6-year old shoots Mom (merged thread)

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DadOfThree

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6-year old shoots Mom

www.indystar.com/articles/8/108680-9438-127.html
ANDERSON, IND. -- A 6-year-old boy who found a handgun in the back seat of a sport utility vehicle accidentally fired the gun, shooting and injuring his mother as she drove, police said.

The accident occurred Sunday as Tomekia R. Wilson drove on Interstate 69 in Madison County with her sister and Wilson's son on a trip home to Fort Wayne. In the back seat, the boy found a duffel bag under a seat and pulled out a .38 caliber revolver, said Indiana State Police Trooper Robert May.

As the boy played with the gun, it discharged, firing a bullet through the back of the driver's seat. Wilson was struck above the waist, said May, who responded to Wilson's 911 call after she stopped along the highway to report she had been shot.

"I reached in and grabbed the gun from him," said May. "I ended up making him a balloon toy."

"The son told me he cocked the gun," May said. "I was on them so fast, I believe what they tell me."

May said he used alcohol to clean a small amount of blood off Wilson's torso, and gave her a compression bandage. She was taken to St. John's Medical Center, where she was listed in stable condition after surgery.

The car and gun were registered to Wilson's boyfriend, May said.

The gun was confiscated as evidence. May said the 6-year-old could not be held culpable in the shooting. The accident remained under investigation.
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I understand that this is really the fault of the gun :rolleyes: but maybe, just maybe, if the kid's parents had taught (I know, I know, it's an unreasonable request) the six year old what to do when you find a gun, this wouldn't have happened! We may have to resort to education since the guns can't be trusted to do the right thing. :banghead:
I have a six year old boy who has been taught. It can be done.
 
Why not leave a lighter and a bottle filled with gasoline, with a wick, in the back seat with junior? Heck, let junior have the wheel!

:rolleyes:

Is there a cure for stupidity? Why, yes there is! Education :cool:
 
:what:

The kid was still holding onto the gun when the trooper rolled up? If it had been my kid that shot me (not that I expect them to or that there are unsecured pistols rattling around the back of my Suburban but... ) at the very least he would have been told to put it down & leave it alone. You would think that he would have dropped it after the shot was fired.

Stupid is as stupid does.

Greg
 
The blame lies with the boyfriend who left a loaded gun where it would be easily accessible to the children that he knew would be riding in his SUV.

Going by the article, it sounds as if the woman had no idea the gun was in the vehicle.
 
(The below opinion is that of ARpersons spouse, not ARperson)

Actually according to a recent Indianapolis Star article the following facts were presented.

The boyfriend removed the gun from his mothers house at her request.
He placed the gun in a duffle bag in his SUV that the article described as well hidden.
And he did NOT know his girlfriend was going to be driving his SUV with her kids in it.

While there is not any excuse for not unloading a gun that was not be used. If he left the gun in the car so as not to bring it in her house, and she ran an errand in his car without letting him know, he would not be totally at blame. The article said no charges were being filed.

I think the real answer is we have so many parents afraid to teach their kids anything about safe gun handling, or guns in general, that when something like this does happen, the kids don't know to report it. If all kids were taught the Eddie Eagle approach of tell an adult on sight of a firearm we would be better off. Instead they are treated as taboo at home and school (but glorified on TV) thus creating the instense mystique around them and causing all kinds of problems. The solutionsis education, not scapegoating.


I have so many friends with kids that have guns around them so much that they show no interest in tthem at all, AND they tell their parents whenever one is left out in the room.

Accidents do happen. They can all be avoided, hindsight is always 20/20. But I'd hate to fall into that liberal trap of whenever someone is hurt there must be someone to blame and put in jail so we can all feel better. It appears no laws or anything were broken other than a complete lack of communication about the firearm in the vehicle. If she just grabbed the keys and took his vehicle and he had no way to know she was going to do that; I don't see it as being his fault EXCEPT for leaving a gun not be used loaded.
 
The statists/authoritarians have succeeded in making the discussion of guns or the education of gun issues with children nearly impossible in certain areas. On another thread we have the AMA directing doctors to ask gun questions of patients and your children. California nearly passed (or maybe it was) a questionnaire for all children including gun questions. These myriad references to "gun ownership" make gunowners hide in the closet for fear of government/CPS/BATF critters.

They are succeeding in denying some the ability to educate their kids. They are succeeding in making gun owners hide in the closet. Our children's birthright is being made an underground cult.

OTOH, we have hollyweird, that paragon of family values, glorifying the destructive potential of guns.

Kids who are not trained mixed with all the glamour is an explosive combination.

Gun-proof your children. And any other children you can.
 
Even with the best of intentions, such mistakes do happen.

Awhile back, I hastily borrowed a car (a hatchback) from a friend of mine who had been at the range. He'd left the range bag in the back seat of his car when he stepped into my house for a visit, and I simply needed to run my three younger boys down the road. I told the boys (ages 6, 7, and 8 at the time) to go get themselves buckled in while I grabbed my purse from my bedroom.

When I came back out to the living room, the boys were walking back into the house. Apparently, they'd all three climbed into the back seat when one of them spotted the gun. The 8 year old maintained that it was probably just a toy gun because "they wouldn't have sent us out here if it was real!" But the youngest one pointed out, "if we don't know, we gotta leave it alone like if it's a real gun and tell a grownup." So back into the house they all trooped, in time for me to wonder why they weren't buckled up yet.

