Angry 4 Year Old Shot Babysitter

[Cuddles]

Angry 4-Yr.-Old Shot Babysitter For Stepping On His Foot: Cops

Tuesday January 6, 2009
CityNews.ca Staff
Just when you thought you'd heard everything comes an incident that shows our violent society can reach new lows you may not have expected.
Police in Jackson, Ohio (http://maps.google.com/maps?ie=UTF8&q=jackson,+ohio&ll=39.3088,-82.633667&spn=1.661796,3.47168&z=8), a small town near Columbus, are trying to figure out what to do with a 4-year-old boy accused of shooting his babysitter.
The child apparently became incensed on Sunday when 18-year-old Nathan Beavers, who was looking after him, accidentally stepped on his foot. Cops say the enraged youngster ran to a nearby closet, grabbed a gun that was stored inside of it, and fired it at his temporary guardian.
The victim suffered wounds to his arm and side and was treated in hospital, but his injuries were thankfully minor. Another teen was also slightly hurt.
Beavers was watching the child at the mobile home of the boy's grandmother when the incident occurred. Several other teens and a few additional kids were also present.
Authorities have revealed that when the babysitter stepped on his foot, the child boldly announced he was going to go get a gun. Everyone figured he would come back with a toy.
Instead, he found the real thing, even retrieving a shell from a drawer and loading the weapon as he marched back into the room where the others were gathered.
The child is now in the custody of his parents. His father claims his son had seen others shoot a gun before, but he had no idea that the youngster knew how to load and fire the weapon. He maintains the little boy simply thought it was a toy and calls the incident an "accident."
Cops are now investigating, but agree the alleged culprit may be too young to be charged. His father has arranged from his son to receive counselling instead.

[farrell]

omg lol, the guardian got pwned by a 4-year old.

-Farrell

[Tars]

The gun owner should be locked up for leaving the gun and ammo where a child can get it.

[farrell]

I agree with tarssister, the guy should keep his firearms safely. There was another myth featured on Mythbusters about an homeowner hiding firearms in the oven. What happened was, the wife didn't like the idea of her husband having guns in the household so he hid it in the oven (quite idiotic thing to do and why choose an oven when it is frequently used?). They come back from a holiday and the wife turns on the oven to cook dinner, which a few minutes later, all the bullets went off and shot around the kitchen.

-Farrell

[Senpai]

Parents should pay as responsibility and child should go to child prison or a closed school (if that have that there) for a long time. If he is to young still, then when he reaches the allowed age, he should be locked up still.

To me it makes not that much difference when a 4 year old shoots a teenager or a teenager shoots a 4 year old.

In this case the 4 year old was aware of what he was doing and was gonna do and what the consequences would be.

[Cuddles]

That is the scary part this 4 year old knew how to even load a gun someone sure taught him at a very young age.

Guns need to be banned I do not care who you are there are there are other ways to protect yourself. Now we have to think if a 4 year old can shoot a gun what abotu a younger child.

I do not feel sorry for him as he did know what he was doing and he could have killed all of them what then.

[Senpai]

Indeed Cuddles, guns need to be banned...what also brings us to the fact that the system (society) is also responsible in cases like this.

Children these days are raised with the idea that violence is justified, as long as it is for your own good.

Jean Claude Van Damme can beat the shit out of everyone he encounters in movies, because he is the good guy and they the bad guys...so it's justified.

If Tom tries to do bad to Jerry, then Jerry is justified to beat the scull in from Tom, because Tom is a bad kitty cat.

Lara Croft is allowed to steal and kill as pleased to reach her goal, because she is a good mannered girl.

American soldiers can kill anyone who is a treat to the American system, because they fight for peace and are the good guys.

...point is...kids are overflowed with violence being justified all over around them, so how can it be wrong then if they see the good guys do it all the time?

In this case the kid saw himself as being done wrong and a gun was a tool for him to get even to get justice.

[cf]

ive heard everything now who would leave a gun were a 4 year old could get hold of it the parents should be charged with gross stupidity

cuddles Guns need to be banned I do not care who you are there are there are other ways to protect yourself. Now we have to think if a 4 year old can shoot a gun


baseball bats can kill so do we ban baseball if people locked there guns away out of the reach of little hands

[Senpai]

Guns are only and just only made to kill...baseball bats are not. Cars kill to...if you start like that, then you can keep on going.

Guns = no good

Never have been, never will.

[ryanzilla244]

At four years old i don't think I could wipe my own arse.

Thats impressive, a hand gun is pretty heavy for a 4 year old.

