Gun's make it a hell of a lot easier to kill someone. That's been proven in a lot of studies. Also, given that he was 11, she might have been able to fight him off if he tried say stabbing her or something.

If this had happened in Canada the father would be charged with failing to keep the gun in safe conditions.

literal people are scary, man, literal people scare me
out there trying to rid the world of its poetry while getting it wrong fundamentally down at the church of "look,it sez right here, see!" Ani Difranco