Gun Safety Instructor Accidentally Shoots Pastor During Class

Gun instructor Phillip Rushing

Huffington Post

A California pastor was accidentally shot during a gun safety class earlier this month. 

Instructor Phillip Rushing of the Personal Protection Institute in Modesto had just replaced his rubber training gun with a real pistol at the end of class when someone asked about how to handle an attacker with a knife, the Modesto Bee reported.

Tom Smith, a family pastor at The House Modesto who also helps with church security, volunteered to act as the attacker. During the roleplaying scenario, Rushing pulled out his weapon and shot Smith in the waist, above the hip, the paper said. 

PA Toddler Dead - No One Charged

Responsible Gun Owners

The Salt Lake Tribune - letter to the editor

In addition to the tragic death of Veronica Rutledge in Hayden, Idaho, a teenager died in Frankfort, Ky., on Nov. 26 in another accidental shooting. A 12-year-old in Kaysville died in similar circumstances on Nov. 23. A boy of 9 died after an accidental shooting in Detroit, Mich., on Nov. 8. A teen died after an accidental shooting in Marshall County, W. Va., on Nov. 27. A small boy shot himself in the head in Navarro, Texas, on Nov. 29, and a boy in Lansing, Mich., was hospitalized after an accidental shooting on Nov. 7. A 13-year-old girl was injured in Oakwood, Ohio, in an accidental shooting, also on Nov. 7. A 10-year-old Lubbock, Texas, boy died after an accidental shooting on Nov. 28, and a 6-year-old died after an accidental shooting in Cook County, Ill., on Dec. 6. Similarly, a 3-year-old died in Simpsonville, S.C., on Dec. 15, and an 11-year-old died in DeKalb County, Georgia, on Nov. 14. A 16-year-old is in critical condition in Detroit after an accidental shooting on Christmas Day, and a 6-year-old is dead after an accidental shooting in Chicago, Ill., on Dec. 5.

The people who owned these guns believed themselves to be responsible gun owners. Enough said.

Jeffrey Stewart

Taylorsville

Idaho Woman Shot and Killed by 2-Year-old

Local news

An Idaho nuclear research scientist who had taken her young relatives to Wal-Mart to spend their holiday gift cards was killed Tuesday when her 2-year-old son pulled a loaded pistol from her purse and shot her. 

Deputies who responded found Veronica Rutledge, 29, dead in the Hayden store's electronics department in what Kootenai County sheriff's spokesman Stu Miller described as a "tragic accident." Rutledge, who worked at the Idaho National Laboratory, was from Blackfoot in southeastern Idaho, and her family had come to the area to visit relatives.

Rutledge had a concealed weapons permit. Miller said the young boy was left in a shopping cart, reached into his mother's purse and grabbed a small-caliber handgun, which discharged once.

The victim's father-in-law, Terry Rutledge, told The Associated Press that Veronica Rutledge "was a beautiful, young, loving mother."

"She was not the least bit irresponsible," Terry Rutledge said. "She was taken much too soon."

North Carolina 13-Year-old Shot and Killed - Shooter Arrested Immediately

Fifth grade photo of Nathan Clark from the 2012 Lewisville Elementary School yearbook.(Photo Courtesy: Winston-Salem Journal)

Local news reports

Police say a 13-year-old boy is dead after a gun discharged in a hotel room and the bullet went through a wall into another room, hitting the teen.

It happened around 11 p.m. Friday at the Comfort Suites hotel at 1309 Corporation Parkway.

Randall Louis Vater, 42, of Knightdale has been charged with involuntary manslaughter and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. 

The victim has been identified as Nathan Andrew Clark, of Lewisville, N.C.