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© 2012 AFPSaudi boy, 4, kills father for refusing to buy him PlayStation
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© 2012 AFP
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ebisen
Whoaaa - I guess THERE ARE worser countries than USA regarding access to guns and hysteric kids crying for a PS3
cleo
Why was the father walking round with a loaded pistol?
TokyoGas
This is a shocker. 4 years-old.
Virtuoso
Will he be taken to the marketplace and decapitated, as is the case for Saudi Arabia's adult killers?
hitoli
Is it safe to conclude that violent games (guessing) accidentally produce a youngest murderer ,ever??
SuperLib
Another accident.....more lives lost than supposedly saved.
Cletus
Just waiting for all those who defend peoples rights to have guns in their homes to come out and put their spin on this. Gun + 4 yo kid!!! What sort of idiot would actually put a loaded gun somewhere a 4 year old can access it even if it is for a minute. Seriously!!! And how does a 4 yo know how to operate a safety on a gun? Unless our brainy father didnt have it on.....
Thunderbird
and it wasn't Call of Duty's falt.
Thomas Anderson
How the heck can a 4 year old kill an adult? Oh, with a gun...
Laguna
Folks - the lad is CHARGED with murder; condemning him before his trial is unfair. It may well turn out to be self-defense. We'll have to wait for forensics on how close the bullet was fired from.
tmarie
The Asharq daily, citing police in the southern Jizan area, said the child, aged four years and seven months, grabbed his father’s pistol and shot him in the head.
Why on earth would you be walking around with a loaded gun when you have kids in the house? Seems mom and dad raised a spoiled brat.
Laguna, seems this kid knew full well what he was doing. Didn't get what he wanted to lashed out. can't say I am sorry in the least for the brat. The mom on the other hand is going to have a hell of a life.
Madverts
Laguna,
"We'll have to wait for forensics on how close the bullet was fired from."
Heh, nice one...
SynchronicityII
The first time I picked up a loaded gun, I was ten. It was heavy. I don't think I could have managed it at four except to put so much muscle in to it there is no way I could have aimed it at the broad side of a barn.
This may well have been an accident where the kid only meant to scare his dad or take the gun away to annoy him. And yeah, I can hear the cop question the four year old now, leading him on with yes or no questions, like, did you shoot your father because he did not bring home the PS3? Cops are really good at that, and a lot of people are in jail for kids' stories fed to them by a stupid presumptuous cop who knows about as much about psychology as a goldfish.
wanderlust
in the Southern Jizan area of Saudi Arabia, very close to the Yemen border, it is quite common for men to walk around with guns, rifles, daggers, swords and ammo belts, looking like an extra from a Pancho Villa movie. It's the custom. Even the young kids will wear a miniature "jambiya" or dagger on their belt. Shootings, apart from the odd tribal war, are rare.
qazwsx
The kid could easily have learned how to use the gun from tv, games and movies, but I'm sure he has no idea of the consequences. Probably thinks dad will just respawn and walk through the door tomorrow....
Laguna
Apologies for my flippant remark above. This is obviously a tragic event for all involved; if anything good may come from it - just as in the Zimmerman case - it is to remind us all that guns are bad news, and those who keep them around are far more likely to be killed by them or inadvertently kill others than to use them for actual self defense.
HonestDictator
Wow, the father should have known better to leave a loaded gun without the safety on around children. Yes kids will pick up a weapon thinking its a toy and play with it. 4 and 1/2 years old. I personally don't think the child was really that interested in premeditated murder for a Playstation ( don't recall any child that young even knowing what a playstation was.)
Poor kid, and stupid father. I wonder how Saudi law is going to deal with this case.
tmarie
Even the young kids will wear a miniature "jambiya" or dagger on their belt. Shootings, apart from the odd tribal war, are rare. Are you actually trying to compare a cultural object to a loaded gun? Good grief.
jonobugs
This a very preventable tragedy. I really doubt that a 4 year old really comprehends life and death the way an adult does, or even a 10 year old boy, for that matter. It sounds like the boy was having a tantrum, as children often do, and took the gun as a way to threaten his dad. I really doubt he wanted his father dead, or that even understand that he could actually kill his father. The problem was having something as deadly as a loaded gun (with no safety on) within easy reach of a toddler.
