this is cumberland county in south kentucky deep in the american countryside far from the sprawl of urban life. a place where alcohol is neither sold nor consumed in the bible reign supreme. in a village of eight hundred people there are forty churches. it is

a pious closed community get weapons are a part of every day life here for protection and some hunting. exposed from childhood it is not unusual here to own a fuss gun in kinda got. how many people own guns in this village more probably. with these things that are. actually not in that state of the brain yeah here i'll go but everybody in my county is quote a way of life here yeah everybody wants around here and they much else to do the whole fish i would say you know a very hard majority country people own guns my grandson started her when he was probably three or four years out so he. and i got one and hansei wanted fishies. so so when you go to kindergarten you get your first. cock yes that's what they want the family of a southern kentucky two year old girl shot and killed in her home says it was all

an accident he received the rifle specially made for children as a gift last year. cumberland county hit the front pages of news world wide in may and five year old christina shot his two year old sister dead with a gun he received as a gift for his fifth birthday a real gun with real bullets the manufacturer has openly advertised to children as . rifle. i'm. sure many of cricket rifle i wish i had won the cricket is the perfect way to get young or small framed shooters started right with the safety promoting design it's soft shooting affordable and accurate. while the mother was in the kitchen christian picked up his gun and unaware that he was still loaded he accidentally shot his sister in the chest. caroline sparks was rushed to hospital but tragically she died soon often. i could hardly understand my daughter because she was so

excited and crying and hysterical and said that you know you know it's easier been shot and i just not in my heart just said and then as soon as i got in the car got in the back seat and i couldn't breathe i just i guess it was anxiety and i was so so scared that you know she just she was gone that i didn't know what to die a member i rolled the window down to try to breathe because i could hardly take a breath we went to the hospital and i just walked up to the nurses one though i said i was their grandmother can i please go back and see her and i don't usually they don't let you do things like that but they let me and so i went back there and you know she was already you know in a coma. from there to help with the brain swelling and. then so she looked she looked perfect i held her hand and. i talked to her but of course she couldn't hear me. the grandmother of another child zaria go back.

both families live in the same area. as daria was shot in the forehead also by another child. and what did the doctor tell you that moment that she was in critical condition that she may not make it that you know the bullet was lodged and they had a lot of brain swelling and that you know they didn't know most likely it would not be good. to compare myself to the. louisville kentucky is the closest major city to cumberland county. this is where caroline's boxes ambulance was heading when she passed away. there's the emergency room and friends and then of course all the ambulances down this way and they will

stop right at the door so close are. three cells is a board member of the co's at children's hospital in louisville. every day the hospital is confronted with the downside of mask on possession in the state of kentucky. how many children a year coming to us hospitals to children's every single year in the united states fifteen thousand children come into hospital with the nine dollars. fifteen thousand children and if you're in the united states with adults it's thirty two thousand people are killed with a gun every single in the united states mazing the world's incredible an all preventable what kind of a shock once you get in this hospital because we are level one trauma center we get the most critical gunshot wounds of all gunshot wounds that happen in the state of kentucky and when we talk about this picture of

a child's picture was shot in the middle of the area all the tendons. balls within the hand area the fell fits away from the bone so order to reattach to this and make the wound clean again this child would have to be pinned with metal pins if the child could even be saved at that point in time work with this on the bt base we work with on a daily basis on a daily basis in this hospital to reason her colleagues witness the dark side to the massive possession of weapons in their state to reason six tree me critical of the ease with which weapons are dealt with here she's angry that manufacturers use children as a target audience. they're still learning how to tell time they're still learning how to cut with scissors it's more than strange but when they market guns to children they make them in pastel blue and pretty barbie pink like to think barbie dolls they make them with swirls and then they call them cute little names like

cricket fan chipmunks just so if you owned a gun you would belong to a disney club. this is the would family for them shooting is an activity for the whole family including the younger children. one of the six zero one hundred eighty so. i missed it here so. this isn't the first shot or shot when you're you know does it hold would be like very illegal. well in kentucky in the united states it's just part of the way we operate and this is the local shooting range. they shoot a trust me which is going to trust it well. it's cable to go to.

the free possession of is in trying to in the us constitution. and is inseparable from countryside life here. looking for mr sherwood davis. or would davis nice to meet you yes or needs to go to from the netherlands from where the netherlands the netherlands yes. you have lots of guns we do have lots of things how many do you typically in stock we've got some more point fifteen hundred two thousand one hundred goes up and down but fifteen hundred a small number for us and how many do you sell here oh gosh i'd have to look at the numbers but you're probably looking at seven date thousand. like that one right there that's definitely pointed towards a lady

