Michael Santiago, 25, is under arrest for felony child endangerment after his 6-year-old son accidentally shot and killed his 3-year-old brother. Santiago kept the .32-caliber Smith & Wesson revolver fully loaded on top of the refrigerator.
The boys were reportedly playing “cops and robbers” when the gun went off. Their grandfather was watching them but was upstairs at the time. Santiago is a former gang member who said that he had the gun (purchased illegally off the street) to protect himself after testifying against a fellow gang member. Santiago, a manager at a Papa Ray’s Pizza restaurant, is being held on $75,000 bond.
Santiago appears to have been working hard after leaving the gang — putting in six days a week at the pizza restaurant.
The combination of the illegal purchase and the endangerment allegation could result in serious time for Santiago. The question is whether a court should consider the loss of the child in reducing the sentence. Santiago is described as a loving father who did a terribly stupid and reckless thing. Given the loss of the child, do you think that serious jail time is warranted?
Source: CNN
KCF, I agree the loss of the child is the worst punishment. But, an illegal gun and criminally negligent storage of the gun has to have a minimum incarceration. The guy has a job. 6-9 months in a work/jail program. He works his shift and then spends nights in jail.
We will hear liberals talking about ineffective, feel good, programs like gun buy back programs that have proven not to work. But, they decry stop and frisk that has proven effective in decreasing murders. All gun buy back does is give folks a way to get money for their broken, old guns that don’t work. Liberals are ignorant.
We’ll just keep reading about these shootings and argue about it without any resolution.
That is correct, because every single argument or idea ‘your’ side comes up with does nothing whatsoever to resolve anything. Every single one…..useless.
Nothing, Nada, Zip, Zero. So until ‘your’ side, the gun control bots, have a coherent thought, we will just continue to ignore you as annoying background noise.
Molon Labe
“I have four children, not all of whom were planned, I never considered abortion. I care enough about human life to not want to see women undergoing unsafe abortions again.”
Annie,
On the one hand you are for the sanctity of life of your own children and on the other you advocate for the killing of other women’s children. Your pathway to “safe” abortions is STILL an unsafe pathway for the child. We are not supposed to pick and choose which innocent lives matter. We are supposed to find a way to secure the lives of all the innocents, especially those that are not yet blessed to be able to speak for themselves.
The tragedy of this story is this young man made a choice to be a Dad over being a gang member. I would argue his was a demonstration of the father’s right to choose and he chose life for his children. There is not one sentence this man will receive for this accident worse than having to live with the fact he just lost one son. Add to that the emotional damage that has been done to the surviving son for killing his younger brother AND losing his father. Using this and other tragedies to further an agenda that WILL NOT increase the security of innocent lives is on its face pathetic. If that strikes a nerve then one might want to reflect on why that nerve is exposed.
I agree with no punishment for these parents. They’ve been punished enough.
* do*
So let’s continue the proliferation of guns in our society because it just doesn’t matter that there are irresponsible parents out there, children will just continue accidentally shooting each other, themselves and their parents and an occasional grandparent. Let’s keep on manufacturing them by all means, we can never have too many guns. Buy back of guns regardless of legal ownership in the inner cities has happened in the past, put such programs in steroids? Or just fo nothing, maybe nothing will solve the nightmare. It’s probably too late anyway. We’ll just keep reading about these shootings and argue about it without any resolution.
What’s the point of punishment here?
Only to feed the liberal god, who is most unmerciful and vindictive.
To answer the question of serious jail time. Given the circumstances that the father was trying hard to get past his criminal associations and trying to do the right thing, AND given the horrible loss of his one son plus the mental damage to the surviving son, I don’t think that harsh jail time would do anything positive. It would be unnecessarily punitive and serve no purpose.
How much more can you punish someone who, through their own stupid negligence, cause the death of their own child and the destruction of their own family? Every day from now on, he will be punishing himself in his own mind.
I’ll favor more gun laws when Obama and Hillary give up their armed guards.
This was a stupid death, no different than allowing kids unfettered access to bleach, knives, or the car keys.
Santiago is a former gang member who said that he had the gun (purchased illegally off the street)
All the gun control laws in the world would not have saved this little boy. Registering guns. Buying back guns from legal owners who have complied with the laws. Confiscating the known guns. None of these things will stop criminals from possessing guns. Only the law abiding, and those stupid enough to comply with the law, will be disarmed.
Mandatory education for gun owners. Don’t make me laugh if you think that this guy would have gone to a gun safety class.
The only thing that could have saved these children from this tragedy is if the parents had used one iota of common sense and not kept a LOADED weapon where it could be reached by children. They didn’t and in this they are terribly negligent.
Molon Labe.
Rick, you just proved my point.
Annie
Forget about an exchange of ideas, it just ain’t happening on the Turley blog
I see introspection isn’t a strength.
I encourage all to read the archives.
“And you shall know the truth and the truth will make you free.”
Is that what these comments sections are all about nowadays? To “strike nerves”? Forget about an exchange of ideas, it just ain’t happening on the Turley blog anymore with any regularity. What we see more of now are comments such as the ones @9:42. This is one of the main reasons RIL is no longer the blog it used to be.
Olly, You struck an exposed nerve. Kudos.
To answer the question posed by JT, I think he has to do time, but a minimum amount, maybe 6-9 months. Chicago has the toughest gun laws in this country. The ONLY way you can insure something like this never occurs is to take away ALL guns. That is exactly what the haters of the 2nd Amendment want.
So when gun buy backs or confiscation is broached, what do we hear?
You hear intelligent people pointing out that confiscation will not disarm the criminals any more than the current law prevented this person from buying his gun. Drugs have been illegal in this country for the lifetime of anyone alive today, yet I could fly to any decent sized town in the country and buy them before nightfall. If we eliminate legal gun sales it will have no effect on illegal sales any more than drug prohibition eliminated drugs.
This must make sense somehow to gun obsessed people.
There are people obsessed about guns, which is why they get excited whenever there’s a shooting. Unfortunately their conditioned responses won’t have the effects they would like and rather than be adult and recognize this they blather on about how others must desire this outcome.
“Annie
1, October 20, 2015 at 9:35 am
Anonymous, some days I just have to shake my head and wonder.”
Ditto, Annie.
Olly is clearly baiting Annie and Max-1, here:
http://jonathanturley.org/2015/10/20/chicago-former-gang-member-arrested-after-his-6-year-old-son-kills-his-brother-with-loaded-gun-left-in-kitchen/#comment-1500282
Wish there was an edit button:
“Anyone who reads these threads would never buy what Olly’s trying to sell.”
Let’s change that:
Any reasonable, sensible person who consistently follows the Turley blog would never buy what Ollie is trying to sell about Max-1 and Annie.