Hero: 14 year old in Phoenix/ 14 year old in California
Location: Home, w/3 younger siblings ages 8-12/ Home, w/4 younger siblings ages 7-13
Situation: Intruder breaks in front door/ Intruder spotted in front room
Response: Grabbed gun and ran upstairs/ Ran upstairs, couldn't get to gun
In the first case, the 14 year old fires, wounding the intruder, then goes to a neighbor's house. In the other case, the 14 year old, being unable to retrieve the gun, obviously can not fire. She runs to a neighbor's house for help. (The neighbor's gun is not registered, so he instead allows the girl to call 911.) The two youngest children are stabbed repeatedly and die. The two older children escape on their own. Both of the 14 year old children were trained in gun use/safety, and assumedly would have been able to save their siblings, had it not been for gun control laws. Without guns, it is likely that all 9 children would have died.
Incidentally, the intruder who was stopped was the one with a gun; the intruder who was able to kill two young children had a pitchfork. It is most likely the armed intruder procured the gun illegally. Perhaps we can outlaw babysitting, or living in Phoenix and Arizona, or perhaps rude neighbors. Wait, let's outlaw intruding…wait, we've already done that. Perhaps we should just accept that guns exist and do our best to make sure children learn gun safety, just as they learn fire safety, tornado safety, food safety, general safety, water safety…
Sources:
tommaerling.wordpress.com/2012/12/21/my-speech-at-village-of-ellenville-board-meeting-on-banning-of-firearms-in-response-to-newtown-shootings-12202012/
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