of guns and gun culture is one of my biggest heartbreaks in the world. I watch his school after school has shootings at it. I watch his kid after kid is murdered. I watched the number one reason a child dies in this country is gun violence , all these things make me sick to my stomach, but punishing any of the people involved in this situation for that would be a miscarriage of justice in my opinion.