Toddler Shoots Pregnant Mother - oopsy!

Failed to follow the principles of Duty of Care. Criminal Negligence. Child Endangerment. Just some preliminary thoughts. Gun should be in a lock box, safety on, and empty of ammunition.

Anyone else cynical enough to think he tried to off the mother and blame the toddler?

RedRajah said:

Anyone else cynical enough to think he tried to off the mother and blame the toddler?

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No, but I do wonder if mom was suicidal, since that was the first place the man's mind went.

I think I continue to believe in a mythologized, non-existent past where locking up your guns was the routine. Have loose weapons become more of a thing, or did I just grow up in a household where the lockbox was part of gun ownership?

Kjbartolotta said:

I think I continue to believe in a mythologized, non-existent past where locking up your guns was the routine. Have loose weapons become more of a thing, or did I just grow up in a household where the lockbox was part of gun ownership?

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You can't open carry if your gun's locked up, duuuhh.

The obvious NRA solution is, of course, to arm all mothers in case their toddlers decide to shoot them.

Maggie Maxwell said:

You can't open carry if your gun's locked up, duuuhh.

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I'm no fan of open carry, but in this case it would have been much safer on his belt than with the kids.

Given the kids' ages, it also sounds like he needs to learn safety for "this one's for fun" too... (RIP R. Lee Ermey)

Kjbartolotta said:

I think I continue to believe in a mythologized, non-existent past where locking up your guns was the routine. Have loose weapons become more of a thing, or did I just grow up in a household where the lockbox was part of gun ownership?

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I think it might be regional.

I grew up in Texas. Gun racks were still used for holding actual rifles and "storage" most often meant "prop it up in the closet." (The "prop it up" storage method is still popular, btw.) Handguns might go into a shoebox on a high shelf, or into a drawer behind the socks.

RedRajah said:

Anyone else cynical enough to think he tried to off the mother and blame the toddler?

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Nah. Just cynical enough to point to this site: Darwin Awards.

The Darwin Awards salute the improvement of
the human genome by honoring those who
accidentally remove themselves from it...

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-cb

Kjbartolotta said:

I think I continue to believe in a mythologized, non-existent past where locking up your guns was the routine. Have loose weapons become more of a thing, or did I just grow up in a household where the lockbox was part of gun ownership?

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Back when I was younger, in my states concealed/open carry was on a may issue basis, when the ability to legally carry loaded firearms was much more restricted. In the mid 1990's that really began to change to will issue for concealed carry, and now things are going to "constitutional carry" where there's no restrictions on what, or how you carry. So yes, we don't lock them up as much anymore, because if your gun's in a holster on your belt it is, in fact, not locked up.

Ours were always locked up, unloaded, and ammo locked up separately. If a handgun was meant to be used in an emergency situation it was left loaded, but always had a trigger lock, even though we learned gun safety and proper handling from a far too early age. The Colonel taught us to respect the purpose of the weapon, to kill, it wasn't meant to be fun, they weren't toys (as a result we were never allowed to have any toy guns to avoid that confusion). It's another thing we've lost as a country with our glorification of (gun) violence.

Cyia said:

I think it might be regional.

I grew up in Texas. Gun racks were still used for holding actual rifles and "storage" most often meant "prop it up in the closet." (The "prop it up" storage method is still popular, btw.) Handguns might go into a shoebox on a high shelf, or into a drawer behind the socks.

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Fair enough, I grew up in the suburbs & but certainly had experience with this among family members in more country setting. As many folks around here (and Texans specifically) have mentioned, a degree of laxness (for lack of a better word) is perhaps a regional way of doing things and I don't necessarily raise an eyebrow every time I see it, since in a more rural setting where everyone is familiar with guns it *can* make sense. I was never scared of guns as a child, but also had a lot of respect for them drilled into me and assumed, when I saw these 'looser regulations', so to speak, that everyone was on the same level in terms of proper managing. I also regularly assumed the bullets were safely stored elsewhere.

Justobuddies said:

Back when I was younger, in my states concealed/open carry was on a may issue basis, when the ability to legally carry loaded firearms was much more restricted. In the mid 1990's that really began to change to will issue for concealed carry, and now things are going to "constitutional carry" where there's no restrictions on what, or how you carry. So yes, we don't lock them up as much anymore, because if your gun's in a holster on your belt it is, in fact, not locked up.