The thing is, keeping the guns locked up isn't enough.

Nor is it enough to teach your kids about guns.

You gotta do both. Suspenders and a belt.

pax
 
Mom's a lucky woman ! So is the kid. A little communication and not leaving the firearm loaded when not in total control of it would have prevented the problem.
 
Six-year Old Shoots Mom in the Back...

Posted on Mon, Jan. 05, 2004

6-year-old accidentally shoots mom
While riding in an SUV, the boy found a loaded gun.


ANDERSON (AP) - A 6-year-old boy from Fort Wayne who found a handgun in the back seat of a sport utility vehicle accidentally fired the gun, shooting his mother as she drove, police said.

The accident occurred Sunday as Tomekia R. Wilson drove on Interstate 69 in Madison County with her sister and Wilson's son on a trip home to Fort Wayne.

In the back seat, the boy found a duffel bag under a seat and pulled out a .38-caliber revolver, Indiana State Police Trooper Robert May said.

As the boy played with the gun, it discharged, firing a bullet through the back of the driver's seat.

Wilson was struck above the waist, said May, who responded to Wilson's 911 call after she stopped along the highway to report she had been shot.

"I reached in and grabbed the gun from him," May said. "I ended up making him a balloon toy."

"The son told me he cocked the gun," May said. "I was on them so fast, I believe what they tell me."

Wilson was taken to St. John's Medical Center, where she was listed in stable condition after surgery.

The car and gun were registered to Wilson's boyfriend, May said.

The gun was confiscated as evidence. May said the 6-year-old could not be held culpable in the shooting. The accident remained under investigation.

http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/newssentinel/7637357.htm
 
The blame lies with the parent(s) for not educating the kid. But than again if they are leaving a gun out in the open with children around, they are PRETTY IGNORANT as well.
I have young kids who had a playdate at a friends house.
I always ask the host/hostess if there are any "UNSECURED" firearms in the house. So this time I ask and I get a look like I have 3 heads and a firm response of "NO!" o.k.
As we are leaving by way of the garage I see a LOADED SPEAR GUN (he's a Diver).
No more play dates there until I speak to them AGAIN.
 
Originally posted by dhoomonyou:
But than again if they are leaving a gun out in the open with children around, they are PRETTY IGNORANT as well.
Click to expand...

To make the point again: the gun was not left out in the open in a place where kids were known to frequent. It was the boyfriend's SUV. The girlfriend used it without his permission. The gun was hidden in the duffle bag. (I'm kinda surprised no one is picking up on the fact that the child went through someone else's personal belongings. I don't know about the rest of you, but I was raised--and I will raise my kids--to leave other people's stuff alone. You don't just start rifling through something that isn't yours.) The way I understand it, the boyfriend left it in his vehicle precisely because he wanted to keep children from having access to it in the home.

He tried. Not a bad attempt with what appears to be limited knowledge on safe storage.

I think the idea is to know what went wrong and avoid it in the future. Pointing fingers, especially when it can't change what happened, is really fruitless.
 
Yet another incident to ''hurt the cause'' ... due to irresponsibility.

Like as not ... boyfriend ''left it there'' .. and she could have been unknowing. Still cannot be excused . added to which the kid quite obviously was still 'gun igorant' at 6 ... and that is not good if guns are around him at all.

If guns are in a family/household .. the kids should be educated about them from earliest days .. and gradually build that respect and following of the four rules.
 
I really think education is the key. If your kid knows what to do, it doesn't make any difference if he/she does encounter an unsecured gun. I know I am probably an old geezer but when I was growing up, there was always a loaded .22 rifle in the corner of the porch just in case you needed it for a coon or a possum. There was a loaded 12 ga there in case it was something bigger. The guns were there along with an ax, a shovel. a pick, and other assorted tools. That's what the guns were, just another tool.
 
Can we get a mod to close this puppy since there's already a decent discussion of it going on in Legal/Political.

And for the record, you guys jump to conclusions way to quickly.

Fact 1: The gunowner didn't even own the gun. It had been his mother's, who gave it to him to keep because she could no longer be responsible for it (age and physical ability).

Fact 2: It was stored hidden in the duffle bag in the car in an effort to keep it out of the hands of the children that were living in the house or visited.

Fact 3: Girlfriend used the vehicle without the boyfriend's knowledge. He had no way of knowing there was risk about to become a statistic.

Given the circumstances, the only real mistake he made was storing it loaded. I suggest having a full complement of the facts before passing such harsh judgements.

And something else I haven't seen mentioned anywhere else: the gun was actually stolen about 25 years ago. Granted it has no bearing on the case, but it just goes to show that those little news articles (especially the AP stories that don't take directly from local papers) don't necessarily have all the facts.
 
AR's spouse, very true, but I was commenting upon the sloppiness of attitude of some, even here at THR, that pistols are to be carried sloppily or off the body. "All you need" will get you or others hurt.

As to blaming something, I do not see any reason to do so. However, it must be noted that the parents are responsible for all harm that comes to a child (morally, not legally). The mother should have instructed her children regarding the property of others and firearms.

I am sickened that such an incident transpired here. Disgraceful.
 
you cannot blame a 6 year old for doing what 6 year olds do.
THE ADULT MUST be responsible for the firearm at all times.
If its loaded its on me. If its off me its in the safe.
 
Guns should be kept in hands, in holster, or unloaded, secured and in a safety closet. Not lying around. Not on the table, not in the car, not on the street.
In my opinion.
 
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