Gunned down: the teenager who dared to walk across his neighbour's prized lawn.

Extracts from an article in today’s Guardian:

Julian Borger. Washington Wednesday March 22, 2006

The Guardian

The 911 call.

Charles Martin called the emergency services operator after attacking Larry Mugrage. This is a transcript:

Martin. I've been being harassed by him and his parents for five years. Today just blew it up. Kid's just been giving me a bunch of shit, making the other kids harass me and my place, tearing things up.
Operator. OK, so what'd you do?
Martin. I shot him with a goddamn 410 shotgun twice.
Operator. You shot him with a shotgun? Where is he?
Martin. He's laying in his yard.

Mr Martin gunned down Larry Mugrage, his neighbours' 15-year-old son. The teenager's crime: walking across Mr Martin's lawn on his way home. Mr Martin opened fire from his house and then, according to the police, walked up to the wounded boy and pulled the trigger again at close range, killing him.

Larry Mugrage, a popular hard-working and clever schoolboy, added his name to a high and persistent death toll. A child is killed by a gun every three hours in America. According to the latest statistics, nearly 1,000 children under 19 are shot dead every year. Another 800 use guns to commit suicide, and more than 160 die in firearm accidents.

Forty per cent of American households own guns, but those guns are 22 times more likely to be involved in an accidental shooting, or 11 times more likely to be used in a suicide, than in self-defence. On average, more than 80 Americans are killed by gunfire every day.

Mr Martin had every right to his .410 (11mm) bore shotgun. Ohio does not require anyone buying any firearm to have a permit. Nor does the state require gunowners to have a licence, although some inner city municipalities have stricter rules. Most state legislatures considering gun legislation are seeking to relax the remaining controls. Last year, Florida introduced a law giving its citizens the right to "stand their ground" and open fire, even in a public place, if they feel threatened, and the gun lobby is trying to pass a bill in the state that would allow workers to bring guns into their workplace with or without their employer's consent.

Guns in America.
32.6% of adults keep guns in or around their home, according to a 2002 survey. An estimated 40% own a gun
30,136 people were killed by firearms in the US in 2003; 730 of these were accidental
1.3m rifles were manufactured in the US in 2004; as well as an estimated 294,000 revolvers; 728,500 pistols; and 732,000 shotguns. Only 132,500 of these weapons were exported

Taking into account the above, I believe it’s the duty of all non Americans to get behind the NRA, because by my reckoning. If we could get the number of gun owners up to 100%, this would reduce the number of Americans in the world by about 70,000 each year.