Police Say 5-Year-Old Boy Accidentally Shot Mother

[Blue_Tires]

Police Say 5-Year-Old Boy Accidentally Shot Mother
Gun's Recoil Hit, Wounded Boy In Forehead

UPDATED: 10:28 am EST February 28, 2005

FORT WORTH, Texas -- A Texas mother is hospitalized in fair condition after police say her 5-year-old son shot her in the back.

A police spokesman said the boy found his parents' 9 mm pistol in the master bedroom of their south Fort Worth home late Sunday afternoon.

Police Lt. Gene Jones said the boy fired one round through the chair in which his mother was sitting while working on the family computer. Jones said investigators believe the shooting was accidental.

Police said the boy's father and 14-year-old brother were in another room and called police.

The woman was airlifted to John Peter Smith Hospital in Fort Worth. The gun's recoil hit and wounded the boy in the forehead. He was taken by ambulance to Cook Children's Medical Center, where he was treated for the wound and discharged.

http://www.clickondetroit.com/news/4237647/detail.html
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I'm not one of the anti-gun types, but is it too much to ask that they be stored and secured safely?

[Redstone]

1. Guns, guns, we need more guns in America!

Everyone should have a gun in the house, especially people with children.

Redstone

[primavera]

38. Hey, the gun nuts are right!

This is yet another instance in which the true culprit is too few guns as opposed to too many! Now see, if only the mother had been armed, she at least could have returned fire on the little tyke!

[CBGLuthier]

2. Apparently it is too much to ask

At least this one will turn out OK and maybe they will learn a lesson.

COuld have been a much, much worse situation.

[reprobate]

22. Turned out OK? What about the medical bills?

Did they have insurance, and will the insurance pay? If not, will they have to sell their home to pay the hospital and doctors?

Could the child have just bankrupted the family, even if the mother lives?

Only in America.

[beyurslf]

3. And the parents have been given a ticket or citation for an illegally

stored gun, right?

Wait, this is Texas...

[vpigrad]

4. I'm glad she paid for her mistake...

rather than a child. Too often it's a child hurt by the idiot parents that are so damn stupid that they have dangerous weapons around children. These are the types of things that happen because morons with children are allowed to have those things.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

8. I'll bet she's glad too...

I hope she recovers for her childrens' sakes; and I hope she and her husband never forget how lucky they are.

[denverbill]

5. Yeah, well, maybe if the mother had been armed, this wouldnt have happened

[Cha]

26. That's funny!

Dark humor!

[rukkyg]

34. I don't think that would have helped, Bill.

The kid just wasn't strong enough to control the recoil. Head trauma was destined.

[Toucano]

6. I hope they charge the mother with negligence.

It isn't an "accidental" shooting, it's negligence.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

7. Maybe the mother didn't know

her husband didn't know how to take care of his toy.

[Toucano]

11. It's her job to know.

That's kind of the definition of neglect. When you fail to secure your children from a danger that any reasonable person could foresee, it's neglect. It doesn't matter if it's a gun, a poisonous household chemical stored in the garage, or a plastic bag.

The article says he found his "parents' gun", though. So it isn't the husband's toy.

I'd file charges against both parents.

The gun wasn't properly stored where a 5 year old couldn't access it.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

14. She trusted her husband to store it properly

He's the one who works at the jail, and it's his personal weapon.
If he was my husband, the doghouse wouldn't be good enough for him.

[Toucano]

17. That's inadequate

A parent's is obliged to provide their child with a safe environment. The introduction of a firearm into the environment, apparently without a trigger lock or a locked safe, created an unsafe environment. She knew an unsecured firearm was in the house.

The obligation for providing a safe environment cannot be shifted to another party because of trust or belief or hope.

If it had been her husband's pit bull that got loose and mauled the child, it would be the same story. The fact that she "trusted him" to keep the animal secured wouldn't be a defense. Her parental duty requires that she KNOW.

I only singled out the mother because she strikes me as the luckiest of the players in the tragedy, and that's not truly fair. I was going for "rough justict" as in the "it would serve her right". The truth is, both parents have to be charged.

The only way I can see letting the mother off the hook is if there is a method of securing the firearm in the house (a trigger lock or a safe) and the father failed to make use of it. If no such security is available, she's equally at fault for permitting the child to live in a house with an unsecured firearm.

[MountainLaurel]

24. I concur

And I speak as someone who watched her 7-year-old brother nearly bleed to death because of an unsecured police-issued firearm. My mom is just as culpable for not insisting that my father keep his guns locked up as my father was for leaving them in the coat closet.

[Toucano]

27. Well, thanks.

I am sorry your family had to experience that.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

31. Sorry, but there are times when the obligation must be shifted to another

party...

That's the nature of marriage and family. If I go to work and leave my child with my husband, I trust him to keep him safe...I have no choice.

As for the good fortune of the participants in this tragedy, who's luckier than Dad, who didn't get a scratch? I hope he's charged for his negligence.

[Toucano]

32. It's strange, I know

but in the crazy ways of the universe, I consider the mother luckier because she escaped mortal danger with her life. The father, it seems, wasn't directly in danger under these circumstances, so his luck wasn't really tested. It's peculiar, I admit. It's like the mouse that escapes the cat is luckier than the mouse the cat never saw. I was just explaining why my first post only talked about the mother, when of course the husband is equally responsible.

Regarding your personal scenario, it's not really comparable. First, the mother was at home, not gone to work.

Second, I'm sure you've taken reasonable caution to safeguard your home from the dangers that might be present to your child. I'm sure there's no open bottles of drano under the kitchen sink, for example. No one can prepare for every possible hazard, but there are a few major dangers any reasonable person is obliged to anticipate, such as unsecured firearms.

