Toddler Dies After Mistaking Gun For Realistic Wii Controller

[grunion]

This story is sad on just so many levels. It made me furious. Pardon me while I rant.

First off, why would someone let their three-year-old play violent Wii games? With realistic controllers? While he has the same automatic gun and keeps it loaded in the house? Why the hell does someone make that controller in the first place? And where does someone come off leaving a loaded gun sitting on a table and going off to sleep while his toddler roams?

 

[Tinfoil Hater]

NRA gun nuts would argue the way to prevent children from accidently shooting themselves is make sure that they're armed

 

[sadhatter]

I find it insane that people who can get decent guns never seem to be safe with them.

Why would anyone, anyone leave a loaded gun, rocking out on a table? Jesus, i am a bit of a gun nut, but i live in canada, so licensing and getting anything decent is a huge pain in the ass. And if people like this keep it up, that isn't going to change any time soon.

As for the gun shaped controller, i have an arcade machine that has a solid wood and steel replica of a shotgun as the controller, so i have seen worse.

 

[quixotecoyote]

Why the hell does someone make that controller in the first place??

It's actually hard to get a hold of a realistic controller. As the article states, most gun controllers are bright orange or white to prevent just this kind of thing. This guy apparently ordered it online from China.

 

[quixotecoyote]

As for the gun shaped controller, i have an arcade machine that has a solid wood and steel replica of a shotgun as the controller, so i have seen worse.

If it's anything like the commercial arcade machines I've seem, the controller is attached to the machine, yes?

 

[Ausmerican]

NRA gun nuts would argue the way to prevent children from accidently shooting themselves is make sure that they're armed

Or that this simply proves that realistic looking wii controllers need to be banned.
This is not sad though, it is criminal. If you have a toddler and you leave a loaded pistol anywhere the kid can get to it, you pretty much shot him.
Which leads to another point, that of the safety.
The kid may have been used to playing a wii game with a look alike gun but who the hell taught him where the safety or safeties were on a real one?
Or were they off?

 

[Safe-Keeper]

NRA gun nuts would argue the way to prevent children from accidently shooting themselves is make sure that they're armed

This wouldn't have happened if the other toddlers in the house had guns, too, then they could've stopped him.

 

[I Ratant]

It's Darwinian.
The progenitor's spawn opted out of the gene pool.
Another reason to license genitals.

 

[quixotecoyote]

This is not sad though, it is criminal. If you have a toddler and you leave a loaded pistol anywhere the kid can get to it, you pretty much shot him.

No charges were filed, which I think is ridiculous.

 

[Drudgewire]

First off, why would someone let their three-year-old play violent Wii games? With realistic controllers?

And what video game gives you points for shooting yourself?

 

[sadhatter]

If it's anything like the commercial arcade machines I've seem, the controller is attached to the machine, yes?

Yes and no, ( i have a decent cam, and i will take a pic either tonight or tommorrow). It is technically attatched, but knowing the machine, in a matter of a few minutes i could detatch the relevant bits and it would look (and sound as far as that goes, all the mechanical bits are solid steel) exactly like a sawed off pump action shotgun. ( also, this machine is not a light gun model, but a controller shaped as a gun, very few of these type of machines were made, point being there is no lens at the front to indicate it would be fake. ).

Obviously this was an early 80's machine before they made it so toy guns and gun shaped things have to not look like guns.

 

[The Fallen Serpent]

This story is sad on just so many levels. It made me furious. Pardon me while I rant.

Not a problem.

First off, why would someone let their three-year-old play violent Wii games?

I agree that three may be to young to play shooting games. I am not certain that it is definitely a bad.

With realistic controllers?

Answered above. Items that are considered toys are not allowed to be realistic by US law. Game controllers are definitely toys. Some collectibles can circumvent this by appealing their only intended for adults, but I doubt any video game controller could ever pass this standard.

While he has the same automatic gun and keeps it loaded in the house?

This is sheer stupidity on the adult's part.

Why the hell does someone make that controller in the first place?

Largely because they sell and people are not convinced the danger of such items are worth regulating against them.

And where does someone come off leaving a loaded gun sitting on a table and going off to sleep while his toddler roams?

That definitely goes against any practical sense of firearm safety.

Personally I think situations like this fall under negligent homicide. I am against banning hand guns but I think changing attitudes towards gun use and safety would effect practical results. Negligence with a firearm should be criminal negligence.

From the linked story:

"We're not looking at criminal intent," Ashe said, adding that no criminal charges have been filed. "There was a terrible lapse of judgment here."

That is what criminal negligence is!

A prison term is not the ideal punishment for all such cases of negligence, but losing the right to bear arms for a time period should be at least part of such punishment. Community service, such as being a speaker at gun safety courses would be another appropriate form of punishment in my mind. Such punishment would be agonizing I admit, but should be the course for those who are truly remorseful instead of a prison term.

