11-year-old boy fatally shot in Houston after 'ding dong ditch' doorbell-ringing prank, police say

[pinkstarburst]

33. I am absolutely saying that all parents should be warning

their kids "not to be at this particular dance."

Absolutely. 100%.

A generation or two ago, was this a harmless prank we all did? Sure. We are living in very different times now. You have no idea who is on the other side of that door, and there are too many stories on the news about crazed people with AR-15s literally shooting children for ringing a doorbell (again, I referenced the bass clarinet kid in my first post who was just trying to pick up his siblings from a friend's house and accidentally went to the wrong house and a crazy gun owner shot him through the door.)

There are too many assault rifles in this country and the people who are collecting them in mass numbers are exactly the people who probably shouldn't have them.

That makes ding dong ditch not such a good idea in 2025. It's a safety issue. Parents absolutely should be teaching kids that it is not safe to be pranking random houses in this way. You have no idea if the person on the other side of the door is mentally unstable and has an assault rifle.