Bumbling Permit Holder Drops Gun in Idaho Classroom - Shoots Himself - Sparks Insurance Questions

Local news reports

On Sept. 2 at Idaho State in Pocatello, a few weeks after a new guns-on-campus law took effect, chemistry professor Byron Bennett was lecturing a classroom containing 20 students when a gun somehow fell out of his pocket and fired.

No student was hit, but Bennett himself—a former University of Nevada, Las Vegas instructor—was shot in the foot. He had weapons permits from both Idaho and Utah and had apparently taken instruction in gun use because the Idaho law requires it.

It was the kind of incident college administrators fear will happen under guns-on-campus laws, and the kind that insurance companies also watch.

Nevada legislators who are now considering enacting a law allowing guns to be carried on campus by people over 21 have given very little attention to the insurance issue, and the measures they are processing do not contain language providing funding if insurance costs rise following the approval of any legislation.

Highly Irresponsible Concealed Carry Permit Holder Gets a Pass - No Charges in Accidental Shooting of 4-Year-old

Local news reports

A woman whose 4-year-old son accidentally shot himself with a gun she left in her car will not face any criminal charges, prosecutors said Friday.

"There is no evidence that Denise Jackson acted with the purpose to neglect Kevin on May 3, 2014," Chief Deputy District Attorney Kent Lovern said in a written statement.

According to Lovern:

Jackson and a friend drove to St. Vincent de Paul to purchase a television. Jackson, who has a license to carry a concealed weapon, stored her weapon in her car's glove compartment before entering the store.

After buying the television, Jackson and the friend returned to Jackson's home near N. 106th St. and W. Brown Deer Road on Milwaukee's northwest side, parked in the rear and carried the television to a second-floor bedroom.

While she was inside, Jackson learned from another child that Kevin had shot himself inside her car. She told investigators the boy was not present when she returned from the store, and that she thought she had locked her car's doors.

The boy was in critical condition days after the shooting.

Lovern wrote that a person responsible for the welfare of the child "must have the purpose to contribute to the neglect of the child or was aware that the person's action or failure to take action was practically certain to cause that result."

He wrote that Smith putting the gun in the glove box, in a car she thought was locked, was not "practically certain" to contribute to her son's neglect.

"Each case is evaluated on its individual facts," he wrote. "The circumstances leading to this young child gaining possession of a firearm are tragic but do not support criminal prosecution."