Kid with gun shoot his sister

http://www.cnn.com/2013/05/01/us/kentucky-accidential-shooting/index.html?hpt=hp_inthenews

"A Kentucky mother stepped outside of her home just for a few minutes, but it was long enough for her 5-year-old son to accidentally shoot his 2-year-old sister with the .22-caliber rifle he got for his birthday, should we leave guns around by kids where they play unsupervised? No. But you can secure guns in such a way that you protect your children from thugs and also protect them the guns you choose to use in order to do so.

Education also goes a long way both for the parent and the child. In the eighties I know how they would be talking about the dangers of lead chips and to stop your children from chewing on walls. Lead poisoning has gone down. Firearms accidents are at the lowest levels they've ever been and are still declining, but incidents like this show there is still work to be done on educating parents about childproofing their homes. This goes for all manner of childproofing, from the liquor cabinet to the gun to the kitchen knives and oven. 

Educating your children is important too. If you are afraid of guns, you are going to make your children afraid and curious about the things you are araid of. If you approach it as a tool that is potentially very dangerous, but one that can be controlled and managed by conscientious care, you will be far more successful in helping your child avoid a gun accident should they ever find one that you did not manage to avoid (friend's backpack, someone else's home, lying on a street corner...). By showing them the damage a gun can do, teaching them to find a parent, and desensitizing the curiousity to where it is not "forbidden fruit", you can reduce the chances that they will try and touch or play with a gun they find someday.

My personal belief is that every high school student should be taught to safely unload any weapon that is commonly available.  You don't need to learn to shoot, or have any tactical skills, but anyone can come across a gun in their lives. It's unlikely, but it happens. If you are with your child and find a gun lying on the street corner, you should be able to safely unload it. What else will you do? Stand near it and call the police, leaving your child near it also? Walk away from it so a child or criminal will come across it? No. The safest and best thing is to render that gun inoperable (or confirm that it is) in a way that doesn't place you or anyone else in danger, then call the police. This is just basic self-preservation skills in my humble opinion.