WOW! Well, the parents are at fault here, but this boy was old enough to have known better and not touched something of that magnitude. Once he found it, he could have told his parents about his findings instead of playing with it. I hope the parents learned their lesson that their teenage son can not be trusted like a small child and put the shyt away, and I hope the boy sees that guns are dangerous.

Thank goodness he is okay! It could easily have went another, but luckily, he is going to be alright. I hope that parents will learn from this. Guns have no place near kids. If you absolutely have to have one, then I suggest having it locked up and unloaded. Bullets should also be locked up separetly and away from the gun. I myself do not have, nor want a gun. I dont ever want to ever have to worry about someone being hurt or killed.

Penalize the parents...
1 Not teaching the kid well enough to not play with guns
2 Leaving the gun there in the first place...
3 They should be thankful to God that he only shot himself in the leg...

I am happy that the boy will be OK.
I believe that all households should have a means of defense, mine is a loaded gun close at hand so it will be of use if the circumstances warrent.

To the boys parents: If you didn't school your child in the proper handling of a gun when one is in the house, shame on you. If you did, shame on your boy for being very foolish, I hope he learned his lessson.

In response to Angela, I hope you never have to watch as some drug crazed idiot does harm to you or yours, because you have called 911, and expect that the police will save you,they are streched prety thin, and their response time is not as good as it used to be. Good luck.

My guns will be loaded and close at hand.

Yes everyone needs a gun to protect themselfs.....Oh 80 percent of all guns that are kept in houses to protect their owners are used against the owners or by the owners against their own families. If you think you need a gun to protect yourself, look at how you live your life, where you go and what you do to others.

Darwins theory almost worked! Parents dumb enough not to teach kid gun safety and a kid not smart enough to figure it out on his own ! wait oh yeah he was only 12 years old he could probably figure out how te beat the newest xbox game but didnt know enough not to play with a gun

Gunner I'm going to have to call you out on your %80 statistic. I believe you just made it up. I grew up in a house with a gun, I have a gun in my house now, and many of my friends own guns. Not one of them has ever been used in a violent encounter, by the owners or against the owners.

Gunner are you from another world? "Good people who live their lives the way they should" are killed, not by their own guns but by ones that are brought with the perp, with the intention to kill someone. Every school and lots of kid shows have drilled into kids from the time they could rember not to play with guns. He should have shown a small amount of brains and he would not have been playing with the gun. My 5 year old has more brains than that, she knows not to mess with a gun. Right back at you Larry Kraft ours are also close and loaded.

Gunner are you from another world? "Good people who live their lives the way they should" are killed, not by their own guns but by ones that are brought with the perp, with the intention to kill someone. Every school and lots of kid shows have drilled into kids from the time they could rember not to play with guns. He should have shown a small amount of brains and he would not have been playing with the gun. My 5 year old has more brains than that, she knows not to mess with a gun. Right back at you Larry Kraft ours are also close and loaded.

What about requiring the people who purchase a gun to take gun safety courses??? My 22 year old son was accidentally shot and killed four years ago by someone whose father purchased the gun the day before and he had no clue how to use it, obviously. Don't even get me started...

What about requiring the people who purchase a gun to take gun safety courses??? My 22 year old son was accidentally shot and killed four years ago by someone whose father purchased the gun the day before and he had no clue how to use it, obviously. Don't even get me started...

What about requiring the people who purchase a gun to take gun safety courses??? My 22 year old son was accidentally shot and killed four years ago by someone whose father purchased the gun the day before and he had no clue how to use it, obviously. Don't even get me started...

The ONLY reason burglars stay out of our homes is fear of being shot! This is a known fact. But kids and guns do not mix well. I keep mine locked up. The guns, not the kids! :)

"He was only 12 years old." Ok, so I grew up on a farm in Iowa, and I grew up with guns. I was hunting at the age of 12 and cleaning whatever I shot. 12 year olds are NOT too young to handle guns, but you need to introduce them to guns early. So, if they ever find one, they know exactly how to treat it.

BTW, the 80% statistic that you pulled out of your sphincter is complete garbage. Do you realize that the "actual" numbers isn't even .1 of 1%? Grats on being douchebag of the day.

I agree with Nick, a 12 year old can learn gun safety and prevent a tragedy like the one that happened here.

My 13 year old son is on our state (competitive) precision pistol team, and has had hours and hours of gun safety classes, along with camps and trips involving competitive shooting. I can tell you that he has a very healthy respect for all guns, and has actually reprimanded kids at his school who don't know anything about guns for making comments about shooting people.

It's too bad that this had to happen, but at the age of 12, it was unneccesary, it could have been prevented, and I do think he was old enough to know what he was doing, even without proper gun handling training.

The world is chaos..sh*t happens and people die. What about the kids in 3rd world countries that step on hidden landmines and blow off an arm or a leg. I guess thats not noteworthy seeing as the landmine wasn't under a christmas tree. Stop making headline news out of stupidity like this. both the parents and the kid are retarded and negligent. If they weren't than this would have never happened.BTW sh*t like this happens everyday and doesn't make news around the world, so LETS MOVE ON TO IMPORTANT STUFF!