Prosecutors should go to the mat with Shane Osborne, 45, of Beech Grove, Indiana, whose diaper-clad toddler was seen roaming the halls of an apartment building with a loaded gun and going “pow-pow-pow!” (photo, left).
Osborne (photo, right) is an ex-felon who can’t have a gun. State records show fraud and stolen property charges, NBC News said (here). When cops knocked on his door, he told them he didn’t have a gun, and couldn’t because of his criminal record.
He lied to them. They found a loaded 9mm handgun concealed in a rolltop desk in his apartment. It’s highly unlikely the boy or UFO aliens stashed it there.
For now, Osborne is just facing child neglect charges, but prosecutors should enforce the felons-can’t-have-guns law. I think prosecutors everywhere should enforce those laws to the max every time a criminal is caught with a firearm, but especially in this case. No plea bargain, no reduced sentence, no mercy.
Our country is saturated with guns, thanks to Republicans who want their supporters to have a practicable option to violently overthrow our government if voters elect Democrats, but even against that loosey-goosey backdrop it’s illegal for criminals and toddlers to have guns. So let’s at least enforce that law, when it’s the only gun control we can get.
The New York Post says (here) the boy “is now with his mother, who told WTHR it was scary seeing her son with a gun, but insisted Osborne is a good father.” Maybe he was in some other ways, e.g. babysitting while she worked or whatever, but that woman doesn’t seem to realize she’s lucky to still have her son.
This is a Katy-bar-the-door moment, and if she lacks the sense to keep the child away from him, the state should do it for her. In general kids need two parents, and boys need a father figure, but no child needs this father. A judge should solve that problem by locking him up and throwing the key away.