According to the NRA, we have nothing to fear from gun-toting individuals who have completed a safety course. There is no way, if properly trained, that they can present a danger to themselves or others. Unfortunately, one Texas teenager s family learned the hard way that sending their child off to receive firearms training then giving him a gun probably isn t the best way to go about life.Weatherford High School senior Brennan Weikel dreamed of playing football in college. Unfortunately, he will never be able to do that because his stepfather gave the inexperienced 17-year-old a weapon and took him out in the middle of the night for what was supposed to be a fun Spring Break hog hunting trip. I know everybody says,  Oh, my kid s perfect.  He really was. He was a good kid,  said stepfather James Chambers. Chambers took Weikel out hunting just five days after the teenager had completed a gun safety course   one that gives him the legal right to hunt under Texas law, regardless of the amount of experience he has. Chambers also left Weikel by himself to hunt, according to the Weatherford Democrat: They were placed in individual ground blinds, the little wooden ones,  [Game Warden Penny Nixon] said.  His stepfather shot a hog and called the victim to ask him to help retrieve it. And the stepfather reported that immediately upon hanging up with the stepson, just seconds later, he heard a shot. It came from the blind where the young victim was. After getting no response to a text asking about the shot, the Weikel s stepfather, who was approximately 300 yards away, went over to the stand and found the teen crumpled up in the corner, his feet tangled up in a chair, according to Wise County Sheriff Lane Akin. There may have been some hunter inexperience involved,  Nixon explained.Akin says that the teen leaned over the rifle, which had a round chambered and the safety off, when he stood up after receiving his stepfather s text. When he reached for the grip of the rifle, he accidentally squeezed the trigger and fired a single round into his head. It was instantly fatal,  Nixon said.  It s a real tragedy. Yes, it is a  real tragedy    but the NRA and its acolytes will simply view this as an  accident  rather than a symptom of the problem that is  gun culture  in America. Simply put, this would have never happened if the teen s family had made the responsible decision not to place a gun in his hands. This would have never happened if the NRA and its Republican allies did not present arming teenagers as normal. This would have never happened if we would take reasonable steps to place age restrictions on firearm use, if we required more than a minimal amount of training, or if Weikel s stepfather had at least stayed by his side to make sure that he was using the gun properly.Contrary to the NRA s rhetoric, guns do not  keep us safe.  If they did, Weikel would still be playing football.Watch a report on the shooting below:Featured image via screengrab