This Mother’s Day, The NRA Wants You To Give Mom An Accident Waiting To Happen

If you haven’t gotten a Mother’s Day gift yet, you’re almost out of time, but don’t worry because the National Rifle Association (NRA) has your back. What are they offering, you ask? Well, I’ll give you a few hints: it’s small, black, and unless mom is a pro, she’ll probably use it to accidentally shoot someone on Mother’s Day. That’s right, folks. It’s [slips into game show announcer voice] a brand…new…gun!

The NRA announced the giveaway on their official Twitter account using an advertisement only their mothers could love.

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It’s got butterflies. It’s got flowers. It’s got the promise of “an Eddie Eagle Gunsafe Package for the kids!” I mean, really, what could go wrong?

Oddly enough, Raw Story reports this is the exact type of gun a toddler used to accidentally kill his own mother earlier this year. You might remember reading about 29-year-old Veronica Rutledge. She was a trained and licensed concealed carrier, who was accidentally shot and killed in front of her four kids in a Walmart after her toddler unzipped the special compartment in her purse that housed her gun and pulled the weapon out.

It’s an ugly coincidence, and I’m sure the NRA didn’t do it on purpose, but the juxtaposition of these two events does highlight how dangerous weapons can be once you get them around children. If someone with all the right qualifications can get accidentally shot by her own toddler, anyone can. The last thing we need is more weapons in the hands of parents, particularly if those parents have no idea what they’re doing, which is probably a lot if we’re being honest. It’s not like everyone who enters a random gun giveaway is a trained expert.

Here are some sobering statistics for you: a recent article featured on MSNBC states that since January 1, 2015, there have been 80 unintentional shootings involving children, resulting in 57 injuries and 24 deaths. That’s an average of one unintentional child shooting every 36 hours, and toddlers aged two to four face the highest risk. What’s more, two-thirds of those deaths would have been prevented if the weapons had been stored properly.

Guns are no joke, and there’s nothing cute or fun about offering a free handgun up to some random from the internet. The NRA advertisement for the giveaway says, “Forget flowers this Mother’s Day, mom wants something she can carry with her.” Yeah, like a photo or a locket, or hey, how about you skip all of it and just give me no more accidental and highly preventable deaths caused by guns?

(Photo: Twitter)

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