Police: Boy shoots girl at day care center

[Old Fuff]

Likely that should have read, "step-father..." Or maybe it's a live-in arrangement with the boy's mom. Who knows? Any way you cut it, it's a mess.

 

[mmike87]

Thats why in a society such as ours, firearms safety should be taught just like they taught us to stop drop and roll and how to call 911 in kindergarten.

They can't teach my Kindergartner gun safety - they already had to make the school day longer to teach him Spanish.

 

[trapperjohn]

a 56 year old has an 8 year old?

Whats your point?

I was 37 when I had my first. My wife is 15 years my junior and wants to have a big family. I may have one in the oven when I am 56.

 

[MechAg94]

It always surprises me a little. I grew up in a house where even as a little kid, I knew where a loaded gun was. I didn't play with it. I knew what it was. I knew what pulling the trigger did. Hell, my Dad was teaching me and my brother discipline from the moment we could walk. He also forbid us from pointing even our toy guns at each other. I just think these things can be prevented and locking up your guns is only one way.

I think you should secure your firearms, but I think you must teach your kids about gun safety and gun use as early as possible for the possible lapse.

 

[280PLUS]

a 56 year old has an 8 year old?

I recently attended my 30th HS reunion. We are all ~ 48. One of my buddies was sporting a 26 YO wife and a newborn. All I can say is more power to him! (he's gonna need it).

This A.M. one of the cable news channels was saying the BOY may face charges. Anyone heard anything else on this?

 

[Capital Punishment]

Further update from cnn.com:

Police charged the boy's father, John L. Hall, 56, with leaving a firearm in a location accessible by an unsupervised minor, contributing to the delinquency of a minor, and possession of a firearm by a felon.

Okay, so the weapon the kid brought to the daycare center was (allegedly*) improperly stored by a felon -- a man who was prohibited from possessing it in the first place! :banghead: Anyone think the anti's will allow that existing laws (Maryland has a gun storage law) should have prevented this...and that stricter laws only inconvenience those who abide by the law in the first place....

Douglas is absolutely right, although very few news agencies were even reporting that particular felon charge. I wonder why.

The man was barred by federal law from even owning a firearm, which meant he obtained the gun illegally. Furthermore, Maryland's law is that a gun must be locked up when a child under 16 is in the house or has access to it.

Clearly, we need more restrictive laws, then this wouldnt of happened.











Right?

 

[Henry Bowman]

This morning on the radio news I heard about the first charge, but not the latter two. Hmmm, wonder why?

 

[Old Fuff]

UPDATED INFORMATION

Girl Shot, Wounded at Md. Day Care
January 25, 2006 7:13 AM EST

GERMANTOWN, Md. - A 7-year-old girl was shot in the arm at a day-care center Tuesday after an 8-year-old classmate brought in one of his father's guns and it accidentally went off, authorities said.

The father was arrested for gun offenses, and court documents outlined an extensive criminal record. The boy also was charged, but authorities said that was done only so he could be helped by juvenile authorities.

The boy had the weapon in a backpack and was playing with it when it went off, said Montgomery County police spokesman Derek Baliles.

The girl was taken to a Washington hospital with a wound that was not considered life-threatening.

There were six children at the For Kids We Care Inc. daycare center at the time of the shooting, authorities said. Police said the boy had found the gun, a .38-caliber Taurus revolver, in a container in his father's closet.
Police charged John Linwood Hall Sr., 56, with leaving a firearm in a location accessible by an unsupervised minor, contributing to the delinquency of a minor, and possession of a firearm by a felon.

Montgomery County State's Attorney Douglas Gansler declined to give any details of the charges against the boy because of his age. The boy was to have his case reviewed by the Department of Juvenile Services, according to a police news release.

Neither youngster's name was released.

Hall has an extensive criminal record dating to the 1960s, according to court documents. It includes several convictions of assault with intent to maim and gun charges. He could be sentenced to five years in prison if convicted of being a felon in possession of a handgun and three years on the delinquency of a minor charge, authorities said.

The documents said there were "numerous" other weapons in Hall's apartment that his son had access to. Hall was in custody and could not immediately be reached for comment.

Gansler said the boy knowingly brought the gun to the day-care center and that the charges filed against him were in the "best interest of the 8-year-old to make sure he gets the help he needs" from the state.

Associated Press Writer Heather Greenfield in Rockville, Md., contributed to this story.

 

[K-Romulus]

little more info: anti-gun-owner crowd starts yapping

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/lo...an25,1,2373329.story?coll=bal-local-headlines

"I think parents realize if this could happen here, it could happen anywhere," said Loretta Favret, principal of the nearby S. Christa McAuliffe Elementary School, where the girl is in second grade. "We all know that there are guns in our community, but the fact that they're getting so close to our children is scary."

and

Gun-control advocates said the incident demonstrated the danger of loose guns around children.

"If you decide you really have to have a gun, you'd better make damned sure you keep it secured and locked up," said Casey Anderson, an attorney for the Washington-based Coalition to Stop Gun Violence. "Kids are extremely curious about guns. Naturally they want to play with them. Even if you think they're mature, it only takes one mistake that can't be undone."

 

[Offwhite]

I remember when I was six-years-old my father sat me down on & told me & showed me where his loaded & cocked Colt 1911 was. It was in the night stand beside his bed. He told me that it was not a toy & it would kill, if played with (yeah he scared us about it) & if he ever saw a finger print or caught us playing with it, it would be the last thing we ever did. A little strict but he got his point across (I will do the same thing when the time comes that me & my wife have children).

Hell by the time I was eight I was at the gun range, shooting my Colt .22 Woodsman.

Its always these liberal suburban families in which parents dont tell their kids about the pistol they have in the closet because they dont wont there kids to think thats they are like those bad gun owning conservitives. Of course this guy shouldn't even had a gun to begin with, being he was a felon & all. I just goes to prove that you can make all the gun laws you want, but criminals are still going to get what they want & they sure as hell aint going to go to a gun shop to purchase a firearm legally...thats for sure.

 

[Bubbles]

It just keeps getting worse:

From the Washington Post:

Police had initially said the boy accidentally shot the girl, a second-grade student, as a group of six children were attending a before-school program at the For Kids We Care day care center in Germantown, Maryland, a Washington suburb.

But the Post said, ''The sources said the boy threatened to rob the girl and then fired the gun once, striking her in the upper right arm.''

I guess the boy did learn a few things from ol' dad...

 

[chuckles]

Bubbles wrote:

''The sources said the boy threatened to rob the girl and then fired the gun once, striking her in the upper right arm.''

That's what I heard this morning on.... CNN!

 

[adaman04]

Dear Parents of the idiot-

Thaks for F%&#ing it up for the rest of us.

Signed,
The Members of The High Road

Education would have fixed this. I was shooting at age 5 with my dad. It was pretty obvious that I couldn't take a gun to school.