But at the same time, incredibly shocking, parents/grand mother should be sent away, its disturbing that a 4 year old has the mind to load and shoot a gun, let alone at another person, he has obviously been around guns but doesn't know the serious damage they cause.

[cerealkiller]

Thats Totally Bad

[~SARA~]

parents are responsible for this,not the 4 year old.

[Zybraxia]

Totally agree with oxSARAxo.
A four year old probably hasn't any notion of death.
Cartoon characters get shot and walk away just a bit peed off.
The gun-owner is responsible for this.

[aramiskane]

a future nominee for the darwin awards, i forsee

[farrell]

Another news poped out relating to young children and guns:

Six-year-old expelled for bringing a gun to school
Friday, January 9, 2009

A six-year-old who was sent to the principal's office for sagging pants was found to be carrying a loaded gun and quickly expelled.
The school administrator was pulling the boy's pants up when he found a pistol in his pocket.
The boy said he found the gun in his father's car and wanted to show it off to his friends.

They boy's father, 34 year old Michael Lewis, was arrested possession of a firearm by a felon and having stolen property after finding that the .45 caliber gun had been stolen
The school said it had a "zero tolerance policy" on weapons but didn't release a baggy pants statement.

[marcie]

Given that the human brain doesn't reach full development until we are in our twenties it is unlikely that a four year old can fully understand the consequences of his actions.

I agree with Sara, no way his fault. Now the parents...


see below if you're interested in child violence
Full Text COPYRIGHT 2004 Association for Childhood Education International
External: Electronic resource (HTML)

Text: With the constant reminders of wars and other human degradation going on in the world, education for "caring" is more critically important than ever to our future (Noddings, 2002). Televised accounts of the war in Iraq leave most caring people devastated. Civilian and military deaths and casualties challenge people's faith in a peaceful and meaningful future. Clearly, love and peace must be a priority for everyone.

Although less intense than war, the everyday abuses carried out by the thoughtless, the cruel, and the antisocial also convey the urgency for more "caring education" across all cultures (Elshtain, 1999). Violence occurs in many forms, including physical, psychological, social, and verbal. Recent research on the impact of this violence on children during their early years should prompt a call to action for all citizens.

The early years of life are the most responsive time in which to nurture a caring and loving approach to life (Swick, 2001). And the most powerful message that children receive about caring is how they are cared for themselves during the earliest years of life (Kitzrow, 1998).

Family: An Ecology for Children's Learning
Three "family ecology" elements affect what and how children learn in relation to their interactions with self and others (Brazelton & Greenspan, 2000): 1) attachment relations, 2) adult role models, and 3) opportunities for prosocial learning.

Attachment relations are those relationships children have that convey the rich meaning of being loved by a caring adult over a continuing period of time (Hallowell, 2002). As Bronfenbrenner (1979) suggests, children need to have adults who are "irrationally" in love with them. The child's attachment to a loving parent helps the child experience caring in an intimate manner. Without healthy attachment experiences, children lack the security for trust development (Karr-Morse & Wiley, 1997).

Adult role models provide children with visible schemas on how to love (Swick, 2001). Across cultures, children mimic what their parents and other significant adults do in their daily lives (Goleman, 1995). If adults are kind to each other, then their children will imitate this way of relating to others. Oliner and Oliner (1995) suggest four elements in children's early relations that enhance their growth toward becoming caring persons:

* Bonding: forming positive connections and a sense of communion with others
* Empathizing: understanding others' feelings and emotions, sometimes even feeling what they feel
* Learning caring norms: acquiring rules and values, learning to recognize caring for what it is and to respond to care with care
* Practicing care and assuming personal responsibility: participating in activities and developing a sense of personal obligation for doing so.

Bonding engages children in healthy connections to their parents and family in ways that help them visualize the world around them as a positive and good place (Eisenberg, 1992). Positive bonding is known to enhance children's problem-solving skills (Goldstein, 1998).

Opportunities for prosocial learning engage children in family relations that enable them to show their caring (Swick, 2001). Two important processes are at work as children exhibit caring: 1) they are able to practice what they have observed, and 2) they are prompted to reflect on how their behavior affected others--which is essential to their developing perspective-taking (Kitzrow, 1998).
When the Family Ecology Is Violent
These realities led Gelles (1994) to characterize American society as one in which violence is apt to turn one family member against another. He notes: "In our society, people are more likely to be killed and physically assaulted, abused and neglected, and sexually assaulted and mistreated in their own homes and by other family members than anywhere else or by anyone else" (Gelles, 1994, p. 262).

