Tennessee 7-Year-old Shot and Killed by His 8-Year-old Brother - Charges? Well Maybe, Eventually

Local news

The chief of the Crossville Police Dept. says a 7-year-old boy found shot inside a car in a parking lot Monday has died.

Officers say four children had been left in the car while their mother and step-father were inside the building a short distance away, paying a bill. The mother also left her purse with a loaded semi-automatic pistol inside.

Police say the boy's 8-year-old brother tried to unload the weapon by removing the magazine when the gun discharged, "accidentally" fired, hitting the 7-year-old boy in the head.

The boy was flown to UT Medical Center's trauma center for treatment, where he died.

Authorities say the incident appears to be an accident. The family is from the Sparta-area, in White County.

The chief of police says they will turn their findings over to the district attorney general. The Department of Children's Services is also working on the case.

Florida One-year-old Accidentally Shot by Sibling - No Charges Expected

Local news

The Sarasota County Sheriff's Office is investigating the accidental shooting of a one-year-old child.

Preliminary investigations reveal two children – ages three and one – were left alone inside a vehicle.  The three-year-old obtained a handgun that was left inside the vehicle and accidentally shot it. The bullet struck the one-year-old child.

The Sarasota County Sheriff's Office is investigating the incident, and no criminal charges are expected this evening.

Does this picture bother you?

Are you happy to see these kids waving guns around (despite their fingers being on the trigger)?

Do you see a difference between the picture above and this one?

How about this one?

Is this what you want us to see as normal?

BTW, the kids at the top are a Palestinians in Gaza.

Colorado Three-Year-Old Girl Shot By Five-Year-Old Boy

 
A young girl attending an anti-National Rifle Association rally at the Colorado State Capitol wears an armband saying "NO GUNS" in Denver, May 1. The Colorado Coalition Against Gun Violence organized the rally to protest the NRA having its annual meeting in Denver after the tragic Columbine High School shootings on April 20. Reuters/GCC/JP/WS 

IBT

A 5-year-old boy shot and critically injured a 3-year-old girl in Pueblo, Colorado, on Monday, using a handgun that belonged to her mother’s boyfriend.

The girl was shot in the backyard of her home when a 9-year-old boy, who was playing with the two other children, gave the handgun to the 5-year-old, who then pointed it at the girl and pulled the trigger, shooting her once. The bullet went through the girl’s body without breaking any bones, Pueblo police said in a statement, Reuters reported. 

Due to their age, the two boys who handled the gun will not face charges but an investigation will focus on how the older boy got hold of the firearm, police said, adding that the girl’s mother was present at the home along with her boyfriend, Adrian Chavez, 22, when the shooting took place.

Chavez reportedly fled the location after the shooting, and was caught by police five hours later.

"Chavez will be charged with child abuse resulting in serious bodily injury for the gun that was left unattended," police said, adding that he also had an outstanding warrant for not appearing in court in an unrelated case.

Open Carry Texas Photo Shoot with the Kiddies

Fort Worth Weekly link sent to me by ssgmarkcr who thought the Michael B mentioned below might be me. It's not. The part I liked best is where the mom denies the kid's finger is on the trigger. Who's that remind me of?

Her kids said they’d like a photo with a gun, and she asked OCT members if she could take a photo of her kids holding the weapons. But she wasn’t the only one taking photos. Other photographers snapped away, and the internet did the rest.

“I was standing there and they took a picture, and I’m going to own that,” she said.

Police officers were nearby, the guns weren’t loaded, and it seemed like a fun and safe thing, she said.

“My father was a federal officer,” she said. “I was raised around guns. My kids are well educated. But they don’t own guns. They had nothing to do with the Open Carry. They just took a picture and it’s gotten all blown up.”

She was particularly annoyed by a commenter named Michael B. who wrote that, “for people claiming to love guns and their 2nd Amendment, they are doing a horrible job raising their children. Look at the boy with the rifle. Bolt closed, finger on the trigger. At a public event. Look, if you feel inadequate and want to compensate by carrying a weapon in the open that’s just fine. Given the strength of the argument given by Open Carry, I gather more than a few of them don’t qualify for concealed. But poor trigger discipline is appalling.”

The boy’s mother said the photo is deceiving, and said his finger was never on the trigger.

13-year-old Released in Accidental Puyallup Washington shooting Death - Prosecutors Still Weighing Charges but Not Against the Parents

Eddie Holmes, 13, was accidentally shot and killed last Thursday in a Puyallup home. (Holmes family photo)


Local  news reports

A 13-year-old Puyallup boy accused of accidentally shooting and killing his friend has been released from custody as Pierce County prosecutors continue looking at whether to charge him with a crime.

