Duke,

Pointing a firearm up in the air isn't REALLY safe either...

Just because it doesn't fall straight back down and hit you hardly means it won't drop someplace else -- to strike somebody else in the top of the head a half mile away.

In Mexico -- and especially in Iraq during Saddam Hussein's days -- lots of folks have died or been injured by "safe" guns that have been fired up into the air.

(For some ODD reason, very, very few Americans tried to warn Saddam and his lackies that the Newtonian principle of "What goes up must come down" still is in effect...

No, you'd be surprised at how many revelers die when guns are discharged into the air. Apparently, some Iraqis believe that if you shoot into the air, the bullet goes into the same state of nothingness that BP wants us to think the Gulf of Mexico oil spill went.

As for the mother being negligent and shooting little 9-year-old Gus (I think that was his name), that was a tragic, tragic state of affairs -- and a true accident -- combined with a design flaw and apparent Remington negligence.

The boy had gone behind that horse trailer -- and she couldn't see him. She was pointing the gun away from others -- and never touched the trigger.

It wasn't as if she pointed the gun at him. The last time she looked, he was on the horse behind her. He got down and went behind the trailer -- where she couldn't see him -- when the gun discharged.

Now I'll agree in other cases that gunhandling was negligent -- but if the CNBC report is accurate -- and I for one believe it and don't think it was a media hit job -- Big Green was GROSSLY negligent when the trigger connector was found defective in 1948 -- by the DESIGNER -- when the first 200 guns came off the line.

I love Remington -- but they made a bad, bad, bad mistake a long time ago -- and had ample time to correct it, but didn't.

I fear this could either sink them -- or damage them beyond repair.