As sad as this is, gun accidents happen. Do we need a thread with calls for gun bans everytime somebody is killed with a gun anywhere?
No, but it should be made clear that your dad, by choosing to keep a pistol in his house, has taken an action that increases the likelihood that a firearm death will occur in his home.
I think the best way to reduce this particular sort of gun violence isn't on the ownership side, but on the penalty side. If we, say, treat any and all accidental firearm deaths as manslaughter and prosecute the person using the gun and the owner of the gun (if that's someone else), with a requirement that jail time be part of the sentence, the only people who will continue to keep guns in their homes will be the people who genuinely do "need" them (i.e. someone who lives in a very dangerous neighborhood - not a Zimmerman-style gated community; someone out in the boonies who keeps shotguns to hunt for food) because the consequences of their possible misuse will outweigh the benefits of keeping them there. And those who do keep them will take far better care to ensure they are properly stored.
