9 year old kills 2 year old

Police: Boy, 9, accidentally shoots and kills toddler

By the CNN Wire Staff
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July 11, 2010 11:07 a.m. EDT


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Police: 9-year-old fatally shoots brother




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STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Police: The boy shot his 2-year-old brother with a gun he found in their house
  
• The toddler suffered a single gunshot wound to the torso
  
• No charges will be filed
  

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  Los Angeles
  

Los Angeles, California (CNN) -- A 9-year-old boy fatally shot his 2-year-old brother while playing with a gun in Los Angeles, authorities said late Saturday.
The boy found the gun in his house, said Sgt. Tim Walters of the Los Angeles Police Department. While playing with it, he accidentally shot the toddler, Walters said.
No charges will be filed, according to Walters.
Police said they responded to a call Friday and found the toddler suffering from a single gunshot wound to the torso. Paramedics took him to a hospital, where he died later that night.
"Homicide detectives interviewed family members and determined that the gun had gone off while the 9-year-old was playing with it," police said in a statement.

The victim's name was withheld pending notification of next of kin, authorities said.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/07/11/california.shooting/index.html?hpt=T2

This is a small article with lots of unknowns. The story is a tragic accident.
Question: Are our fears reasonable or are we often afraid of the wrong thing? I had this conversation not too long ago with someone who is quite overweight, a heavy smoker, refuses to wear a seatbelt, and keeps guns around the home in case someone tries to break in. It makes him feel safer and I support his right to protect himself. But is he more likely to have a heart attack, go through the windshied of a car, or be the victim of a home invasion? It does not have to be an either or / situation. I understand that he does not have to select only one possible scenario and prepare for that. I am suggesting that what he has chosen to prepare for is unlikley to ever happen to him. It is odd how / where people perceive risk.
Thoughts?

I am curious why no charges. I thought if you had children you had to keep your guns locked. Maybe the kid found the key? Or maybe I've lived in the UKKalifornia so long I think every state will prosecute you for looking at a gun or holding up a stick like one.

Tragic, yes. Car accidents? They take more childrens' lives than guns as does abuse by their own parents. I try to avoid knee jerk reactions. Suffering and tragedy exist and we will neve wipe it out completely. Is it worse for a parent to be a meth head and not feed their kids than have relatively good parents that keep a gun in the home? Case by case basis. It has to be - too many variables..."the totality of the circumstances" as we are taught.

The no charges part was strange though with the vague article hard to be sure. Maybe the parents took reasonable care [under the law] and the child got the gun anyway. In VA, at least for a while, when you purchased a firearm there was a requirement that you signed a form indicating that you knew it was illegal to leave a gun where it could be accessed by a child.