If you're going to be a gun owner, you should be (at the very least) well trained in them.
Madverts
"Are you actually trying to compare a cultural object to a loaded gun? Good grief."
I think that post is clear enough to show that people in those parts of the word generally walk around armed to the teeth. It is a cultural thing. I doubt very much the poster was condoning anything, merely pointing it out.
Madverts
And anyway, the article sounds like a load of tosh to me.
Herve Nmn L'Eisa
I learned to use a gun at age eight. I was taught properly about handling a gun, specifically a hunting rifle. The #1 rule is to treat every gun as loaded and chambered. The second rule is to never aim toward anyone unless that person is clearly intent to kill you. A child that age should be nowhere near a gun, especially a handgun. The father paid the price for his irresponsibility. This is completely unrelated to the Zimmerman case. If indeed the child acted out of anger about not getting the toy he wanted, then there were parenting issues far deeper. The kick from anything bigger than a 22 would knock a small child HARD. This story is highly suspect.
serendipitous
Herve
So eight years old is fine for kids to learn how to use guns?! Glad I didn't grow up where you did. Hope we're not going to get calls on this thread for the death penalty for this 4-year-old kid!
naruhodo1
Honestdictator, they would punish a parent for a kid's wrong doing, and since the father is dead, it might be deemed as enough. It's what I heard as a child growing up in the gulf, but it could have just been an old wives tale to scare the kids...
kcjapan
PlayStations don't kill people, people kill people who don't buy people PlayStations.
smithinjapan
Sweet lord. Four years old, and all over a play station. The kid had no idea about the consequences of his actions.... how could he at four?? Unfortunately, he's decided the rest of his life with this action -- he's screwed. Not only will his actions not get him the game console he desired, it'll ensure that his family suffers as a result.
Alphaape
I would say it was stupid on the father's part. They live in an area of Saudi Arabia that borders along the Red Sea and Yemen. Pretty much a wilderness area, and with the local Yemni's being the bad guys of the month, the father probably carried a gun because everyone else did.
Which probably leads to the reason why the kid knew how to shoot, being brought up in an area like that, and by playing games with guns and violence.
And the NRA doesn't have any chapters in Saudi Arabia.
DentShop
Ironically, you immediately did it yourself.
ubikwit
This is the crux of the matter that most of the posts here totally miss.
Not only did this 4-year not understand what he was doing by shooting his father--an act he has apparently seen many criminally inept representations of characters in video games resort to in order to repay someone who doesn't give them what they want--it is not cleat that he will ever come to understand the purpose his father had in refusing to buy him an apparatus conveying such aberrant forms of behavior as normal occurrences to children.
The video game industry is vampiric and sociopathic, and more stringent controls are OBVIOUSLY necessary.
LFRAgain
ubikwit,
Your post is founded on a staggering number of unfounded assumptions.
Triumvere
Eh. This seems pretty sensationalist. I think I'll wait for more confirmation/details before I believe this story.
KariHaruka
Sounds like he will be nothing but a nasty waste of space to society. But him down now.
gaijinfo
You're right. With over 6 BILLION people in the world, as soon as ONE sad story hits the news, the BAN THEM FOR EVERYBODY.
That's the problem with people on the left. They let news stories, which usually represent a small fraction of normal people, guide their opinions on public policy.
cleo
You think this is the first ever story of someone getting killed with their own gun/by a child/accidentally/in a flash of rage? In some wild countries (cough 2nd amendment cough) it happens so often it isn't even news anymore unless there's some newsworthy twist, like it happening in a school or the number of victims being larger than usual, or the motive being something ridiculous, like here.