You're not actually shifting your obligation when you go to work. You've already fulfilled your obligation by providing your child with a reasonably safe home. You've exercised judgement in putting the child in the care of a qualified, capapble individual, your husband.

Could there still be an awful accident? Probably, but it would be an accident, not neglect. Going to work and leaving the child in the care of another person isn't neglect. Going to work and leaving the child in a situation you know (or any reasonable person could be expected to know) is unsafe is neglect.

If your husband were a crack addict or something and you allowed him to care for your child, that would be a problem. Likewise if you know he makes a habit of trying to warm the house by turning on the stove, that would be a problem. :) I'm sure your family is nothing like the one in the story.

[Blue_Tires]

9. actually, it was the father's gun

but he should still be charged

[Toucano]

12. Am I losing it?

Doesn't the article call it the "parents' gun"?

On edit: Never mind. I found it in the full article. Thanks.

[Ramsey]

40. I agree

Both parents should be held responsible for the fact that a loaded handgun was within easy access of a very young child.

[slackmaster]

10. It's absolutely not too much to ask

I am a gun collector. I live alone (except for cats and reptiles), and I keep my guns securely locked up in a safe. If a similar incident happened here in California the person who failed to secure the gun could be charged with a crime. But that is rarely prosecuted because the victim is usually a family member. Stupidity should not be rewarded.

[xchrom]

13. this is why i don't want to live around anyone with a gun

what the fuck -- life is like that you can never tell what is going to happen next -- and not every body is going to oh so very responsible.

at least the child accidentally shot somebody in his own family.

p.s. to me if you have gun in the house -- this shit isn't accidental.
but that's just me.

[slackmaster]

18. I'm a gun owner and I agree with your postscript

You're right, this was not an accident. It was the result of negligence. Children think everything they can get their hands on is a toy. Anyone who owns a gun has a duty to prevent unqualified people from getting their hands on it.

[Stuckinthebush]

20. We just had the gun conversation with our daughters this weekend

If you are at a friend's house, and they pull out a gun...run away and find an adult. I don't care if they say it isn't loaded...get away fast and find an adult.

Daughter 1: "What if the adult pulls out the gun"

Say you want to go home immediately.

Jeez...I hate having to worry about this kind of crap. It is probably a good idea to have the kids go through gun safety classes even if you have no intention of buying a weapon just so they can be safe around their friends' parents guns.

[slackmaster]

21. Basic gun safety should be taught in public schools

No matter how much effort we put into educating people to store their guns properly, even if we try to force them to do the right thing through the threat of criminal penalties, there will always be a chance your child will encounter an unsecured gun. As children get older they become more likely to get into a dangerous situation involving a firearm. They're environmental hazards just like bad drivers, dangerous drugs, and unsafe sexual practices.

[MountainLaurel]

25. It was in my high school

However, that didn't stop the roughly two deaths each year caused by some student getting drunk and splattering his best friend's brains against a wall.

[slackmaster]

29. OTOH it probably didn't hurt

;(

[PurityOfEssence]

15. "We got guns, we got guns, all god's chilluns got guns!"

That's from "Duck Soup", the Marx Brothers movie, directed by Leo McCarey, written by Bert Kalmar and Harry Ruby (additional dialogue by Arthur Sheekman and Nat Perrin).

They's nothin' wrong with this country that better aiming couldn't cure...

[Anakin Skywalker]

16. I Am Sorry to Hear about the Mom but

damn! It's gotta be TX! :(
Why wouldn't you lock your gun when there are young chillun' in da house?

[TahitiNut]

19. It's not just that the pistol was accessible ...

... but that it had a round chambered! It's inconceivable to me that a 5-year-old chambered a 9mm round on his own. It's one level of negligence to keep a pistol where a 5-year-old can get at it. It's a higher level of negligence to keep the ammunition in the same place. It's even a higher level of negligence to have the ammunition in a loaded clip in the weapon. It's an inconceivably higher level of negligence still to have the weapon cocked and a round chambered!

Anyone this abysmally incompetent shouldn't be able to get a license to drive, let alone own a semiautomatic pistol.

[Toucano]

28. That's a very good point.

I hadn't thought it through that far, but you're absolutely right.

[TahitiNut]

30. Yep. Since I'm somewhat agnostic on the whole "gun control" jihad ...

... and because I know a little about guns without being either a fan or regarding them as some sort of absolute evil, I tend to analyze these scenarios without running out and joining either of the parades passing by. I don't know of a 9mm pistol that a 5-year-old could load and cock. I don't know of a 9mm pistol that anyone could just pick up and "accidentally" fire if it's kept in anything even remotely approaching a sane condition.

This one is like leaving your new sports car running, door wide open, and unattended all day next to a high school in a poor inner city neighborhood ... and then complaining it was stolen. It's so far beyond irresponsible that I'd argue that Child Welfare should be petitioning to remove the kids from that home ... and not because of guns. Parents that irresponsible don't need guns to cause deaths.

[VermonterInExile]

23. but...but...

guns don't kill people, people kill people! ;-)

[proud2BlibKansan]

35. And guns don't die

People do.

I used to have that bumper sticker on my car.

[tblue37]

39. Guns don't kill people.

Five-year-olds kill people.

[Conservativesux]

33. Shoot em' in the back? Only in Shrubs' own Texas !!!

[Skittles]

36. I'm glad it was a parent and not a child

it sounds harsh but this sort of stuff is completely unacceptable. What part of the wisdom that dictates DON'T ALLOW CHILDREN ACCESS TO WEAPONS is so freaking hard for some parents to understand?

[don954]

37. trigger locks are the law in texas...

the parents need revocation of their gun privileges for a few years now, and some serous parenting counseling.

[ernstbass]

41. Parents should be charged with child endangerment