A lesson to be learned about guns

December 16, 7:45 AMGun Rights ExaminerDavid Codrea

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The Daniel Petric trial is underway.

Petric is the teenager who shot his parents, killing his mother, because they had taken away his video game.

His father, Mark, put the game in a lockbox in the parents' closet. He also kept a 9 mm handgun in the box, according to prosecutors.

Daniel Petric took the gun and the game out of the box, they said.

We don't know the dynamics going on in that family. What we do see in the aftermath might be indicative:

"You're my son," Mark Petric responded. "You're my boy...He was always her little boy," Mark Petric told the judge.

That and:

He was homebound for a year with nothing to do but watch television and play video games.

Really? Nothing?

There are no solutions for this family. Sometimes, broken things cannot be repaired.

But are there answers we can take away from this?

Commentator "Appletart" thinks so, and I highlight it because it is a sentiment gun owners must be able to address:

There's a lesson to be learned here:

Don't keep a loaded gun in your house.

Most people think they are going to use these guns for self defense when someone breaks into their house, but what happens much more often is that the gun ends up being used on a family member in a situation like this.

This is the anti-gun position distilled down to the basics. I know what I'd say in response, but I do enough talking around here.

There is, indeed, a lesson to be learned, and I'm curious to see if it has been. So I'm going to relinquish the floor. How would you respond to the assertion that it's too dangerous to keep a loaded gun in the home?

Just to let you know, this is not the only question I intend to pose over the coming days. I'm asking for a reason I'll make clear in later columns.

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Holiday Meet & Greets Fun for All!

Here's the follow-up on OFCC's get-togethers. I was glad to see so many come out to the Cleveland event.

Oh, and just a reminder: Their supply of 2009 calendars is limited. Fortunately, they've also knocked five bucks off the price. Important dates in history, pro-gun quotes, the photography of Oleg Volk...you know you want one.