Unbelievable
From today's Guardian Unlimited:
Timberlan Addison, two years old, was staying with his 37-year-old father, Timothy, in Tampa, Florida... Timothy had had several brushes with the law, including time in prison for cocaine possession. But neighbours say he was an attentive father who often looked after Timberlan at weekends. Renee Henderson, who lives across the road, described Timothy as "a sweet person". Her daughter, Marquita, was pregnant with his seventh child. Timberlan was his sixth.
That Sunday morning, the two of them had gone out to get some breakfast. Back home, Timberlan was playing, climbing over the furniture, when he reached behind the couch and found a Sig Sauer 9mm semi-automatic... Timberlan pulled the trigger. When Timothy heard the bang, he picked up his crying son to comfort him, thinking he was just scared. Only when he saw the blood seeping through his red-and-white striped T-shirt did he realise that Timberlan had shot himself. [...]
Timberlan was taken to Tampa General Hospital. Timothy was taken to the station for questioning while the police searched the house. They allegedly found two 1oz bags of marijuana in the microwave and more seeds on digital scales on the kitchen counter. They also reportedly recovered a Glock semi-automatic pistol and hundreds of rounds of ammunition, including some for an assault rifle. [...]
Two months later, Timothy was arrested while at his construction job and charged with possession of marijuana with intent to sell, parole violation and possession of a firearm during a drug crime. He still faces state charges of culpable negligence for leaving the gun where Timberlan could get hold of it. Timberlan's mother was at the hearing, where she reacted angrily to the charges. "I forgave him from day one," she said. "These people are not taking into consideration that this man lost his child ... He wakes up every morning crying. He feels like it's his fault."
Whose fault do you think it is? How many separate things are wrong with this picture? Only in America.
Labels: disgusting, sad, truth
posted by Udge @ 17:45
2 Comments:
I'm all for ragging on American gun laws, seeing as I am an Amercian and I happen to not be a Republican. However, this is stunningly tragic. Its alarming that he is a convicted felon in possession of obscenely unnecessary firearms (plural!) and without the possession of any apparent common sense to keep the guns he owns in the gun safe that he ALSO OWNS. Also, how much fecking ammo does one guy need? Self defense - great. Maybe if someone needs that much damn ammo for self defense, someone should consider their station and location in life. Bootstraps and pulling up and all. (I do, indeed, realize that I come across a wee bit condescending and arrogant in that statement.)
Unsurprisingly, the charges against this guy are for the drugs, not the fact that he had a heavy hand in the death of his 6th of 7 children. As we all know, marijuana is far more dangerous to a 2 year old's life than a bullet in the lung, right? So we should, indeed, lock up this man, who apparently named his child for a rap star, for having a bag of weed and mostly ignore the end of his child's life. Its a sad statement on the political and social atmosphere about both the drug and the firearm situations in the US, indeed.
I fear that the US will never go the way of the likes of England, France, Germany, Japan, Switzerland, Australia, or the Netherlands, to name a few, regarding gun control laws merely because of the fact that some people only read four words in the second amendment, rather than the entire thing. (Right to bear arms being the four words and the whole thing has a few more.)
In the end I think its safe to say that us Americans that are not Republicans can lay at least a little bit of credit at the foot of King Henry II for the remarkably consistently misunderstood 2nd amendment to the Bill of Rights. (I'm half joking, of course.)
Oh my. What a horrible tradegy. And that woman? I can't believe her reaction. While there is a benefit in life to not holding grudges, forgiveness should not be thrown easily about. The man has not shown any remorse or changed his ways at all. This is absurd.
Oh, this is just horrible.
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