"It's more important to make the right decision than quick decision," said Prosecutor Mark Lindquist. He announced Tuesday his office was reviewing evidence and the boy was released to his parents and is not considered a danger to the community.

The alleged shooter has been held since Thursday's shooting death of Eddie Holmes, 13, in a Puyallup home. Police say Holmes and four other boys were hanging out when the boy who lives in the home brought out the gun to show friends. Another boy grabbed it and the gun went off, shooting Holmes in the chest. He later died at Tacoma General Hospital.

Holmes' family spoke publicly for the first time Tuesday about the shooting. His mother Sandy said she doesn't blame the boys, but wants the parents held accountable for allowing access to the gun.

"Kids are kids, no matter what we try to teach them and tell them they are kids. And it is up to parents to secure not only our children but the children that come into our home," she said.

Guns and Kids

See more US News from ABC|ABC World News

Washington 15-Year-old Shot Parents, Likely Faces Adult Charges

Seattle Times

The 15-year-old Moses Lake boy accused of shooting his parents will likely face adult charges by the end of this week, according to Grant County Prosecutor Angus Lee.

Lee said prosecutors are currently in the process of filing charges against the boy in Grant County Superior Court.

The boy was originally charged with two counts of attempted murder in juvenile court, according to a previous Columbia Basin Herald article. He allegedly took a .22 caliber pistol out of a locked gun case, loaded it and waited around 90 minutes before deciding to shoot his parents in March.

At the time, he reportedly told police his parents grounded him from video games and other electronic devices.

His parents survived the incident.

It seems there are guidelines which judges use to make this determination.  Among the factors that argue for trying the youngster as an adult is the seriousness of the offense.  On the other hand, keeping him in the juvenile system would depend on the " the sophistication and maturity of the defendant."

It seems absurd to me that the former should weigh more than the latter.

What's your opinion?  Please leave a comment.

Gun Violence’s No. 1 Target: Black Children

Miami Herald

In the weeks since the Washington Navy Yard shooting, the city of New Orleans reached a tragic milestone.

All told, 108 people have been murdered in the Crescent City so far this year. In September two black girls, one 11 years old and the other age 2, were shot and killed. And earlier this year a national organization advocating for stricter gun control told the story of a black 10-year-old New Orleans boy who has been shot and seriously injured twice in his short life.

Although the national spotlight has remained fixed on mass shootings in Washington; Newtown, Conn.; and Aurora, Colo., as well as the gun violence coming out of Chicago, street crime and “ordinary” shootings that take one or two lives at a time are still disfiguring communities and putting black children and teens in particular peril. For black America the national gun debate is not about the shocking, but still relatively rare, mass shootings or the political gamesmanship that draws attention to the violence consuming President Barack Obama’s adopted hometown. Cities riddled with gun violence, such as New Orleans, are also located in states with some of the nation’s weakest gun laws. Those laws are costing children, particularly black children, their lives, gun control advocates say.

Across the country in 2012, gun violence was the second-leading cause of death for American children ages 7 to 19, according to a July report released by the Children’s Defense Fund (CDF). But it constituted the No. 1 cause of death for black children and teens.

Between 1963 and 2010, nearly 60,000 black children and teenagers have been killed by guns. That means more than 17 times the number of black children have been killed by guns than the total number of black Americans lynched between 1862 and 1968, according to Caroline Fichtenberg, director of research at the CDF.

A growing group of gun control advocates say that in cities and states where gun laws make guns easier to buy, legal to carry and easy to sell without a background check are places where gun violence and homicides happen more frequently. In fact, the 10 states with the weakest gun laws collectively suffer gun violence at a rate twice as high as that of the 10 states with the nation’s strongest gun laws, according to an April analysis by the left-leaning Center for American Progress in Washington.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/10/07/3675520/gun-violences-no-1-target-black.html#storylink=cpy

In 2012 Chicago’s gun violence helped produce a murder rate of 18.7 deaths per 100,000 Windy City residents, according to federal data. But other communities grew far more violent. In New Orleans, for example, the murder rate reached 53.5 per 100,000.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/10/07/3675520_p2/gun-violences-no-1-target-black.html#storylink=cpy

Armed Protesters Might Be Coming To Your Neighborhood To Pass Out Candy To Children

Think Progress

The group Gun Rights Across America issued a nationwide call for gun owners to stand outside their homes with firearms in their hands on October 19. The event urges the armed protesters to “pass out candy or lemonade to the kids riding their bikes, and playing in the neighborhoods.” As of this Wednesday, 2,000 people have RSVPed for the event, “Guns Next Door,” on Facebook.

