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No gun should ever be handled in such a manner as it intersects the plane of a human or animal unless that human or animal is something the gun handler has decided to kill. When I was a kid, before I was allowed to pick up a gun for the first time, I learned this important lesson. I learned to respect guns. Handled properly they can't hurt someone.

There is no such thing as an unloaded weapon. A gun should always be treated as if it were loaded, ready to be fired and might go off at any second.

Even as adults some people who have been around guns their entire lives don't know this lesson.

I have had people ask me if I wanted to look at their gun collection. While I sat there, this individual would wave their guy around disecting human bodies with the extended barrel line of their gun. I have had to stand up and leave such presentations due to my inability to talk common sense into them.

If you teach kids or even adults nothing more than this one tactic, they will never kill a friend or family member by accident.

One of my brothers used to invite a friend to go to the range with us. His friend waved his gun around all the time. Frequently the gun was momentarily pointed at one or the other of us. I don't go shooting with my brother anymore. If you value your life, or the lives of people or animals who matter to you, never tollerate this type of behavior. Get yourself and anyone or anything that matters to you, as far away from the person that does this as you can.

My husband received two guns as a gift for Christmas..... knowing, positively that they were not loaded, we still stressed to both of our children (16 and 11) that you never aim at anyone unless you plan to shoot them.......... They "aimed" at the tv........

This is tragic.....no words can express enough sorrow for this family

Thank you for your informative post. When I was about thirteen years old I used to sneek off you friends and go quail hunting. The other two boys were out hunting all the time and the older boy was quite a good hunter and very careful where he pointed his weapon. He was always talking about handling the shotgun properly. The younger boy, I will call him Henry, had what I figured was a smirky attitude. One day I went over to the house to go hunting, and only the younger boy was there. Reluctantly, I went along.

We went down through an orchard that day, and Henry kept his gun under good control until we reached an old fence. We had to climb through the fence. I was very careful to stay wide of Henry, but he pointed the weapon at me for a moment. I ducked out of the way and moved quickly back. At that moment, Henry dropped his weapon against the fence, and it discharged. Scared the crap out of me, and my ears rang for about a half-hour it seemed.

Needless to say, I left to go home as soon as I calmed down. Never snuck off to go hunting again. Later, I joined an NRA sponsored shooting club and learned what an idiot I had been for sneaking off that way. Actually, I became a pretty good rifle shot.