Josh Henderson

Kevin Fernandes is remembered as a loving daddy to his young daughter. Josh Henderson was said to be a good man to his family. But both are dead because they criminally entered another man's home and were shot to death. Same for Ken Talley and Johnny Sok. The four of them died, and at least three others were wounded, in eight Seattle-area stand-your-ground shooting incidents by homeowners since January. To some in the pro-gun crowd, this is a healthy trend.

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Gunman!

"The fear of not being able to buy guns," Stephen Colbert said last month, "has led to buying so many guns that now they can't buy any guns, just like they feared." He was referring to the run on guns that followed the Trayvon Martin shooting and NRA claims of a "massive Obama conspiracy" in which the president, if re-elected, would confiscate American's beloved firearms. But fear, rather than Colbert's artfully twisted logic, prevails.

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The third in a string of tragic child-related accidental shootings in Western Washington since late February resulted in second-degree manslaughter charges being filed this morning in Pierce County Court against 22-year-old Jahnisha McIntosh and 23-year-old Eric Vita. Three-year-old Julio Segura-McIntosh, one of Jahnisha McIntosh's two young children, accidentally shot himself in the head with a 9mm handgun March 14 at a Shell gas station near the Tacoma Mall. The child's death came on the heels of third-grader Amina Kocer-Bowman's serious but non-fatal accidental shooting at the hands of a classmate Feb. 22 in Bremerton, and the March 10 accidental shooting death of 7-year-old Jenna Carlile, the daughter of a Marysville police officer Derek Carlile who was struck by a bullet fired by a sibling from a gun belonging to her father.

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Parents are supposed to keep their children out of harm's way. Some parents purchase handguns to protect their children, but irresponsible gun safety is solely to blame for two deaths and one near-death of local children in the past three weeks. This isn't rubbing salt in a wound. This is returning responsibility to where it belongs: with parents.

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Two Seattle mayors have now tried to ban guns from public parks and community centers. But this week the Second Amendment Foundation, National Rifle Association, and five permitted gun owners who sued the city were vindicated in Washington State's Supreme Court.

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Is a shotgun an appropriate gift for a teenager? It's an interesting question raised by a lawsuit against the parents of an Eastern Washington teen who received such a gift, and then proceeded to use its butt to beat an asparagus farmer so badly that the older man suffered facial fractures and, he claims, permanent damage to one eye.

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Candles were lit, bells tolled and a moment of silence was offered for Gabby Giffords and Margaret Anderson, and the thousands of others that are victimized by gun violence here and across the nation.

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On Sunday, a disturbed Iraq War veteran murdered a ranger in Mt. Rainier National Park. Now, a foolhardy few are pointing their fingers at the men and women they see as the real culprits: Congress.

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Gottlieb

With release of a state Appeals Court ruling this week, gun-rights activists have, as expected, won their legal battle to knock down Seattle's ban on carrying guns in city parks. And as expected they're crowing about it. "We told former Mayor Greg Nickels he was wrong," says Alan Gottlieb, longtime leader of the Bellevue-based Second Amendment Foundation, "and we have reminded the city under Mayor Mike McGinn that it was wrong, and now the Appeals Court has confirmed our position."

"In sum," writes appeals Judge Ann Schindler, Seattle's ban attempts to pre-empt state law. "Except as expressly authorized by the legislature, municipalities are prohibited from regulating the possession of firearms at city-owned park facilities open to the public. Whether to amend [state law] to prohibit possession of firearms at city-owned parks and park facilities frequented by children and youth is a question for the legislature to decide."

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Ausha Wooten.

The party was Ausha Wooten's idea. There had simply been too many senseless killings in her community, she says, and somebody needed to act. So she planned an all-day event, the "1st Annual Central District Family Renunion," as she dubbed it, for Saturday at Powell Barnett Park.

When the kid showed up with the gun, then ran off, and according to witnesses fired a few rounds as he bolted down the street, Wooten was angry. But as she defiantly notes, the day didn't end there.

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