You know, the other thing I think about with this issue is that more teenagers are killed or seriously and sometimes permanently injured in hand to hand combat than with guns.

Kids are violent.

They learn it from us grown ups.

Hey...

Can you please identify the responsible party or object in this case, in your opinion, of course.

FWIW: here is your ever-reliable Fox News to answer your question...
Note: These are only "school-shootings"

Fox News
2/28/12

School shootings and where students got their guns
The article goes on with school shootings in 2006 and 2005.
.

FIFY.

Then we let them drive cars. It's a wonder we're not extinct.

I'll start with whichever adult allowed a child access to a loaded weapon or a weapon and ammo.

Or were you assuming the gun went to the store, bought ammunition,
loaded itself, jumped into the student's backpack and then fired a round by itself?

In addition to the charges brought against the boy, the boy's mother would seem to be culpable of reckless endangerment for not securing the firearm (there's nothing about the boy trespassing in the mother's home to get it). The firearm can be configured for safe carry in the backpack even under the conditions of the pack being slammed down; so, it was a matter of human negligence that the firearm was either left "cocked and with the safety off" by the mother; or, configured that way by the boy. That was neither a safe configuration for firearm storage nor any manner of carry. The safety should not be off until one is ready to pull the trigger. For backpack carry, there shouldn't have been a round in the chamber either.

The boy claimed he was going to run away. A similar situation could have developed if his mother had recklessly left her car keys in her car and the boy got in and drove away then hit someone because he didn't know how to properly control the vehicle.

People don't kill people, cars do!

That's another sign of the times. We no longer teach kids safe & proper gun handling. Ya'll have seen pics of my 4 year old shooting. We've taught the kids they can look at or handle any weapon in our home as long as they ask first & we go thru the proper clearing procedures. This way the guns aren't a mystery or forbidden fruit. They learn they are a tool that has to be treated the same way as my chainsaw, circular saw, etc.

BTW, my 28 year old still comments on his first gun lesson. I took him out and shot a cantaloupe. I told him that is what would happen to his head if he messed with a loaded gun. Funny the things that stick in their minds

The boy is responsible. He's 9.

That's the law in Washington. The mom's not responsible, nobody else. He's being charged.

Who *should* be responsible, tha's a different conversation.

Oh, well its Washington ... you should have said that.
Ya know what they say about peeps in Washington, right ;)

Don't mess with nine year olds.

OK, on a more serious note, you stated "in your opinion."

After reading the article I took this out...

Huh??? Gotta be more to that part of this story.

ALets look into this some more ...

In third grade, I was in Tuscon AZ for a year. A kid in my class brought a handgun to school for show and tell. I'm a little hazy on the details, but I'm pretty sure the teacher held onto it for the boy for the day but let him hold it and show it in front of the class for show and tell. She didn't let him pass it around. And I think she asked him if it was loaded, and he said it wasn't, but I never saw her check for herself. That part of the memory is pretty foggy.

He had found it in the desert on the edge of town and had gone shooting with it. He told the story of when he shot a prickly pear cactus, and when he went to look at the bullet hole, he saw that he had killed a lizard or some other small animal that was behind the cactus.

This was 1976. Different times.

Guns don't kill people, parents kill people

I think (in my opinion, hmm?) the law in Washington is not what it should be. I don't think a nine year old should be held responsible in this case, though that is how our laws are written. I believe the owner of the gun should be responsible. I'm all for personal responsibility and shit, and I don't know what kind of squawking the 2nd amendment fundies have made but there oughta be a law, y'know?

Otherwise, why not just have some little kid be your triggerman, be the babysitting bank robber or whatever. Who is the fucking adult in charge here? It had better not be a nine year old, running away from home who takes a gun cause he's scared.