Ours were always locked up, unloaded, and ammo locked up separately. If a handgun was meant to be used in an emergency situation it was left loaded, but always had a trigger lock, even though we learned gun safety and proper handling from a far too early age. The Colonel taught us to respect the purpose of the weapon, to kill, it wasn't meant to be fun, they weren't toys (as a result we were never allowed to have any toy guns to avoid that confusion). It's another thing we've lost as a country with our glorification of (gun) violence.

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Same, same, same. A painful experience in my life was watching my tight-assed, obsessively safety oriented gun-owner stepfather turn into the a dangerous idiot who never went anywhere without a loaded weapon. Obviously while preaching armed insurgency, though post 2016 I'm sure he's pro-Executive branch again. Of course, after my mom left him he's now living on the Mexican border so he can stop people from passing over 'by any means necessary'. Good times.

I don't know much about the gun-owner in the case of this story, but I do think this kind of careless idiocy with guns underlines the way the conversation has shifted. But then, maybe I'm hopelessly naive about the ways things used to be.

Maggie Maxwell said:

You can't open carry if your gun's locked up, duuuhh.

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I see what you did there. I am, let's say, slightly dubious of open carry. Makes me think of the diner scene in Boogie Nights whenever I hear about it.

Kjbartolotta said:

I think I continue to believe in a mythologized, non-existent past where locking up your guns was the routine. Have loose weapons become more of a thing, or did I just grow up in a household where the lockbox was part of gun ownership?

Click to expand...

I think accidents happened in the old days too. I remember hearing about them now and again, but they tended to be local news stories in the pre-internet era. Still, some things appear to have changed with regards to the hows and whys of gun ownership. Very few Americans hunt anymore, for one thing, so few guns are kept for that purpose. And while fewer Americans own guns, more of the people who do own them have what amounts to an arsenal.

If your rationale for having a gun is paranoia--the terror that you or your loved ones could be assaulted at any moment by someone with a bigger gun than you have--then locking up your guns doesn't make any sense. They need to be loaded and within reach at all times. Imagine if we lived in a dystopia with crazed monsters lurking in ever shadow, waiting to attack at any moment. From some of the stuff I've seen on the web, this is the world some gun owners think they live in right now.

Too many Americans keep guns nowadays because they are paranoid and have a not-so-secret fantasy of playing "terminator" and saving the day if they witness a crime in progress.

This article discusses the possibility that our modern economy (and changes in the roles of women) have undermined the perceived role of working-class men in the US. If they can no longer be the economically dominant "providers," they double down on the other traditional male role of "protector" and spiral deeper into a type of what many of us think of as toxic masculinity. The irony is, as it has always been, that the thing men are "protecting" their women and children from is other men.

http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-carlson-gun-carry-culture-20150526-story.html

I don't know why it's so hard for some guys to embrace the concept of being an equal partner with women, both socially and economically, or to grasp that the best way to "protect" women and children is to not be an asshole themselves.

Very few people think that they, themselves, are assholes, even when their actions are total assholery.

Remember! It's only criminal if a minority/PoC does it -- NOT a straight white guy!

I wonder if the attitude towards locking up guns would change if CPS automatically took the children into custody if the parents were found leaving guns lying around? Or would parents just shrug and say "We can always have more if we want them"?

I'm sure the attitude is the same as if someone comes to take their guns. "Out of my cold dead hands" is the catchphrase, I think.

Which seems a little extreme. How about "Out of my twitching, Tasered hands" instead? Or, "My bleeding, dog-bit hands"?
It seems that to get guns out of the hands of the general public some pain will occur. Hopefully non-lethally.

Is this an old story? I seem to remember a story much like this from a couple of years ago.

caw

blacbird said:

Is this an old story? I seem to remember a story much like this from a couple of years ago.

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Same couple, different kid?

-cb

Im just wondering how she got shot in the chest if the child was in the back seat. And how did the child manage to get the safety off, rack the slide without the mother hearing it. Something off here. I doubt it was a revolver, as the child would have a heck of a time cocking it, or just pulling the trigger hard enough to get the gun to fire. Im not buying this story at all.

[h=1]Felony Charges For Father Of Toddler Who Shot Pregnant Mom[/h]