In policy studies, the tragic or otherwise unwanted consequences of enacting a law are known as unintended consequences. Premature juvenile deaths could be said to be an unintended consequence of the desire of many adults to legally own weapons.
What is concerning to me, especially as more children and young adults continue to die from guns, is the question of responsibility. Neither gun sellers nor manufacturers are willing to take any blame, let alone policymakers or the gun lobby. Perhaps responsibility rests with the voters, who ultimately decide whether this is an issue they care about or not.
At least in the case of a 4-year-old boy in Minneapolis who shot and killed his 2-year-old brother over the weekend, charges may be brought against the parents for leaving out an unlocked and loaded firearm.
In another incident in Pennsylvania, a father whose handgun discharged and killed his 7-year-old son faces possible manslaughter charges.
Gun deaths are nearly equivalent to the number of driving related fatalities nation-wide, and now unintentional poisonings (mostly drug overdoses), at around the 40,000 mark. Many of the gun deaths are unintentional, and most are suicides. But it is clear that the younger you are the greater the chance you have of dying by firearm.
We ought to really take a hard look at whether we want to continue to deregulate firearms. The evidence shows that states with more stringent gun laws have both less crime as well as less gun deaths, accidental or otherwise.
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