... I append (a) letter I wrote related to gun safety ... (it) was published in the AWARE Newsletter and Women and Guns this last year.
One forthright media report on a tragic death by gun, "Stolen Gun's Tragic Path" by David Templeton (Pittsburgh Post Gazette, 3/15/93, p. A-1, A-12), was refreshingly free of the editorializing typical of both journalistic and academic writing on the risks/benefits of firearms. I commend Templeton for not indulging in the gratuitous "blame the gun" campaign so popular in the press these days. I would like to comment on the story, however. I mean no disrespect. It is no sign of respect to avoid the hard lessons of tragedy. My concern is not blame for what happened, but responsibility for avoiding similar tragedy.
The story was this: Aaron Williams, a gentle and promising young man who was All American in wrestling his freshman year in college, bought a stolen .357 Magnum revolver from a "fence." According to his brother, Aaron knew nothing about guns and was even afraid to shoot the family shotgun. But Aaron told his alarmed family that getting a gun was just "the thing to do nowadays."
"An inveterate prankster, Williams was toying with the gun. He emptied six bullets from the cylinder and replaced one bullet, but not in line with the gun barrel. Then he put the gun to his head to fool family members sitting around the table. When he pulled the trigger . . . the cylinder shifted into place and the gun fired." The Washington County Coroner ruled Williams' death suicide. But family members insisted that he was just trying to frighten them. His mother insisted, "I want people to know that he was just a big, gentle Ben. He wouldn't hurt anyone, let alone himself. He wasn't playing Russian roulette. It was an accident." Aaron's shooting himself was evidently unintentional. But, sad to say, it was also horribly careless and avoidable.