www.wftv.com/news/3281297/detail.html

What You Don't Know Could Kill Your Child

POSTED: 5:27 pm EDT May 7, 2004
UPDATED: 5:28 pm EDT May 7, 2004

CENTRAL FLORIDA -- When your child goes to a friend's house to play, it's easy to ask about snacks or videogame time, but what about guns? If you didn't ask, Channel 9 has found, you don't have many other ways to tell.

 
President's Day 2001. School was off for the holiday.

"He told me that he had been shot at close range," says parent Scott Seeley.

Merritt Island freshman Bryon Jones was at a friend's house, when the boys started playing with the friend's dad's loaded .38. It accidentally went off.

"But, it's a moment like that, that could truly change your life," says Scott.

That slug tore through half of the teen's kidney and his mother's heart.

"Tubes everywhere, it broke my heart. I was thinking, is he going to be okay?" comments Cindy, the victim's mother.

Jones lived and is doing just fine today.

The question is, would your child be so lucky?

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there were 112 firearm deaths of children and teens in Florida the same year Bryon was shot.

So we drove to six Central Florida counties, going door to door, with one question. Do you have a gun in the house?

John Boyd said "yes."

"You don't think anything about it. It's not an issue of real significance to me," he says.

In the neighborhoods we looked at, which were a cross section of different incomes, ages, and races, we found only about 20 percent of homes had guns.

"Well, I have a lot of grandkids, and I'm really afraid to have a gun around, really," says Alice Hillery.

We relied on folks, like Alice, to be up front with us. But our findings really didn't match up with national statistics that show 40 percent of homes with children also have guns.

The bottom line is, your kids are playing a dangerous game each and every time they leave the house.

In Florida, gun owners don't have to register firearms and concealed weapons permits don't give an accurate count.

The only way to know for sure is to ask, something Cindy Seeley didn't do.

"I guess, in the big picture, maybe keep track of your child's peers more, know their families a little better," Cindy says.

The article ends here with no mention of the fact that Fla law requires that guns be properly secured against unauthorized use and that law abiding gun owners do so . They made it sound like in 4 out of every 10 homes there are loaded guns just laying around for kids to pick up and play with. I have already sent an E-mail complaining about this slanted anti gun article.Anybody else got a minute? These people need to know that gun owners arent going to set back and let them spew this nonsense. Contact info  www.wftv.com/contact/index.html

For some reason, I'm having a hard time reading the RED text.

"According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there were 112 firearm deaths of children and teens in Florida the same year Bryon was shot."



Is that right? And how many of these "children and teens" were actually shot during the commision of a crime? How many were just criminals? Such bullshit.

They also showed a picture of Merritt Island freshman Bryon Jones that was obviously taken when he was about 10.

Lets tell them about it guys!

If some random reporter/person knocked on you door and asked if you had a gun, would you answer that? I sure as hell wouldn't "It ain't know of yer buisness biatch, now get the fuck of my property" Did I mention I hate the media