Boy looses eye- paintball gun to blame- Not!

This story on KSL news really upset me last night. 13-year-old Loses Sight in Eye After Paintball Accident According to the reporter,

A paint ball gun is to blame.

Sadly, this story completely ignores the fact that this 13 year old failed to practice the 4 rules of firearm safety and puts all the blame for his injuries on an inanimate object.

Let's review the 4 rules-

1. All firearms are loaded.
2. Never let the muzzle of a firearm point at anything you are not willing to destroy.
3. Keep your finger off the trigger unless your sights are on the target.
4. Be sure of your target and what is behind it.

The story mentions that Chris had all the safety gear including goggles to protect his eyes, then says that he removed the goggles to improve his view as he looked down the muzzle!

So Chris first failed to ensure the gun was unloaded, (rule 1), he pointed the muzzle at something he didn't intend to destroy- his eye, (rule 2) and he had his finger on the trigger without having his sights on the target, (rule 3). How do I know that Chris had his finger on the trigger when he shot himself in the eye? Click on the thumbnail picture of Chris displaying his gun about half way down the story page or this link. He has his finger on the trigger! Inside the house, while displaying the gun to the KSL reporter, he has his finger on the trigger!

The story goes on to interview Lisa Labrum, owner of Paint Ball Addicts a paint ball store and play field. She says,

"I would like a safety standard in place."

but then fails to mention the 4 rules universally recognized by responsible firearms owners.

I'm pretty disappointed in KSL's reporting of this story. Samantha Hayes is the perkiest of perky reporters, I even saw her at the Lovin Spoonful concert last summer, but she missed the point of this story. A boy is injured, probably permanently and it was a result of his failure to respect the paintball gun he was handling improperly. Somebody failed to ensure that his gun handling skills were suitable for unsupervised use of the gun. Those are personal responsibility failures, not equipment failures and this story should have been reported that way.