Gun safety courses do not cover every possible situation however. To receive the knowledge and training you desire you may need to take more than one course, you may opt for courses in other types of self-defense, and you may spend many hours at the firing range to develop your skills.
It is not unusual to hear about children who are killed in gun accidents. Some children were killed as the toy guns they were playing with were mistaken by others for real weapons. Hunting accidents claim the lives of some children, and some accidental deaths could have been avoided if adequate precautions taught in gun safety courses had been strictly followed.
Sadly for a family in Utah, there are no gun safety courses that specifically cover cannons. Hopefully Robby Ostberg’s death will serve as a reminder to other families that anything that shoots a projectile can be considered a weapon and should be treated as such.
It is yet unclear in this case whether the miniature cannon was supposed to be a toy, a decoration, or a firearm. Whether the family considered it to be a toy or decoration may be a moot point if legally it is determined to be a firearm.
This most recent accident occurred in Utah which does not have laws that cover antique or replica firearms. If you own either, when taking your gun safety courses it would be a good idea to ask how your state or region covers them.
Taking gun safety courses alone is not enough to keep you and your family safe around firearms. Robby’s father, an Army veteran, locked up the guns he kept in the house and insisted his boys learn about gun safety. If all the members of the family had the mindset that anything that fires a projectile is a weapon and should be treated with respect, the outcome of this incident might have been quite different.
According to the police department’s press release, the small cannon was a .50 caliber weapon that was designed to fire with black powder. It has been acknowledged that the small cannon was often used by the victim to fire balls of tinfoil. Whether or not the cannon was loaded with black powder and one of the tinfoil balls, or some other projectile, has not been released at this time. The cannon was apparently pointed at the young man’s face when it accidentally went off, something that is covered in the most basic gun safety courses.
Miniature cannons are not the only ones to have caused accidental deaths in recent years. In 2011, a 23-year-old man was killed when he attempted to serve as a human cannonball. While gun safety courses may still not opt to include segments on cannon safety, these deaths serve to remind us all that weapons are not toys, they are designed to be fired and to kill. As responsible gun owners, we must teach our young people the proper mindset for using weapons safely so other families do not have to face this heart-wrenching loss.