a lady would buy that farm and that would be her a r fifteen we're husband might on that one right there or something one of their plastic is like a real good old most definitely yes i know it looks like a toy gun you know it's there and then the blast of the summer well that is just the furniture meaning those are just the excess arrays that you put on a plain black gun like it to make it to doll it up like that and how much like how much is a gun like that the dressed up like that one is i have a look at the price tag it is probably about four hundred dollars with a scope there's another paint gun this for the ladies but we carry a huge stock a hand guns everything from target guns to little bitty ankle gun self-defense guns target guns you know we don't have this and then once it's like we don't have weapons store so for us it's not really yes. what you all do to protect yourselves nothing. show would davis has weapons of all shapes and sizes from hang

guns to semiautomatic and of kools guns made especially for children. with the. sometimes they'll have a shorter stock to make it easier for their length of pocas their arms are shorter most of the time they'll be lighter because they can't hold up as much here's a very good example of why you even have them in colors like a bank or in of course pink for the young girls cam all for of a future honner this children's gun is marketed as my first rifle it is the same gun that killed caroline spock's yet the state of kentucky support the sale of it. i could lay this gun right here loaded and i could come back in ten years and i'll guarantee you if nobody picks up that gun it will have not hurt anybody. so you know the gun is simply a tool or a coal oil so you say guns don't kill people guns do not kill people people kill

people with five year olds also don't kill people but they get killed look skateboards are you going to outlaw skateboards are you going to confiscate pogo sticks everything require supervision. so jamie you can begin to grow any yeah yeah hope don't hunger good to see that. i doing don't do it now our boys are you know i was. the goods are a typical kentucky family father jamie's a farmer he has eight hundred dairy cows is a mill to twenty four hours a day the woods are hard work it's enough good food especially meat. and there's something else they love to i doing you know you get i hear you sitting

goats. we also keep the governor house yes going to see the. pushchair maybe no one can meet or muzzleloader yet and this was a twenty two and two shot. yet this shot. what he did you have a nation also here. and it's like turkey ok. we have good looks better because i'm too afraid you know i've got to see your house was a five you know peace in my face it was like yeah which is a safe why is that what we're. going here. do you trust your children with those weapons you know i mean it's not you know here's a gun go out no it's a tom over time you know when they have to earn my trust to do those things like

you're the key that they they know words that today you know when i were small or know that key was put up that keys where they didn't know where it was it was either on my key chain and you know they couldn't get in that gun cabinet this is if it is easy to you know it's ok. to work to gain a ground bill this was. after dinner the children go outside to practice that savors held me in the backyard. the fact that. they would like to go digital the price is the only industry specifically mention in the constitution and. that's because a free and open press is critical to our democracy schreck albus. role. in fact the single biggest threat facing our nation today is the corporate takeover of

our government and across several we've been hijacked lying handful of transnational corporations that will profit by destroying what our founding fathers once told us by job market and on this show we reveal the big picture of what's actually going on in the world we go beyond identifying the problem trucks rational debate and a real discussion critical issues facing america five ready to join the movement then welcome to the big picture. we welcome an era made in abby martin to be terrific hosts on the r t network. it's going to give you a different perspective give me one stock tip oh never i'll give you the information you make the decision don't worry about how breaking the sub works it's a revolution of the mind it's a revolution of ideas and consciousness and frustrated with the since took the i'm extremely new approach which would be described as angry i think i'm

a strong enough under single. one of your cultural phenomena like should be a community college face i think sometimes people. pleasure to have you with us here on t.v. today i'm wrong researcher. that. you're.

right you guys to young to own a gun. why not. we're not all prone to you know it's not right you know take care of and i'm not afraid of something happens with a gun accident or something. well they miss you have it's not right i think you honestly do need the positive thought they were now because you know only what is supposed to fight the process that is they large you know i mean this teaches them i'm not saying that they're going to be better than anybody else's children when they grow up but i mean you teaches them a lot of response ability. you know what the gun rights advocates will say you're using this threat of death of caroline sparks to get your own message across i hope they do say that because it is my methods but it is also the message of the american academy of pediatrics the american academy of pediatricians in the united

states in two thousand and twelve that a policy statement stating that the only safe home in the united states is a home without a gun and i stand behind that belief. just around the corner from my caroline sparks who shot dead is one of the largest shooting grounds in the united states. as eight thousand the shooting ground is larger than eleven thousand troops will pick choose. so this is what we call the point of give us some perspective the most of our property is all north of us and west this is nick noble owner of. range just by the tragic incidents in the neighborhood he still sees shooting as an innocent fun. i

call golf with a shotgun so you're going from from whole the whole station to station and then scoring and going to the end it's a day out there today out. in the shooting club equipped with a restaurant and hotel is a family destination because of the vast size of this it is travel by car between the fifty shooting stations this particular station is a recreation of a cowboy village. so this is where the action happens this is it this is one of our many ranges but to be a good place for us to come down and maybe test out a few different types of. nick noble wants to prove that shooting doesn't have to be dangerous. first of all we always keep guns pointed in a safe direction even when it's unloaded we assume that every firearm is a loaded until we can prove otherwise when you're handling a firearm you never have that finger on it so it's if you're even taking a picture and there's an old always well yeah parallel with that and then and then the only time i ever put a finger on the triggers and we're actually engaged in the target and ready to