 

[Nursefoxfire]

from the article:

"The fact that there are things like this Wii toy that look like guns, make it all the more important for the adults to keep the guns away from the children," said Paul Helmke, president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence. "Keep it locked up, keep it secure, or don't have it at all."

Though not all gun accidents end as tragically as Cheyenne's, he said this kind of incident happens "all too often." In the United States, he said, a gun in the home is 21 times more likely to injure a family member than protect the home from intruders.

I wonder where he got that statistic. I tried Googling but got a billion conflicting hits.

 

[Big Les]

Realistic controllers are fine in a society like the UK or Japan, where you can't even buy handguns. I seriously doubt that any Wii lightgun housing exists that is by any reasonably standard 'realistic', since it's required to hold the Wii remote, which precludes the combined remote/housing from ever looking too much like a real gun. Unless you argue that any black L-shaped object with a trigger is 'realistic'.

The issue here is surely safe storage of the actual lethal weapon, not how realistic plastic game controllers are.

 

[JWideman]

A few points:
1) Us "NRA gun nuts" wouldn't argue that the child should be armed. Rather, we argue that young children should be educated to respect guns and not to treat them like toys. Dad's toolbox isn't full of toys and neither is his gun safe. This tragedy occurred, in part, because this child didn't learn that lesson.
2) A second reason this happened is because the gun's owner is irresponsible. Leaving your loaded weapon on the kitchen table and FORGETTING it?!? Owning firearms comes with certain responsibilities, and not leaving them just lying around is certainly one of them. Loaded, unloaded, with children around, or without - you just don't do it.
3) If you own real guns, why would you have a realistic toy gun to play games with?!? That's asking for trouble, and undermining the lesson as mentioned in #1.
4) Children imitate the behaviors they see. The outcome I would have expected of a child finding a firearm sitting on the table in that home involves a hole in the tv, not the loss of life. I darkly suspect that the story in the article bears little resemblance to the actual event.

 

[ponderingturtle]

It's actually hard to get a hold of a realistic controller. As the article states, most gun controllers are bright orange or white to prevent just this kind of thing. This guy apparently ordered it online from China.

And it is not made or sold by Nintendo.

 

[Policenaut]

Realistic controllers are fine in a society like the UK or Japan, where you can't even buy handguns. I seriously doubt that any Wii lightgun housing exists that is by any reasonably standard 'realistic', since it's required to hold the Wii remote, which precludes the combined remote/housing from ever looking too much like a real gun. Unless you argue that any black L-shaped object with a trigger is 'realistic'.

The issue here is surely safe storage of the actual lethal weapon, not how realistic plastic game controllers are.

http://kotaku.com/5489137/wii-gun-involved-in-3+year+old-shooting-is-amazingly-lifelike

Looks real enough for you to get shot quite easily by police if you start waving it around in public.

 

[ponderingturtle]

Realistic controllers are fine in a society like the UK or Japan, where you can't even buy handguns. I seriously doubt that any Wii lightgun housing exists that is by any reasonably standard 'realistic', since it's required to hold the Wii remote, which precludes the combined remote/housing from ever looking too much like a real gun. Unless you argue that any black L-shaped object with a trigger is 'realistic'.

The issue here is surely safe storage of the actual lethal weapon, not how realistic plastic game controllers are.

Click on the link, it looks fairly realistic.

 

[ponderingturtle]

A few points:
1) Us "NRA gun nuts" wouldn't argue that the child should be armed. Rather, we argue that young children should be educated to respect guns and not to treat them like toys. Dad's toolbox isn't full of toys and neither is his gun safe. This tragedy occurred, in part, because this child didn't learn that lesson.

Yes, but this is a 3 year old. I am not convinced that you can teach a 3 year old that effectively about firearms.

The adults need to be charged in this.

 

[GreNME]

I'm as supportive of gun regulation as the next person (who is reasonable enough to agree with me, because I'm right), but I think some of the outrage expressed in this thread is a bit misdirected at "gun nuts" when the story reads more blatantly like a case of crappy parenting resulting in the death of a child.

Don't misunderstand me: I get it, there was a firearm involved in the death, thus this somehow proves that being in favor of having guns in homes is wrong. I just don't find that a tenable conclusion based on the story, considering the gross negligence of the parents that's evident in the events leading up to a child even getting their hands on the firearm to begin with. Why does that negligence not count as much as the the fact that a gun was involved? Wasn't there another thread with a parent who forgot their child was in the carseat in their car, went to work, and came back to their child's dead body? Does that mean advocacy for child carseats is wrong?

I can understand and agree with outrage that this was allowed to happen. What I can't agree with was that it was the presence of the gun in the house that was the primary thing to be outraged about.