Boy, 5, Shoots 3-Year-Old Brother With Rifle

[Kadie]

May 23, 2009 5:12 pm US/Pacific
Boy, 5, Shoots 3-Year-Old Brother With Rifle

CORNING, Calif. (AP) ―
A 3-year-old boy was hospitalized in stable condition after his 5-year-old brother accidentally shot him in the chest with a .22-caliber rifle.

The Tehama County Sheriff's Department reported Saturday that the boy was at the University of California at Davis Medical Center in Sacramento after the Friday afternoon shooting.

snip...
The rifle had been kept loaded under the parents' bed. Deputies planned to forward the results of their investigation to the district attorney's office for review.

http://cbs13.com/local/boy.shoots.brother.2.1017781.html





:grr:

[flvegan]

1. These parents = idiots.

[Gormy Cuss]

3. .

:thumbsup:

I hope the kids don't have any lasting damage from this incident.

[slackmaster]

14. Yes

I agree completely.

[derby378]

2. Again?

This trend is getting old really quick. When will these people learn?

[imdjh]

9. Is it a trend?

With 300 million people and instant access to the slightest bit of news- I'm not sure we could identify a trend until the actual stats come out, and then we have to judge the politics and reliability of those producing the stats.

[TheWraith]

17. You make a good point, one I've argued in the past.

Anecdotes, culled from a country this size, are meaningless. It's like child abductions: to listen to the media, you'd think they were constant. But there's only a couple hundred abductions by strangers per year.

[MajorChode]

23. So because there are only 800 accidental firearm deaths per year we should ignore them?

Imagine if we took the same attitude towards other things.

In 2007 and 2008 nobody died in commercial airline crashes. So why spend millions on safety initiatives?

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

32. That would be stupid. We should look at them in context though.

That context would be senseless, avoidable and decreasing at a fairly steady rate.

David

[LeftyMom]

33. Accidental shootings are a lot easier to dismiss when it's nobody you know personally.

I only know one family who was destroyed in an accidental shooting. One is quite enough.

[TheWraith]

40. A lovely sentiment, but one that will never be practical.

The simple fact of the matter is that in a country of 300 million people, you're never going to get rid of some things. We're never going to have a murder rate of zero, or no fatal car crashes, or no accidental gun deaths. All that can really be done is to reduce the odds as best we can, with things like good police forces, seatbelts, and responsible gun storage. But if we allow ourselves to react to isolated incidents without seeing them in context, then we're ripe for a panic and moral outrage based more on emotion than on facts.

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

46. Who are you accusing of dismissing accidental shootings?

[imdjh]

24. No, no , no- those are satanic cults stealing children. They're real. I saw it on Donohue. nt

[X_Digger]

4. Dumb parents

Most guns today come with trigger locks, hell even the NRA gives them out for free with gun safety classes in most places.

[jehovas_waitress]

12. CRIMINALLY STUPID parents

But trigger locks are NOT reliable either. The first empirical rule stated by trigger lock manufacturers is NEVER try to put a trigger lock on a loaded weapon because you NEVER touch a trigger unless you intend to fire the weapon. Semi automatic pistols can still have a loaded magazine inserted in the mag well-- and the slide racked to chamber a round-- and fired even with a trigger lock in place. Trigger locks violate that rule of safety because now you have something touching or near the trigger on a weapon that is loaded and (in the case of that semi-auto), cocked.

I would trust a cable lock through the barrel and ejection port more than a trigger lock. The only safe solution is guns locked away in a gun safe.

[X_Digger]

19. *nod* I was being generic with 'trigger lock'

I have a box of cable locks that came with many of the guns I own (no kids, no visitor kids, either.) Even municipalities have giveaways for devices to secure your firearms, google 'trigger lock giveaway'.

No reason whatsoever not to have one.

[votingupstart]

44. agreed. nt

[slackmaster]

13. Dumb parents who broke a state law

A failure to secure a firearm that results in an injury or death due to someone under age 16 getting hold of it is a crime in California.

[Chulanowa]

25. This kid made a victim of himself

Everyone knows an armed society is a polite society. But since he chose not to go armed, look what happened to him. Just goes to show you, the more guns we put into childrens' hands, the safer they're bound to be!

Oh, and :sarcasm:

[Tangerine LaBamba]

5. A loaded rifle under the bed

with a three-year-old and a five-year-old in the house.

Can you give the death penalty for abject stupidity? These people are too damn dumb to live ......................