shoot and then i'll actually put my finger on the trigger but any time i pick this up fingers off which are. ok to hit anything yes it because i can understand why children find these who would give a thrill a bit of adrenaline yes i can understand that yeah is it wise to learn a kid how to shoot when such a tragic accident happens around the corner here there's between two and three hundred million guns the united states so you can act like they're not here and take kids away from them and i think that's when i when i believe that it's my personal opinion that when kids become curious about what they don't know is when the accidents happen is so different than putting a child a sixteen year old child in a vehicle with no training on an interstate. this is how you feel with guns that it

you have to try. but i thought you know if she even led that she would be brain damaged and make you scared even see kids you know that your eye is right there and i just feel so worried that she would never be normal again or in a coma forever are bats the ball. for azhar his grandmother children and weapons should never be combined. granddaughter was in the coma for two weeks with a bullet lodged in her brain. it's a new it is obviously. the by. well it's still in her head it's too difficult to remove it. much of anything much she needs in the life of any seven year old. charlie charlie and. what are the chances that it will survive something like that well one of the million and the neuro doctors say that the baby never seen nothing

like this before so they call it the miracle baby. school sat. down with a child a high school and writes a reality. and he hit you. what it was he hit you with a quote it's sad a seeing a little bit of your head look. at what it got to say you were lucky a little bit. and cough. closer to where it will bill. because of the accident bizarre his parents lost their rights to parental care how grandmother now has full custody. together they visit the hospital where as our it was treated. on. the look crazy

its. own luck as a whole one. can't believe his looks. i filled up really nice you can't even hardly tell that was their looks just like a little scrape now. they're getting squire good sense for him every day to keep the sky oh that's fantastic they've taught you well you can't even tell. i've done this for thirty years and there are children that you always remember they just stick in your head and i have my special words and she's one of the special ones you remember and seeing right now she's fabulous. absolutely fabulous and this is the recovery that you always hope for a small nergal a small miracle definitely something that your human still good. makes me know that what i'm here for is worthwhile. makes me know what i do if.

the figures are truly shocking more than fifteen thousand children each year abroad hospitals across america with gunshot wounds and eight children die every day because of the consequences. in the gun from that's public television i left a couple of messages i think six or seven attempts to speak with someone from the gun lobby on successfully the secretary admits that due to the death of caroline spokes this is not a popular topic of conversation for the arms manufacturers. caroline sparks is buried here on the outskirts of cumberland county. her brother and mother regularly visit a gas station nearby which also serves as a convenience store in your absence you know him on. just about on average of

almost lost weight you know ever since. her mom said there's a bear her second grandmother who was a second grandmother so you must be heard when you heard the news yes heard about it that. i heard about it. and so this small village is now a symbol for the gun debate throughout the united states president obama once stricter gun control but he's met with the resistance from the countryside even in the village of caroline sparks board taken the right so i don't buy it you know they were doing. so even after the tragedy when i have that directly about you still believe it or your guns that you have the children yeah yeah meets on the project you say so so you say this gun for five six seven year olds is safe going to even though it supervision your own grandchildren you would give the great. many pictures with their with maybe one day i hope to fill look back at these pictures

of robert ray i'm very good. with alex and t.j. owning and shooting guns from the young ages of twelve in the south in the woods will continue to consider shooting a family activity though rather than spending size days playing football they go to the shooting range. why do you like shooting so much. stress. shooting helps to really stress you know . and i'm sure afraid something happens a children every day in us die because of chatrooms aren't you afraid it happens to you why not because what it would be made to shoot so. and someone else who is trying to or.

when you think it's innocent when you with kids involved you think there's not a bullet in there you think it's just like you think everything is safe with this not guns or never say. and because of that there's a family that's very sad always mr daughter and i'm very blessed that we have you see with us. after some kids were never taught the difference between i am in a real gun i think that's where some of the accidents come into play i mean you were talking about the incident in cumberland county how do you know that child wasn't thinking that that gun was just a ploy again. if you look at this infant above the infants right here is a gunshot wound close to the head in the temple area unfortunately this is one of the children did make it we were unable to revive this child this is the gun debate

through the children and simply through the eyes of children this is the gun through the eyes of parents sparks if we can do it for our children for our future what is the country the safer. player play. looks. play.

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got the future covered. the chances are foresee that. such motion and the finish line of the marathon. cosmopolitan. might have come in here in the

morning but. i suspect a whole. load of might go to do its job did you know the price is the only industry specifically mentioned because if you survive that's because a free and open prize is critical to our democracy shrek i'll. go on. but i'm going to go on i'm sorry and on this show we're a deal the live picture of what's actually going to go into the world simply go beyond identifying the problem to try rational debate a real discussion critical issues facing america by a member ready to join the movement then welcome aboard. go on tell hartman in washington d.c. and here's what's coming up tonight on the big picture.