“We want you to strap on a holstered handgun to your hip, and give one hour of your day to making our presence as law abiding gun owners known. This is a family event too. Feel free to strap on a plastic red gun onto your children as well,” the group wrote for its Facebook event.

Maybe some of those kids will be able to reach out and touch those Glocks.

Florida 11-Year-old Shot Dead by 4-Year-old Relative

Rifles for Kids

Mother Jones

On Tuesday, inside a rural Kentucky home, a five-year-old boy accidentally shot and killed his two-year-old sister. The boy had been playing with a .22 caliber single-shot Crickett rifle made and marketed for kids. The children's mother was reportedly outside the house when the shooting took place, and apparently didn't know that the gun contained a shell.

"Just one of those crazy accidents," said the Cumberland County coroner, according to the Lexington Herald-Leader.

Clearly the issue of parental responsibility is at the center of this tragedy. But against the backdrop of the Newtown massacre and ongoing national debate over regulating firearms, it also points back to the big business of guns—including how the industry profits from products aimed at children.

The Pennsylvania-based maker of Crickett rifles, Keystone Sporting Arms, markets its guns with the slogan "My First Rifle." They are available with different barrel and stock designs, including some made in hot pink to appeal to young girls.

Child abuse is what I call it.  What about you?

Please leave a comment.

Kentucky 2-Year-Old Shot and Killed by her 5-Year-Old Brother Using His Very Own Gun - No Charges

Local news reports

Authorities in southern Kentucky say a 2-year-old girl has been accidentally shot and killed by her 5-year-old brother, who was playing with a .22-caliber rifle he received as a gift.

Kentucky State Police said the toddler was shot just after 1 p.m. CDT Tuesday in Cumberland County and was taken to a nearby hospital, where she was later pronounced dead.

Cumberland County Coroner Gary White told the Lexington Herald-Leader that the children's mother was at home at the time.

White told the newspaper that the boy received the rifle made for youths last year and is used to shooting it. He said the gun was kept in a corner and the family didn't realize a shell was left inside it.
White said the shooting will be ruled accidental.

Of course it was just an accident. The boy was old enough to own his own gun at 4, but obviously he's not old enough to commit pre-meditated murder. And why would the parents have any culpability, it was the kid's gun?

What's your opinion?  Please leave a comment.

Toms River Tragedy Highlights Need for Gun Safety

Local news reports

In the days since a 6-year-old boy was killed accidentally in Toms River by a 4-year-old playmate, a handful of people have come to Cyrus Seervai’s Jackson store, hoping to buy combination gun safes.
“Most of the time, you will find gun owners are pretty responsible,” said Seervai, owner of Pineland Sporting Goods. “But, every now and then, one or two might be a bad apple.”

On Monday evening, a 4-year-old boy found a loaded rifle in his home and brought it outside, where he was playing with Brandon Holt of Toms River. A single bullet struck Brandon in the head. He was pronounced dead Tuesday.

The Atlantic County Prosecutor’s Office, which is handling the case because the shooter’s family has ties to Ocean County law enforcement, had not filed charges in the case as of Thursday.
Seervai sells combination safes for $300 to $3,000 and gun locks for as little as a few dollars, he said.

Sherman sells combination safes for $70 to $150, handgun lock boxes for $35 to $75 and biometric fingerprint impression safes — which can be opened only with the fingerprint of the owner — for $325 to $400, he said.

I suppose in Arkansas gun safes are ten times more expensive than in Jersey.  Isn't that what you told us, Greg?

And did you catch the reason for the foot-dragging in the investigation?  That's how they do it.

What's your opinion? Please leave a commenty.

The Gun Epidemic

Asbury Park Press

Most victims of gun violence in 2010 were not on a battlefield or remote hillside in the Middle East fighting in a war. They were, like 6-year-old Brandon Holt, children and teenagers in America, according to the Children’s Defense Fund.

Holt was shot in the head by his friend and neighbor, an unidentified 4-year-old boy, on Monday night. He is now also a statistic of gun violence.


In 2010, 15,576 children and teenagers were injured by firearms — three times more than the number of U.S. soldiers injured in the war in Afghanistan, according to the defense fund.


