Chicago boy, 10, fires shot at police officers called to scene after youth opens fire inside a home

[groundloop]

Source: ABC News

A 10-year-old boy fired a shot at Chicago police officers during a standoff with officers called to the scene after the youth opened fire inside a home, police said.

No one was injured in Monday's shooting and the boy was taken to a hospital for observation, police said.

Officers responded to a home in Chicago’s Beverly neighborhood about 11:20 a.m. after learning the boy had fired shots inside the residence and was experiencing “mental distress,” police said in a statement.

Chicago Police Deputy Chief Migdalia Bulnes told reporters at the scene that the boy stepped out onto a porch, pointed a gun at the officers and at his own head before he fired a single gunshot, sending officers ducking for cover.

Read more: https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/chicago-boy-10-fires-shot-police-officers-called-101633900

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The child got the gun from his mother's purse. Thankfully the police were able to handle the incident without anyone being injured.

[Sancho]

1. People Control, Not Gun Control

This is my generic response to gun threads where people are shot and killed by the dumb or criminal possession of guns. For the record, I grew up in the South and on military bases. I was taught about firearms as a child, and I grew up hunting, was a member of the NRA, and I still own guns. In the 70’s, I dropped out of the NRA because they become more radical and less interested in safety and training. Some personal experiences where people I know were involved in shootings caused me to realize that anyone could obtain and posses a gun no matter how illogical it was for them to have a gun. Also, easy access to more powerful guns, guns in the hands of children, and guns that weren’t secured are out of control in our society. As such, here’s what I now think ought to be the requirements to possess a gun. I’m not debating the legal language, I just think it’s the reasonable way to stop the shootings. Notice, none of this restricts the type of guns sold. This is aimed at the people who shoot others, because it’s clear that they should never have had a gun.

1.) Anyone in possession of a gun (whether they own it or not) should have a regularly renewed license. If you want to call it a permit, certificate, or something else that's fine.
2.) To get a license, you should have a background check, and be examined by a professional for emotional and mental stability appropriate for gun possession. It might be appropriate to require that examination to be accompanied by references from family, friends, employers, etc. This check is not to subject you to a mental health diagnosis, just check on your superficial and apparent gun-worthyness.
3.) To get the license, you should be required to take a safety course and pass a test appropriate to the type of gun you want to use.
4.) To get a license, you should be over 21. Under 21, you could only use a gun under direct supervision of a licensed person and after obtaining a learner’s license. Your license might be restricted if you have children or criminals or other unsafe people living in your home. (If you want to argue 18 or 25 or some other age, fine. 21 makes sense to me.)
5.) If you possess a gun, you would have to carry a liability insurance policy specifically for gun ownership - and likely you would have to provide proof of appropriate storage, security, and whatever statistical reasons that emerge that would drive the costs and ability to get insurance.
6.) You could not purchase a gun or ammunition without a license, and purchases would have a waiting period.
7.) If you possess a gun without a license, you go to jail, the gun is impounded, and a judge will have to let you go (just like a DUI).
8.) No one should carry an unsecured gun (except in a locked case, unloaded) when outside of home. Guns should be secure when transporting to a shooting event without demonstrating a special need. Their license should indicate training and special carry circumstances beyond recreational shooting (security guard, etc.). If you are carrying your gun while under the influence of drugs or alcohol, you lose your gun and license.
9.) If you buy, sell, give away, or inherit a gun, your license information should be recorded.
10.) If you accidentally discharge your gun, commit a crime, get referred by a mental health professional, are served a restraining order, etc., you should lose your license and guns until reinstated by a serious relicensing process.

Most of you know that a license is no big deal. Besides a driver’s license you need a license to fish, operate a boat, or many other activities. I realize these differ by state, but that is not a reason to let anyone without a bit of sense pack a semiautomatic weapon in public, on the roads, and in schools. I think we need to make it much harder for some people to have guns.

[GenXer47]

7. meh

Here's a challenge: if you can make a case, strong enough to present to, let's say, French Parliament, as to why they need a 2nd Amendment of their own; why they're doing it all wrong and we're doing it right - then let's hear it.

[oldsoftie]

16. Huh?

[Sancho]

20. I believe that most of Europe tries to keep dangerous people from possessing guns...

...so why not in the US?

As to the 2nd...I suggest you read this. It has lots of footnotes and references: The Second Amendment: A Biography

Widely acclaimed at the time of its publication, the life story of the most controversial, volatile, misunderstood provision of the Bill of Rights.

At a time of increasing gun violence in America, Waldman’s book provoked a wide range of discussion. This book looks at history to provide some surprising, illuminating answers.

The Amendment was written to calm public fear that the new national government would crush the state militias made up of all (white) adult men—who were required to own a gun to serve. Waldman recounts the raucous public debate that has surrounded the amendment from its inception to the present. As the country spread to the Western frontier, violence spread too. But through it all, gun control was abundant. In the twentieth century, with Prohibition and gangsterism, the first federal control laws were passed. In all four separate times the Supreme Court ruled against a constitutional right to own a gun.

The present debate picked up in the 1970s—part of a backlash to the liberal 1960s and a resurgence of libertarianism. A newly radicalized NRA entered the campaign to oppose gun control and elevate the status of an obscure constitutional provision. In 2008, in a case that reached the Court after a focused drive by conservative lawyers, the US Supreme Court ruled for the first time that the Constitution protects an individual right to gun ownership. Famous for his theory of “originalism,” Justice Antonin Scalia twisted it in this instance to base his argument on contemporary conditions.

In The Second Amendment: A Biography, Michael Waldman shows that our view of the amendment is set, at each stage, not by a pristine constitutional text, but by the push and pull, the rough and tumble of political advocacy and public agitation.

[Wonder Why]

2. Thank goodness the police had more brains than the grandfather.

“He’s just a typical bad boy,” Daniels said.

Typical bad boys don't shoot guns, fire at police or put a gun to their heads. That kid really needs help and the grandfather's comment seems to be a part of his problem.

[Kaleva]

4. The mother having an unsecured gun is a bigger problem

So many who have guns shouldn't.

And I'll guess that the woman didn't take her training seriously, if she ever had any.

[Rebl2]

14. Both mother

And grandfather that child’s biggest problem.

[Kaleva]

15. The irresponsible gun owner is the biggest problem

She negligently placed her own son on death's door

[flying_wahini]

12. Yes, I agree.

[AlGorerhythm]

3. Betty White...

[MsLeopard]

5. LOL!!

And welcome to DU

[AlGorerhythm]

10. Thank you 💙

[Warpy]

6. Thank goodness the gun was OK

People are clearly expendable.

[GenXer47]

8. funny that the cops found it in them to not kill the shooter

So it turns out, not every crisis needs to end with a dead body.
Interesting.

[IcyPeas]

9. Credit to the police for handling this incident appropriately.

[chowder66]

19. +1

[Frasier Balzov]

11. If one of those shots killed or wounded someone

how would this feel-good story read?

[sybylla]

13. Point to the place where anyone said this is a feel-good story.

It bleeds nothing but tragedy. The only saving factor is that we all would have expected it to end with a dead 10yo who obviously needed help before it got this far.

[Rebl2]

17. Nowhere near

a feel good story. A troubled child that has questionable adults around him.

[MichMan]

18. Mother should face some jail time