Jackson County Sheriff Steve Rand confirmed the 4-year-old son of a Jackson County Sheriff’s Office deputy accidentally shot and killed himself at the deputy's home Saturday, March 2.
Police and rescue officials received a 911 call asking for assistance at the residence shortly after 5:30 p.m.
The names of the deputy and his son have not been released, and the Michigan State Police are investigating the incident.
“This just serves as a reminder that we need to be vigilant when it comes to keeping our children safe,” Rand said.
You know one would assume that a Sheriff's Deputy would know all about gun safety and take great pains to keep his family safe.
What this illustrates is that even in the homes of people with extensive training these kinds of unfortunate accidents can still take place.
It is estimated that there are a whopping 310 million firearms in American homes. Roughly one for every single person in the country.
These weapons are often purchased with the idea that they will be used to defend a home against a home invasion, a crime whose occurrence is grossly exaggerated by those trying to sell you guns or home security systems, but which in reality is really quite rare unless you are in the drug selling business or living in an area with an extremely high crime rate.
Those over hyped statistics create an environment of fear which can seemingly only be calmed by the introduction of a firearm. However each year more than 20,000 children show up in hospital emergency rooms with gun related injuries.
So perhaps we need to ask ourselves what frightens us more? Phantom home invaders who we will likely never encounter, or the shooting death of one of our children, the likelihood of which statistically increases by 300% with the introduction of a gun into the household.
I think if somebody were to ask the parent of one of these deceased children they would not hesitate to answer that question. That is if you could understand them through their tears.
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