Editor,
On Dec. 9, my daughter, Ktaya, lost her friend in a shooting, seemingly as the result of ignorance.
Her friend since fifth grade, Aubrey Peters, purportedly was shot in the chest by a friend, Jacob Travis McDaniel, in Noblesville, and died. She was 16.
Aubrey was a loving and caring spirit who was credited for saving the lives of two sisters when they fell through the ice on Morse Reservoir and nearly drowned.
This beautiful child was killed because of ignorance and bad decisions. For some reason, in Indiana you take a course for your driver’s license, some careers, hunter safety and many others, but for some reason if you’re “legal” you can just go buy a gun and carry it without any training at all. Does that sound smart to you? That’s what I thought.
McDaniel seemingly was reckless and untrained in firearms safety. We know now that he took the magazine out of the gun and then aimed the gun at Aubrey. One squeeze of the trigger ended her life and changed his forever.
I don’t know if they were clowning around, but there is no excuse for ever pointing a gun at anyone – unless in self defense or defense of others – and I have been a pro-gun NRA man since I was young. I was trained by my father, in the Cub Scouts and others. Can you guess what the first rule of safety is with respect to handing a gun? It’s this: Don’t point the gun at anyone or anything you don’t intend to shoot.
The shooter apparently didn’t have the education for that, much for checking his weapon every time he loaded or unloaded it.
Why in Indiana and other states do we not have to complete a safety and training course before we get our permits? Knowledge is key to everything and when you’re dealing with deadly weapons it’s a must.
Does the U.S. Army simply hand a private a gun and hope he knows what he’s doing? No. Guns aren’t disappearing from this state or our nation anytime soon, so let’s educate children and adults all on gun safety and knowledge and not just try to hide it and keep them from it, because we can’t.
It’s a parent’s responsibility to teach his or her kids about the real world, and violence and guns are part of it, unfortunately. I think cutting corners on our kids is not good parenting.
I’d also like to see a class in every school on real-life events. Stop sheltering kids. Clue them in as to what the real world is about.
Aubrey, you will be missed by all who knew you.
Jason Peek
46060