Your idea that since the problem affects only 'a small fraction of normal people' nothing should be done about it is flawed. All kinds of self-inflicted problems - road accidents, drug addiction to name only a couple - don't directly affect the majority of people. Yet we still have laws to prevent people driving recklessly, and selling dangerous drugs. Do you think that should stop?
Elbuda Mexicano
Saudi Arabia?? The land of the religion of peace?? A crappy 4 year old shoots his own father dead for a crappy Sony PSP?? Let me guess, this 4 year old will then get his head chopped off in public?? Lovely country of peace! RIP poor father with stupid PSP loving boy.
JA_Cruise
well, that is what he gets for carrying a loaded gun and did not have the safety lock on.
SquidBert
Someone noted that this a completely different story than the Zimmerman case.
And, yes I think that goes without saying. As long as the father wasn't wearing a hooded sweater which may have caused him to look suspicious to the child who would then be in his full right to shoot first and ask later.
-Yes, I am kidding. I'll show my self out, thank you.
tmarie
I think that post is clear enough to show that people in those parts of the word generally walk around armed to the teeth. It is a cultural thing. I doubt very much the poster was condoning anything, merely pointing it out.
Yes and we know that all Americans carry guns too...
Cletus
gaijinfo
Sorry you are so correct this is the first and only sad story involving guns killing innocent people ever. My My what was l thinking. Oh wait try picking up a newspaper and reading and you will see that these stupid accidents happen all to often. And people get killed by idiots with guns all to often. Stop making out like this is a first and isolated event, no-one is that gaulible
Actually l would rewrite your post, because 1. lm not on the left. 2. I dont let news guide my opinion on public policy and 3. a small fraction, come on seriously. Pick up any news paper from almost any country and you will find a gun related story. Get real.
And as an owner of a firearm and someone who has been around them for a good portion of his life l can tell you this, only stupidity, laziness and incompetence cause this type of accident.
lostrune2
The next Bin Laden.
Ed Herman
Ok, I have read quite a few of the comments and there seems to be one key factor being missed in them. The child killed his father for not getting a Playstation for him. In order to tie this to a violent video game, wouldn't the child first need to have one? Another point I would like to make, did this gun have a hair trigger on it? It does require some force for a person to pull the trigger to begin with. Not so much when you are an adult, but quite a bit for a 4 yr old. The child would have had to deliberately point the weapon and squeeze the trigger hard in order to kill the father. While I agree he probably did not know the consequences of his actions, (completely), he did know what he was doing. I grew up in a time where you respected your parents. For better or worse, they were your parents and you listened to them. Todays' society has flip-flopped things around to the point where the child now runs the household. If you don't think so, try spanking your child for doing something wrong and watch for the abuse charges in the mail or in the officers' hand at your front door.
WilliB
My BS sensor is flashing.... is a 4-year old even physically able to fire a pistol?
WilliB
Ed Herman:
I don´t think this applies in Saudi Arabia. Wrong tree to bark up.
Tuntematon Sotilas
@Elbuda Mexicano
Imagine if this boy was a girl. Perhaps there would be some raping before the execution.
@Herve Nmn L'Eisa Exactly. I've never held a real gun, but this is basic.
Elbuda Mexicano
Raping before an execution?? That is very sick but actually, these repressed folk would not only want to get their hands on a young girl, from what I hear the guys there boof each other quite a bit too, but just sad, sad, getting killed with your own gun, by your own kid?? But as Cletus points out, this kind of horrible incident does happen all too often! Guns do not kill people?? Sure NRA, what ever you say!
Tuntematon Sotilas
@Elbuda Mexicano I don't think it's an organized thing but I wouldn't be surprised in the slightest if it did occur. Well actually, guns don't kill people, people do. In Finland, about half the population has a firearm but there are extremely few gun-related incidents. It really depends on the time of gun and who possesses it.
Thomas Haynes
My guess is that the weapon in question here was a pocket pistol. Something chambered in .380acp or smaller.