And while the number of gun injuries has steadily dropped nationwide, firearm deaths among youths in New Jersey increased between 2000 and 2010, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Still, New Jersey has the sixth-lowest rates for gun deaths among children, according to the defense fund.


Nationally, guns still kill twice as many children and young people than cancer, five times as many than heart disease and 15 times more than infection, according to the New England Journal of Medicine.

“We see guns as much of a threat in their life as we used to see bacteria and viruses,” said Dr. Judith S. Palfrey, a past president of the American Academy of Pediatrics and the co-author of the New England journal report. “If you look at what’s actually killing children and disabling children, guns is one of the major things.”

Child Abuse by Smith & Wesson

Alaska Man Dead Because he Left the Kids Access to a Gun

The Anchorage Daily News reports

A man shot dead at a remote cabin south of Skwentna in October was hit by a bullet fired inadvertently by his child, according to Alaska State Troopers.

Charles Lamb, 61, died in the Oct. 15 shooting and it remained unclear for about a month who fired the gun and whether the gunfire had been accidental or the result of foul play. On Friday, troopers spokeswoman Beth Ipsen said one of Lamb's children accidentally shot Lamb with a .38-caliber handgun while Lamb split and stacked firewood.

 "One of the children was handling a small handgun without Mr. Lamb's knowledge when it unintentionally discharged, striking Mr. Lamb in the torso, causing a fatal wound. Mr. Lamb was nearby and out of view of the young child at the time of the shooting."

[troopers spokeswoman Beth] Ipsen declined to release the child's age because it would identify the child, who is not charged with any crime.

Nice of them to not charge the kid with a crime. I wonder if they realize the only one guilty of a crime is dead. In Alaska they love to shift the blame when it comes to gun mismanagement.

What's your opinion?  Please leave a comment.

Accidental Shooting in California - Two Kids Hurt - Gun Owner Arrested

Local news reports

Shasta County Sheriff’s deputies say 29-year-old Kevin Venia left his gun out on an ottoman in his Burney home where his children were playing. Somehow, deputies say, the gun went off after Venia left the room and two of his kids were injured.

The weapon is described by investigators as a “long gun,” possibly a shotgun or rifle.

Venia was arrested for child endangerment.

He was arrested for child endangerment and not for being a felon in possession of a firearm. You know what that means, right? It means that up until his arrest he was a lawful gun owner of the hidden criminal variety. It seems to me they outnumber the true lawful gun owners.

Why do you think this guy was arrested when so many others are not, this one for example?

What do you think?  Please leave a comment.

Derek Carlile Gets a Mistrial

Local news reports

Derek Carlile's daughter Jenna was killed after he left a gun unsecured in the family's van while Carlile and his wife were out of the vehicle. His 3-year-old son got ahold of the weapon that went off, shooting Jenna in the stomach.  She later died at a hospital.

The jury told the judge that after several votes, it was deadlocked.  The judge questioned jurors, and declared a mistrial Tuesday afternoon.

Prosecutors said the little boy, who was used to playing with toy guns, saw Carlile's loaded .38-caliber service revolver, that the gun could have been put in a lockable storage box and that its safety lock was not engaged.

Carlile's attorney said the officer meant to put the off-duty weapon on his ankle, but simply got distracted and never meant to leave his children in danger.

That's as good as a not-guilty. Gun negligence is not taken seriously enough unless someone is killed. In those cases, especially if it's the gun owner's kid, the pity factor gets them a pass. How could a jury be deadlocked in a open-and-shut case like this otherwise.  They felt sorry for the guy.

A man who does something like this should never have another chance to misuse his gun rights. I don't see much good in putting him in jail, but the loss of gun rights should be a given.

What's your opinion?  Please leave a comment.

Georgia Man Finally Charged with Daughters Death

Local news reports

A former soldier is now facing charges in the accidental shooting death of his young daughter. Joshua Henry was indicted by a Chatham County grand jury on three counts—contributing to the deprivation of a minor resulting in death, cruelty to a child second degree, and reckless conduct.
 

Cheyanne Henry was killed July 5th after investigators say she found a firearm in their Pooler home. The girl was just weeks shy of her third birthday at the time. All three of the counts against Henry allege that Henry that he failed to supervise the child, leaving her in the presence of and with access to a loaded and unsecured firearm, resulting in her death.

I realize this is Georgia, one of those backwards states, but what could have possible taken 4 months to charge this dangerous and unfit lawful gun owner.  He should have been disarmed and locked up the evening of July 5th.

What's your opinion?  Please leave a comment.