The Darwin Awards posthumously “honors” those adults that have removed themselves from the gene pool in the most spectacular or humiliating way. It is tragic in the extreme the adult responsible for the explosive device that killed and injured those children on Maple Avenue in Bakersfield on Tuesday was not himself the victim of his stupidity.

We still await the facts of what the device was, but if military ordinance it can’t have been as described by Sendejo with a “firing pin” removed. Such ordinance has a primer, not a firing pin, but the rounds may well have triggering mechanisms and exploding components in the actual projectile of whatever kind. In which case, simply removing the casing and propellant still leaves the most dangerously explosive component in the projectile intact much in the way of a landmine or unexploded cluster bomb.

Like most of you I hope whoever was actually responsible for this tragedy including those responsible for Sendejo even having a military explosive device will be held to account for it and all the facts of the case discovered and made known to the public. I would fault the lack of adult supervision except it would seem none were expert in military munitions, nor apparently was Sendejo. 

Such munitions are easily recognized by those trained in handling such ordinance, and in my forays into the western deserts I have come across much of this lying unexploded on the ground, some of the more dangerous being unexploded practice bombs and magnesium parachute flares. Now if that latter should go off in a house the structure would evaporate in an instant conflagration of the most intensely white heat imaginable. But I have no doubt some of these are in homes along with those unexploded practice bombs and other ordinance as “souvenirs” or merely curiosity pieces.

Children in many nations of the world are daily being killed and maimed by mines and other military ordinance. They find these objects just lying about inviting the curiosity of children. During WWII we children at Mt. Vernon Elementary were cautioned by teachers to beware of items intended by our enemies to entice children. Two older pupils once came into my classroom, one on crutches wearing bandages with red coloring to simulate blood, warning younger children of explosive devices disguised in a way to entice us into picking them up.

We haven’t reached that point yet in the “war on terrorism,” but I don’t doubt it will come to parents and teachers once more warning of “clever devices” meant to attract children just as in WWII, and this most recent tragedy is a grim reminder adults are responsible for children.

I know those at the Californian, people like Mike Jenner and others are going to press for answers to this tragedy, that the paper is going to hold those responsible to account. In the meantime, as we were cautioned to do during WWII it would be a good idea to begin asking everyone to report any suspicious devices you may see in a house anywhere. I purposely do not use the term “home.”