[grytpype]

6. If only the 3-year-old had a gun, he could have returned fire.

[elocs]

7. The 3 year old should have been armed so he could defend himself.

Do I really need the sarcasm thingie? Probably because some just don't get it.
:sarcasm:

[Skittles]

8. I'm no gun nut but

honestly, this is very bad parenting

[imdjh]

10. I agree. We kidproofed our houses for years. nt

[csziggy]

11. I'm beginning to wonder if some of these incidents are new gun owners

Who bought guns since "Obama was going to take guns away" and have little training in gun safety. I can't remember seeing so many incidents of accidental shootings (and malicious shootings) in so few months as we have seen since the first of this year.

[Skittles]

18. people who thinkg Obama will "take away their guns"

are too stupid to own them

[csziggy]

29. Agreed but if they are potential Darwin Award candidates the children already

born should not suffer for that stupidity.

[Caliman73]

28. Possibly, possibly not.

I was a new gun owner about 9 years ago and I never kept my firearms loaded and accessible, not from day one. I also made sure that my child was never able to have access to my gun. This was all done without having to take safety classes other than studying to pass the California Basic Handgun Safety Certificate test. It is definitely possible that some of these incidents of negligence are committed by new owners. More likely these people are just plain negligent and complacent. We have seen incidents from trainers, lay people, and children, as well as criminal acts. Also, I am not sure that there is such a major increase in actual incidents as there is a major increase REPORTING the incidents. The data will show later on, but I would imagine that this is the case.

[csziggy]

30. And it will take a year or two before the statistics come out

So we will not know for a fairly long time what is going on.

You are right, it could easily be a matter of more coverage right now.

[CoffeeCat]

15. I'm amazed that he's in stable condition...

The three-year-old child was probably shot from fairly close range. I can't believe that he is
in stable condition.

That's very, very good news.

[TheWraith]

16. Most .22 rifles are nearly pellet guns.

They can still kill you, but it's nothing like somebody being shot with a 30/06 or even a lower powered .223.

[MajorChode]

20. "nearly pellet guns"???

Are you series?

A 22 LR cartridge can easily bring down a coyote at 50 yards. Imagine what it can do at point blank range to a 3yr old that weighs less.

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

31. In terms of bullet size he is correct, .22 LR is capable of significant damage though.

Of course a .177 caliber bullet moving at 1500 fps would likely do as much damage as a .22 caliber bullet at the same velocity.

David

[TheWraith]

38. In theory, but in reality .22 is almost powerless.

I personally have watched somebody pump seven .22 LR rounds into a wild chicken at point blank range before it finally dropped dead. A .22 LR round has less than a third of the power even of a 9mm pistol round, and about 1/19th as much power as a true hunting-class rifle. Yes, they're lethal if you hit somebody in exactly the right place, but it's nothing like the damage of being shot by even a handgun.

[tj2001]

22. .22 bullets killed millions

in Stalin's Russia. NKVD executioners used them almost exclusively.

[TheWraith]

39. .25 ACP and .30 Tokarev, actually.

The .25 ACP is comparable to .22 LR, the Tokarev is several times more powerful. Of course, from point blank range into somebody's head, it's fatal. But that's one of the few examples where a low power .2 cal bullet will guarantee the target's death. If I had to be accidently shot, I would absolutely choose a .22 because I know my odds of survival would be infinitely better than with almost any other kind of bullet.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

26. Its called the Hitman's Choice for a reason

perfect coup de grace weapon (one round behind the ear). They sure in hell are LETHAL

[AlCzervik]

21. Lock your guns up assholes or don't have kids.

[JVS]

35. or lock your kids up

[Selatius]

27. The parents should be prosecuted for being criminally negligent.

Then, once they get out of jail, they won't be able to own a firearm again because of a criminal record.

[LeftyMom]

34. I'm more concerned about them not having kids in the house in the future.

Forget their negligence toward their firearm, what about their negligence toward the kid?

FWIW, in that area (rural interior NorCal) any time you hear about somebody doing something this dumb you can almost bet they're tweakers.

[LostinVA]

43. Good po re: tweakers

I grew up with lots of gun-toting rednecks, and thy didn't leave loaded guns around teh house. They practiced gun safety.

[LeftyMom]

45. Me too. Hell, I wasn't allowed to point cap guns at people.

Around our house they were a demonstration tool for learning how to handle a gun safely.

My Dad is a bit of a gun nut, but he's also a fanatic about safe handling.

[cabluedem]

37. Has to be a felony offense to ban guns in thier hands. nt

[proteus_lives]

36. The parents need to go to jail

Not keeping your firearms in a safe place and out of the reach of children is criminal.

[Obamanaut]

41. Why is it always Florid.....never mind. nt

[LostinVA]

42. Lock up your guns, use trigger guards, hide the ammo -- why is this so fucking hard?!

I grew up in a house full of long guns, and I had zero access to them until I was showed how to shoot by my dda when I was about 12. Then, I STILL only had access to them when he wanted me to.