So, if you live in 'merica, please do read and apply this knowledge:
http://www.nssf.org/safety/basics/
http://training.nra.org/nra-gun-safety-rules.aspx
http://www.tn.gov/safety/pubsafety/handgunsafety.shtml

I am sick and tired of hearing pretty much every day on the news that some other toddler shot their parents. This should not be happening, you are doing something wrong 'merica.

I seem to recall that the safety was on in the incident a few weeks back where the mother died in a shop. Never did hear any follow-up.

http://www.nssf.org/safety/basics/

I don't see any reason to keep a loaded firearm anywhere except at the shooting range or before engaging a target.

I learned to tune them out years ago.

My boys left home with their hunting gear years ago when they grew up. No body died.

Just more feasting to make you sick
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/...0JS0OK20141214

I keep a gunrack in my pickup truck. Yehaaa and Cow Patty.

Well, this may come as a shock, but when people do activity X, a small percentage of them will affected by consequence Y. When more people do activity X, more of them will be affected by Y.

Feel free to go down the list:

• X | Y
• Drive Cars | Motor Vehicle Accident (MVA)
• Furniture Moving job | Back Injury
• Stung by Bee | Life Threatening Reaction
• Gun Owner | Accidental shooting
• Consume Sugar | Develop Diabetes
• Repetive Movement | Median Nerve Compression (Carpal Tunnel)

Lot's of people do stuff. A small minority of them get hit by a unexpected consequence.
Feel free to make some claim that somehow Gun Owners are exempt from this logic.

I'm all for Safety and Safety Training. Yes, kids at school need to know about chain saws, cars, electricity and other dangerous machines. Oh no, we can't do that.

Fixed that for you

If we'd only gun-proof our kids, there'd be no need for kid-proofing our guns.

Not a gun owner, but also not a gun hater or one that cares either way.

Just my experiences over the years, those I know who do own guns, it's sort of a sixth sense where you can tell that they're either a safe and responsible gun owner, or they're an idiot.

The more odd part is that there are probably tons of gun owners where you don't know they own one and then you have to question their smarts when you hear of an incident.

Never took the class, my friend was Criminal Justice in college and he said they had one or two classes covering "when bad things happen to good people" which seems apt considering that entering law enforcement, or something similar, you're likely to encounter people who's lives were totally destroyed or changed by one random/unfortunate event.

I suspect that the people who sell guns would prefer that they remain a lucrative symbol, not a pragmatic tool. If kids or adults were exposed to actual guns ... if, for example, we still had competitive target shooting as a sport activity in high school ... then people would know a lot more about the things than they actually do. And, they probably wouldn't spend a thousand bucks to buy one, along with a small-army's supply of ammo and a concealed-carry bag. (Just the right thing for Mom to have had, in case there was an armed holdup right there on the cereal aisle ...).

In the USA, and especially in the propaganda that passes for "news," firearms are a symbol. Of exactly what? I don't really know. But "everyone should own half-a-dozen or so," keeping one in each drawer of the bedside table in case bad-guys come bursting through your bedroom door . . .

It's a fantasy, yes. Served to encourage a fantasy demand for a lucrative product. "That gun in your pocket" isn't a tool, because if it was, you probably wouldn't have purchased the "mostly-plastic, hard-to-service, might break (or go off) if you drop it monstrosity" that you did. I confess to preferring small-bore rifles and six-shooters, and that my targets are farm varmints that I'd be just as happy to scare-off as to have to pick up and drop in a hole. (Uhh, except possums. Possums deserve to be treated with great ... accuracy. )

I would count only one thing as an accidental shooting: When the firearm is mechanically misfunctioning in a way that the owner and/or a bystander are injured in the process.
Leaving loaded weapons in the reach of toddlers is not an "accident" at all, it is criminal negligence. While there are tragic cases where the victims died, there are also cases where the persons involved had luck and survived. I don't get why those people are excused with "it was an accident", it obviously was not, it was negligence and often times stupidity that lead to the incident. While you can't convict people for being stupid, you can and should convict those that are negligent.

This is NOT about being for or against guns, this is about gun safety. If you own a gun and cannot manage it properly, then you should be charged at least with criminal negligence if someone gets hurt.

You can be charged with criminal negligence, but a jury's going to have to agree with you ... and, if I were on that jury, I wouldn't automatically do that.

A firearm is "an inherently dangerous device." As they stress in any gun-safety course, "it is designed to destroy whatever it is pointed at." You're expected to know that.

"If someone gets hurt," you're already liable, whether it's a firearm or not. You can, likewise, be found negligent. But "criminal negligence" generally implies "criminal intent." not the particular doodad that was involved in the case.

That being said, since a gun is such a powerful and dangerous device, it's not too hard to wind up committing a crime ... even if only in the form of a tort ... when you are carrying one. Especially if you are a Rambo-moron with it. Yes, that "criminal negligence" charge might well stick, and such that you're breathing a sigh of relief that you're going into the slammer with the expectation of being alive to walk out again someday.

And of course, in the specific case of a firearm, you can already be charged with: "assault with a deadly weapon," in a criminal court, not to mention the field-day that the plaintiff's civil attorney will have with you.

Best advice:

• "Leave the damned gun at home." (Your foot will thank you, if nothing else.)
• "If you think you might need a gun there, don't go there."
• "If you think you need to carry a gun in that bar, pick a different bar to go to."
• "If anyone walks into a bar carrying a gun, immediately pay your tab and inform the proprietor that you will never do business with him again. Then, leave quietly through another door."
• "Gee, I wonder what's on TeeVee, instead."

A firearm does not have eyes or a brain. That button next to the trigger is the Safety, not an "Undo" button. Prisons are filled with remorse. Some tombstones ought to say, "oops ..." but as an epitaph that ranks right up there with "... but he had the right of way."

The OP stated a call for the opposite of what is being done today. When I was a kid, we did have safety training. We did shoot firearms as children under the direction of adults and with fear of being smacked if we goofed off.

Today's goofy schools refuse to even say a number of words. The have a silly notion that if you teach a child how to safely handle a weapon or any machine, the child will go crazy.