Charges Against Chicago Dad After 6-Year-Old Shoots 3-Year-Old

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10/23/15

Article Title: Charges against Chicago dad after 6-year-old shoots 3-year-old

Link: http://www.cnn.com/2015/10/19/us/chicago-boy-accidentally-shoots-brother/index.html

Summary of Article/Issue: Two young boys, one 6 and one 3-years-old, were at their house in Chicago with their grandfather playing the game cops and robbers. A loaded gun was sitting on top of the refrigerator where their father, Michael Santiago, stored it as protection. The gun was purchased illegally by Santiago from a gang member. Santiago did not tell their grandfather the gun was there but told the older brother about the gun. While playing cops and robbers, the older brother thought it was a fake gun and fatally shot his younger brother Eian with it. Santiago has been charged with a felony for child endangerment, and could be facing more charges after recently posting bail. The article goes on to state that “children are about 19 times as likely to die in traffic accidents and nine times as likely to drown as they are to be accidentally shot”. It goes on to state other statistics, such as 69 children under the age of 14 in 2013. The article ends by talking about Illinois State Laws and whether or not gun control needs to be expanded.

Ethical Analysis: Santiago had no awareness of the issue at hand. He did a horrendous job trying to teach his children what not to do, and instead was counterintuitive in the process by making his sons want to play with the gun. If Santiago was going to tell his son about the gun, he needed to tell their grandfather that would be in the house as well. He told his son the gun was “only to be used by adults”, but didn’t tell the adults in the house there was a gun. At that point, the gun is not being used by any adults but himself. Santiago should also be facing charges for illegal possession of a firearm in addition to his child endangerment charge. When in possession of a firearm, a person must make sure it can’t get into the hands of someone too young or immature to comprehend the danger behind having possession of it.  This was truly a tragedy and I believe Santiago should be facing life in prison for his irresponsibility with his young children.

Conclusion: The father has no sense of awareness and should be charged as he is. There is no reason for a loaded gun to be in a position where his sons can come into possession of it. I also believe he shouldn’t have actually told his sons the gun was there, because it made them more intrigued to play with it. This is a good argument for strict gun control, but I believe the gun was not the issue at hand itself. LaSalle was in no place to own a gun, and the fact that he purchased it illegally makes me believe he did not pass a background check to purchase the gun himself. Guns would still be selling on the black market and only criminals and gang members would have possession of them. Another issue at hand is the fact a three year old and a six year old were playing cops and robbers, which seems too young an age to be playing a game focused on the involvement of guns. The fact that the two children knew there was an easily accessible gun and were playing a game involving guns made them more inclined to play with the gun. My uncle is a big hunter with multiple guns and has two young daughters, but also knows the dangers that could happen and has a gun safe to make sure they never want to play with them. At the end of the day this could have been easily prevented by keeping the gun in a safe where only he could access it if ever needed.