Bubba and the Gun

When I was skimming the newspaper this morning a tiny little article caught my eyes. It pictured a baby holding a FOID card. FOID card? Well that’s a Firearm Owner’s Identification Card and believe it or not but it was the baby’s very own FOID. Bubba Ludwig (his full name is Howard David Ludwig) is a 10-month-old baby from Chicago who can’t walk or talk but is already a fully paid-up member of America's firearms fraternity, with a 12-gauge Beretta shotgun and a gun permit to his name. Now you might be wondering how a baby could possibly be the owner of a shotgun plus gun permit. Well after he was given the weapon from his grandfather, Bubba’s father, also named Howard Ludwig, applied for a FOID by filling in the form saying he was 2 feet, 3 inches, 20 pounds and including a photo of his son. He never thought that he would actually get the permit and was only waiting to get a letter back telling him he was an idiot. Ludwig was rather shocked when he received the card, which, by the way, carries the baby’s signature (they put a pen in his hands, letting him ‘write’ a squiggle on the paper). In Illinois there are no age restrictions on applicants, although anyone under 21 has to get the written consent of a parent of legal guardian, according to the Illinois State Police website. Even so, why would you give a child a gun and what is even more absurd: a gun permit?? No wonder that this has even made headlines in US newspapers…

Bubba won’t get the gun until he is 14, at which point he’ll go trap hunting with his father.