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The Guardian reports that the woman who was accidentally shot dead by her two-year-old son in an Idaho Walmart is described by those who knew her as a gun lover, a motivated academic and a successful nuclear research scientist who worked for Battelle’s Idaho National Laboratory and wrote several papers there including one on using glass ceramic to store nuclear waste (PDF). Rutledge was raised in north-east Idaho and always excelled at school, former high school classmate Kathleen Phelps said, recalling her as “extremely smart. … valedictorian of our class, very motivated and the smartest person I know. … Getting good grades was always very important to her.”
Veronica Rutledge and her husband loved everything about guns. They practiced at shooting ranges. They hunted. And both of them, relatives and friends say, had permits to carry concealed firearms. “They are painting Veronica as irresponsible, and that is not the case,” says Terry Rutledge, her husband’s father. “… I brought my son up around guns, and he has extensive experience shooting it. And Veronica had had hand gun classes; they’re both licensed to carry, and this wasn’t just some purse she had thrown her gun into.” Many locals don't discern anything odd with a 29-year-old woman carrying a loaded gun into a Wal-Mart during the holiday season. “It’s pretty common around here,” says Stu Miller. “A lot of people carry loaded guns.” More than 85,000 people, 7 percent of Idaho's population, are licensed to carry concealed weapons (PDF), “In Idaho, we don’t have to worry about a lot of crime and things like that,” says Sheri Sandow. “And to see someone with a gun isn’t bizarre. [Veronica] wasn’t carrying a gun because she felt unsafe. She was carrying a gun because she was raised around guns. This was just a horrible accident.”
(Score: 2) by FakeBeldin on Saturday January 03 2015, @10:50PM
“In Idaho, we don’t have to worry about a lot of crime and things like that,”
Meanwhile, in Europe, we don't worry about being shot to death. Not even by our own children.
PS: Just so this is not misunderstood as a position in "the" gun-debate: My position is that the US clearly has a gun problem (far larger than any other country I know of). I don't know how you fix that.
PS PS: Just a comment on the "we've got guns, so we're safe from crime" argument: I don't recall that the US is known for having such crime-free cities.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 04 2015, @01:54AM
The safest cities are the ones with a healthy economy.
Those places don't allow any part of their city to become an armpit.
You can walk anywhere any time of the day.
For examples, look to northern Europe.
...then there are the places where the economy has been hijacked by Neoliberals.
-- gewg_
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 04 2015, @02:32AM
Except Europe on average has a higher crime rate than the US.
http://www.nationmaster.com/country-info/stats/Crime/Total-crimes-per-1000 [nationmaster.com]
Crimes per 1000 persons
USA 41.29
UK 109.96
Finland 100.03
France 61.03
EU average 49.27
(Score: 2) by FakeBeldin on Sunday January 04 2015, @11:44AM
You got me curious!
I checked the link, first thing it said:
Note: Crime statistics are often better indicators of prevalence of law enforcement and willingness to report crime, than actual prevalence.
Hmmms. That doesn't really help. Anyway, "crime" is a bit vague, so I looked to murder rates. Comparison to your list from Wikipedia [wikipedia.org]:
USA: 4.7 murders per 1000 persons
UK: 1.0
Finland: 1.6
France: 1.0
EU average: 3.0