An 8 Year Old Shoots and Kills His Father

Does the fact that a diagnosis cannot be made mean that the condition does not exist or does it mean that the science is not capable of making a diagnosis although the disorder may in fact exist? I don't know much about this stuff so I will defer to those of you who do. I have read that sociopaths often are very abusive towards animals at a very early age. That suggests to me that the small kid who routinely pours gasoline on cats and flames them may in fact be a sociopath at that tender age even though the disorder has not yet and cannot be accurately diagnosed.

I definately believe the father was at fault for allowing himself to be shot. When I was taught to shoot and when I taught my daughter to shoot it was a very controlled thing. I was first instructed about and assumed the "prone" shooting position. My father assumed the same position right beside me and it would have been phyiscally impossible for me to have done anything harmful because he was in compete control of me, the firearm and the ammunition. My brother was required to sit several feet behind us and listen. I was then instructed and demonstrated proper rifle safety, loading and firing techniques. I was then handed the rifle and instructed to keep it pointed down range. I was then required to repeatedly demonstrate (without ammunition) that I had understood and learned what I had been taught. I was finally given by my father ONE cartridge to load in the single shot gun and allowed to aim and fire at the target. This was repeated exactly 4 more times. The rifle was then stowed out of reach of small boys and we all three went down range to inspect and replace the target. The ritual was then repeated for my brother with myself being required to sit and listen. We were then taught to disassemble and clean and oit the firearm. And then it was locked away. It was perhaps an hour of very disciplined instruction which included about 5 minutes of actual shooting. The same drill happened each time we were allowed to shoot for several years. We loved it. Over the years there were vairous demonstrations of the awesome power, destructiveness and extreme range of firearms. When I was allowed to start pheasant hunting I carried an EMPTY shotgun in the field for TWO seasons. I was required to treat it absolutely as if it were loaded and to follow all of the safety and gun courtesy routines of the older hunters and at the end of the day we discussed some of the less safe habits of some of the other hunters and what was acceptable and what was not. Finally in the last hour of the last hunt of the second season one of my Father's closest friends (I'm fairly certain with my father's knowledge) slipped me two cartridges. I didn't actually even get to take a shot that day and didn't get my first pheasant until the third season. By then I was considered a responsible hunter and was allowed to hunt without adults.

Gun safety has little to do with laws. Almost every time something violent is done with a gun it done by someone who is violating or willing to violate both gun laws and other laws too. More laws won't stop that. And when gun accidents happen it is almost always carelessness. Laws are not going to stop that either. Parents should either be responsible or they should not have guns in their homes.

I suppose if I lived in Southern California (I went to college there for four years) I would have a different attitude about guns. It is a completely lawless and irresponsible place and the less guns there are, perhaps the less violence there would be. I would do everything I could to get myself permitted for legal concealed carry to protect myself and my family from the lawlessness.