Indeed, the data on reported family violence is staggering. Gelles (1994) notes that about 1.5 million children in the United States are victims of parental physical violence and another 450,000 children are injured as a result of family violence. Beyond the direct experience of violence, many more children witness violence in their families (Groves, 2002).

Family violence not only impedes children's development of caring, but also may nurture in children antisocial ways of living (Osofsky, 1995). Evidence suggests that children who experience violence (directly or indirectly) in chronic and pervasive ways are likely to:

* Exhibit more emotional and social problems
* Have low self-esteem and poor problem-solving skills
* Use violence more often to solve problems
* Have academic problems
* Commit more delinquent acts and have more problems with law officers
* Have serious difficulty in developing trust
* Have developmental delays. (Quick, Botkin, & Quick, 1999)

In addition, evidence indicates that exposure to chronic violence alters the structure of children's brains in ways that make children more impulsive and antisocial (Goleman, 1995). As Karr-Morse and Wiley (1997) note:

The primary goal of the brain is to enable the organism to survive. The key to survival and to human dominance on the planet is our ability to adapt to the kind of environment in which we find ourselves. Live video photographs can now show us that both the organic matter and the chemistry of the human brain change in response to our environments to allow us to cope with variables in our worlds. (p. 25)

How Caring Families Can Make a Difference

Parents and families play a formative role and exert a profound influence on children's growth and learning. This is especially so when teaching children to be caring, peaceful, and decent persons (Swick, 2001). The early foundation provided for emotional health and a positive social pattern of living is indeed powerful. Karr-Morse and Wiley (1997) note that emotionally healthy relationships early in life act as a buffer to violent behavior.

What is it about early parental and family attachments that help shape the child's schema of how the social and emotional world works? The interactive and modeling processes that happen in loving and caring parent-child relations are key. Karr-Morse and Wiley (1997) describe it this way:

The foundation for empathy is laid from the beginning. When the early months of an infant's experience include consistent, sensitive interactions in which the caregiver accurately assesses the child's needs and responds quickly in a soothing manner, and when a child's sadness or joy is mirrored in the face of the parent, the child experiences comfort and trust with the caregiver. (p. 189)
Swick (2001) identifies three strategies employed by parents and families that "make a difference" in the caring capacities developed in children: modeling, relationships, and validating.

Parent/Family Modeling: Peace, love, and nurturing are best learned when we have "models," exhibitions of the important processes that demonstrate love and caring, and the means for adapting and refining these skills (Oliner, 2003). Caldwell (1989) points to three important elements of this aspect of children's learning to care:

* Children are able to form images of caring as the norm
* Children have examples of what caring is and how they can be caring
* Parents have a powerful venue for educating children about caring.

Validating and Affirming Children's Caring: Children need to see themselves as important to the family (Pipher, 1996). As Hallowell (2002) reminds us,
When you learn to do something well (like caring) and someone else values your having done this, you feel a sense of pride within yourself but also a feeling of connection outside yourself, a connection to the person who recognizes what you have done and to the larger group that person represents. (p. 147)

Recognition and affirmation help children view themselves as good people who are able to care about and love others.

In addition, parents and families help children extend their "caring reach" through many interactions in the community, such as through service to others, involvement in intergenerational service activities, and family sharing and reflection.

How Early Childhood Professionals Can Support Family Caring
As Bronfenbrenner (1979) notes, caring people need nurturing and supportive systems of human learning and development. Family caring is interrelated with caring communities (Wuthnow, 1995). Early childhood professionals can use five means to support family caring:
* Model caring in their relations with families (Swick, 1997)
* Offer parent education on myriad ways to promote caring (Powell, 1998)
* Provide families with opportunities to practice caring (Swick, 2001)
* Validate parental involvement in family caring rituals (Swick, 2001)
* Engage families in doing assessments to develop a basis for strengthening their caring relations (Noddings, 2002).

Model Caring: In self-reflection reports, parents often indicate that they learn about the dynamics of positive parent-child relations through their observation of the child's teacher (Swick, 2001). Thus, we should seek to practice "caring behaviors" around parents and family. Let them see us as nurturing, loving people (Goldstein, 1998).

Educate About Caring: Those who have responsibilities to care for and educate children need to inform all parents that love and nurturance are core values of decent, caring parents/families. This is the most important type of education that we can pursue with parents.

We can foster these parent education efforts in at least four ways:

* Encourage and support nurturing and rewarding relations that link parents and families
* Ask parents how they nurture caring in their families
* Engage parents in observing how attachment relations are formed in their homes as well as in their children's child care centers

[bakzh0]

crazy, how can a 3 years old boy know how to load a gun?

[danTE]

Ohh!...heartbreaking news!