I was going to give my Worst Parents on the Planet award to the Tennessee couple whose three-year-old daughter shot and killed herself with a loaded pistol stepdaddy had left on the coffee table (the little girl mistook it for a Wii play gun), while mommy sat three feet away. 



Luckily Tennessee doesn't see this as a crime.  Authorities don't see any need to file charges. 

And more good news in the case:  the couple has one kid left!  A one-year-old.  And Tennessee gives gun nuts do-overs!  Tennessee family values.  Godda love 'em.
 
Today was a dark day, on the other hand, for Massachusetts, as the evil activist Supreme Judicial Court upheld a law requiring gun owners to use trigger locks on their weapons inside their homes. 

Bummer, huh? 

But there is a silver lining for Massachusetts parents who are responsible for their children's death by firearms.  Remember Christopher Bizilj, the eight-year-old who died at a gun show after an accidental self-inflicted submachine gun wound to the head, with his father a foot away?  Well, his dad (who was not charged with negligence or wrongdoing) is filing a a civil lawsuit...against  the 15-year-old instructor who he says "failed to provide proper guidance" to the 8-year-old on the use of the gun.

So there's hope.