When I was twelve, I had a friend who I shared a school locker with. He and his family were avid hunters, and I really admired the way he and his dad were together, and how willing his dad was to teach him about firearms and give him responsibilities, like cleaning them after they used them. My daughters were raised similarly, though they considered it more of a chore than I ever did. Occasionally I would get invited to go shoot skeet or some such, and would relish the cleaning experience almost as much.

On a Tuesday morning in 7th grade, I got called to the principal's office. There I was informed that I had to clean all my friend's items out of the locker and put them in a box to return to the office. Bewildered, I did as told, and when I returned, I was brought into the counselor's office, where I was told how my friend had been cleaning a shotgun unsupervised, as he had done a number of times before, and forgot to check if it was loaded, which it was, and shot himself in the face and died. A numbing shock was all that I could feel. I had no idea what to do after that. Subsequently I was not allowed to contact the family, nor did my parents let me attend the funeral. That pissed me off some, but I was also a bit relieved, because knowing his father, I knew he was eating his guts and would be for a long time, and even naive as I was about a lot of things in life then, I knew that to see them would be quite uncomfortable for me. I never cried for my friend, but I regret the time we lost finishing our childhood together, and how much it changed the outcome of my life while he was alive, and how horribly terrible it would feel if ever I faced that situation as a dad. I eventually discovered that his family moved away within the year, and he gave up shooting sports for the most part.

There is no court in the land that will try and convict this poor man anywhere nearly as much as his own conscience is doing and will continue to do to him the rest of his days. He is facing a life sentence, no parole, no leniency, no hope. He will face it every time he looks into the eyes of his wife, any other children he might have, or even the children of others. No penalty any other man on earth could impose, legal or not, will ever weigh as heavily on this poor soul as what he will do to himself. No one here would ever want to go through what he must now face. He made a mistake, and his son paid the price. That is not an accident, it is a mistake, and it is part of being human.

Any of you who have the faith, I would advise praying for this poor soul. He and his family are going to need a lot of help.