A 4-year-old boy shot himself in the upper abdomen Friday afternoon with his mother's gun in the parking lot of a grocery store in Troy, police said.
Capt. Bob Redmond said the boy's mother was loading up the family's car in the Kroger parking lot at Crooks Road and W. South Boulevard when the boy found the gun in the center console and fired it.
Redmond said the woman's 10-year-old son also was with them. He was not injured.
Police said the boy's mother is a licensed gun holder. The gun is a 9-mm Smith & Wesson semi-automatic handgun. Police said the trigger lock was not in place. The gun was loaded with 16 rounds.
The boy shot himself once in the upper abdomen. The bullet exited through his right thigh. His mother is with him at Beaumont Hospital. The boy is in stable condition.
"To carelessly leave an unsecured firearm in the glove box of a car, while you have kids, it's a little ridiculous at this point in time," said Redmond. "Every police department, I think, in the tri-county area supplies gun locks for free so you can lock your gun up. I don't know what more you can do to teach people to be safe with guns."
While the article doesn't give a whole lot of information, the video makes up for it. As it mentions, the mother can be charged for her negligence with Michigan's safe storage law which has been in place since 1952.
ReplyDeleteIn fact, the law is so old that while it calls the crime a misdemeanor, it allows a person to be sentenced to up to two years in prison. Something most consider to be a felony, and no matter what its called, would make her a prohibited person.
"Any person who, because of carelessness, recklessness or negligence, but not wilfully or wantonly, shall cause
or allow any firearm under his immediate control, to be discharged so as to kill or injure another person, shall be guilty of a
misdemeanor, punishable by imprisonment in the state prison for not more than 2 years, or by a fine of not more than $2,000.00,
or by imprisonment in the county jail for not more than 1 year, in the discretion of the court."
http://www.legislature.mi.gov/documents/publications/firearms.pdf
On a side note, the police Captain in the video seems a bit clueless about children. Four year olds, at least those with a working brain, look into everything and will want to hold literally everything. At least those I've been around.
You are right. This woman should indeed be charged. I consider it a type of circling the wagons - this mollycoddling of dangerous gun holders. What other type of commonly committed crime enjoys so much freedom from prosecution? Fast rewind about forty years, I guess you might mention marijuana possession.
DeleteBetter question. Why is this silly female including with her purse, shopping cart, shopping list, driver's license, car keys, child safety seat and whatever necessary paraphernalia that it may take to be a modern housewife or even more difficult, a working mother, a gun?
Because she has been indoctrinated by a false doctrine that teaches her that she must constantly carry weaponry! Even if it endangers her own children.
Aren't most parents hurried and harried? Being responsible about a loaded weapon in the midst of life's hectic moments? To advocate carrying a weapon in the family SUV on a trip to the grocery store...
A person would have to be completely out-of-their-mind! There is no other ground here.
Completely irresponsible and unnecessary.
All of you crazy fools that are so proud of yourselves for never endangering another American citizen with you politically motivated and frivolous gun carry?
You're not taking care of children. Your life appears mostly to be that of a gentleman of leisure.
I doubt very seriously if someone convicted of one of those heavy misdemeanors would lose their gun rights. You guys keep saying that but I think the loss of rights is limited to felony convictions.
Delete"Why is this silly female including with her purse, shopping cart, shopping list, driver's license, car keys, child safety seat and whatever necessary paraphernalia that it may take to be a modern housewife or even more difficult, a working mother, a gun?"
DeleteFJ, it ain't rocket science. You carry the firearm in a holster attached to your body and leave it there till you need it and it doesn't matter how hectic your day is.
Considering that the Detroit area has some serious crime issues, I certainly wouldn't call deciding to carry there frivolous.
There is no other ground here.
DeleteOf course there is. There is always 'other ground'...even if it's ideas you don't happen to like. For instance, just ask young mother Samantha Bunce if having a personal firearm is a good idea.
ssg,
DeleteThis is not a sufficient reason for grocery stores to allow guns. Nothing was really wrong here except that an irresponsible woman was toting around a gun she did not need. Yeah. It's not rocket science, but it was a little bit too much for her to handle. Her son went to the ER. It's not rocket science that most people do not wish to be in a public place with others who are carrying weapons. We just don't want it.
l&l
Ms. Bunce was in her own home. Home invasion is a very different dynamic than a routine trip to the grocery store. I salute her right to self-protection and am very happy that the baby is safe and at least that she will recover. I am extremely sad and very disheartened that she was placed in this extreme danger. Kind of destroys any faith in humanity at large. It is indeed very chilling to think of. Yet not all that rare of an occurrence.
"This is not a sufficient reason for grocery stores to allow guns. Nothing was really wrong here except that an irresponsible woman was toting around a gun she did not need."
DeleteFJ, most businesses are comfortable with allowing those who follow local laws to carry. Those that aren't comfortable with it are within their rights to ban carry on their property. I looked on the gun free zone app I have on my phone and only five businesses are listed as being posted as gun free zones in Troy. None of them are grocery stores. And as far as I know, Kroger hasn't surrendered to the demands of the MOMs, much to their disappointment I imagine.
"It's not rocket science that most people do not wish to be in a public place with others who are carrying weapons. We just don't want it."
Here we delve into the difference between public and private. On public property, if it isn't illegal, its allowed. And everyone is expected to respect the rights of others to go about their business in a legal manner. You're perfectly welcome to not like it, but its not something you get to control.
On private property, property owners get to decide what happens. Subject to whatever laws limit that control, for example discrimination laws and such. If an individual is doing something a property owner doesn't like, the owner can ask that person to leave. And this can be enforced by the police if need be.
BTW, whether a person "needs" to carry a gun is for the most part an individual and personal decision made by the person who carries. At least in the great majority of the country.
FJ - You might have some semblance of a point if assaults, rapes, carjackings, muggings, etc.....didn't occur outside the home.
DeleteThe woman is question was irresponsible. Her actions, compared to the fact that this doesn't happen with the overwhelming majority of concealed carriers......does no statistical favors for your argument.
"I don't know what more you can do to teach people to be safe with guns."
ReplyDeleteHow about criminal negligence charges? How about taking away their right to own a gun, forever.
Quoting Police Captain Bob Redmond: "The purpose of a CPL is so you can carry a handgun. Then carry it. Don't store it in the car."
ReplyDeleteSounds like a good argument against rules prohibiting the carrying of firearms inside various establishments.
Yeah, sure, guns everywhere. That's why Georgia is the safest place on the planet.
DeleteThat's why Georgia is the safest place on the planet.
DeleteHow the hell did this become about Georgia? Oh, wait. Let me guess; Georgia is in the South, so must be vilified, because regional bigotry is so awesome. Am I right?
I love it when you pretend to not get what I say. Georgia has the "guns everywhere" law, remember? I said, "Yeah, sure, guns everywhere." Get the connection?
DeleteOf course, you already got it but you love to play dumb in order to make the argument tedious. It's a form of winning for you.
Do some reading, Mikeb. As SSG has repeatedly explained, prior to Georgia's passage of the amusingly dubbed "guns everywhere" law, that state's regulation of the bearing of arms was actually quite restrictive. The changes brought about by passage of that law actually made Georgia's carry laws much more like those of most of the rest of the country.
DeleteThat's why Politifact rated claims of the Georgia law as being the "most extreme" as "mostly false."
Don't thank me--glad I could help.