Allowing kids guns recipe for tragedy

Allowing children unsupervised access to deadly weapons is a recipe for tragedy, said a Pakistani daily after a girl was shot dead by two boys playing with a gun in Karachi.An editorial in daily The News on Monday said that guns and children are not a good mix, and “in a society where guns are casually handled and almost as common as cars - more so in some places - accidents are bound to happen.” It said that children in many places live their lives close to weaponry. “Guns are in the home for legal or illegal reasons, and toy weapons that closely resemble the real thing are available in every bazaar in the land.”The editorial said that a girl was shot in the head by a bullet from a gun being played with by two boys.“She was in the wrong place at the wrong time, going home from a tuition class in north Karachi. She was 10, and the children responsible for her death were aged 10 and 11, both now in custody and the dead girl’s family is said to be in deep shock.”The pistol was owned by the father of one of the boys. Though a court will decide whether the boys were guilty of murder, “but at this point it seems unlikely that they had set out with wilful intent to commit murder- they were ‘just playing’.”