Toddler Dies After Mistaking Gun For Realistic Wii Controller

[Schrodinger's Cat]

It is enough to teach them sure, but it is not enough to trust them unsupervised.

Of course everyone should teach their kids safety lessons at the age of 3.

But expecting those kids to OBEY those lessons to the point that one suggests that if the gun was left out loaded but the kid had been told not to use it and that it's dangerous, then it would not have been a problem is just ludicrous.

Loaded guns should not be left in reach of 3 year olds no matter how well "educated" they are.

 

[Information Analyst]

Realistic controllers are fine in a society like the UK or Japan, where you can't even buy handguns.

Correction: In the UK you can't buy some handguns. Muzzle-loading revolvers, for example, can still be licensed. At the other end of the scale, I have the Umarex CO2 catridge air pistol replica of the Walther P88. Completely legal and can be bought without a licences, although you do have to be over 18 and must buy in person. The difference, of course, is that I wouldn't leave it around loaded if my nephews were staying.

 

[rwguinn]

Some of the responses here are just amazing and obviously based in personal bias towards gun control and video games.

The simple heart of this story is that the child was 3 years old and the parent did not properly secure his fire arm. This child could have just as easily killed themselves with a bottle of poison, a kitchen knife, a plastic bag, or a tub of bath water.

It's about parental responsibility.

Fear of firearms and firearm-toting, knuckle-dragging nose-pickers is entirely reasonable. That is the correct definition of handgun owners, is it not?
After all, nobody has ever been killed because somebody had the hot water temperature too high, left a ladder leaning against the house, left a pan on the stove with the handle to the front, the keys to the car on a table, a fork on the floor near an electrical socket, or a TV on a wobbly stand...
Superior people never make mistakes, and anyone capable of making a mistake is too stupid to raise dogs, much less children.
Owning a firearm, table saw, automobile, or anything else requires an acceptance of responsibility, and making sure the item is secure when unattended. Kids CAN learn, even at 2 or 3 years old,but it is a CONTINUING process. A lesson is not truly learned until it exists at an almost instinctive level but you must still remain vigilant!

 

[Schrodinger's Cat]

"Owning a firearm, table saw, automobile, or anything else requires an acceptance of responsibility, and making sure the item is secure when unattended. Kids CAN learn, even at 2 or 3 years old,but it is a CONTINUING process. A lesson is not truly learned until it exists at an almost instinctive level but you must still remain vigilant! "

Well said RW

 

[sadhatter]

Surely, right?

I mean... You wouldn't leave rat poison or gasoline or a belt-sander just lying aroung in a room where toddlers frolic, would you? How about a box of used razor blades next to the toilet? A stereo system perched next to the bathtub? A used Coke bottle full of battery acid in the fridge?

To show the limitless stupidity of the human race, someone did something similar in a video store when i was a kid. There was a box of your typical shaving type razor blades ( there was some halloween decorations being put up, i assume people were using them for garbage bags or something.) sitting on the ground. As a 4 year old i simply reached in and grabbed one, it took all of about 10 seconds to cut myself rather deeply.

If a parent doesn't know enough to keep a gun, something i wouldn't trust a few of my friends with, away from a three year old, it isn't the gun's fault.

 

[quixotecoyote]

If a parent doesn't know enough to keep a gun, something i wouldn't trust a few of my friends with, away from a three year old, it isn't the gun's fault.

Well that's good to know. I bet all those people who were trying to assign personal responsibility to an inanimate object are set straight now. I also heard an insightful comment recently that if you set a gun on a table and no one touches it, it won't hurt anybody.

 

[ssbn506]

I also heard an insightful comment recently that if you set a gun on a table and no one touches it, it won't hurt anybody.

I don't think I would call that insightful maybe technically correct at best. Just like if you have an empty body of water no-won will drown in it. Technically correct but just a word game.

 

[BenBurch]

And maybe not without good reason. I consider myself a very responsible gun owner... and once started a fire in three yards when we lit one of those "only legal in the south" ariel cannons and forgot to take the plastic off.

Not that I'm saying fireworks should be illegal... because they're freakin' awesome.

And it's not even legal to discharge blanks around here.

 

[roger]

This is extremely tragic. But to put it in context, there are 150 or so kids killed by bicycles each year, and anywhere from 400-4000 drownings (depending on how you do the statistics, you aren't listed as 'drowned' if you survive 24 hours - I regard the higher number as pretty inflated).

If you ever left your kid in the bathroom for 'just a moment' to grab a towel or something you probably exposed your kid to more risk than this father did*. If you have a pool and ever mistakenly left your door unlocked, well the stats for swimming pool drowning just ain't pretty.

Not trying to make this a gun thread, just pointing out how easy it is to go from safe to very unsafe and all of our homes, and just how fragile these little knee biters are.


* by this I mean having the gun in the house, not the incredibly stupid act of forgetting to put it away and leaving it near the wii near the identical looking wii controller. As an aside, most gun accidents end up having a chain of improbable events like this. You really need to expect the unexpected and guard against it.

 

[ponderingturtle]

If a parent doesn't know enough to keep a gun, something i wouldn't trust a few of my friends with, away from a three year old, it isn't the gun's fault.

The thing is that no one is blaming the object exactly, but arguing over how available they should be. Now this is something that people always draw a line, well aside from some insane libertarians who think private citizens should be able to buy nukes. The issue is just were that line is drawn.

If it was a handgrenade I don't think many people would be arguing that it would not be a good reason to not have grenades that available.

 

[ponderingturtle]

This is extremely tragic. But to put it in context, there are 150 or so kids killed by bicycles each year, and anywhere from 400-4000 drownings (depending on how you do the statistics, you aren't listed as 'drowned' if you survive 24 hours - I regard the higher number as pretty inflated).

If you ever left your kid in the bathroom for 'just a moment' to grab a towel or something you probably exposed your kid to more risk than this father did. If you have a pool and ever mistakenly left your door unlocked, well the stats for swimming pool drowning just ain't pretty.

More? As a three year old?

So you are actually, unlike most gun supporters actualy arguing that the father was responsible in leaving loaded firearms around the house for a 3 year old to play with.

 

[roger]

More? As a three year old?

So you are actually, unlike most gun supporters actualy arguing that the father was responsible in leaving loaded firearms around the house for a 3 year old to play with.

I edited my post to clarify. No, obviously leaving the gun out was a huge mistake.

 

[GreyICE]

GeeMack,

Like I said, being a gun idiot does not mean you have anything bad happen. I mean, that should be obvious.

I would like to invite you over here next New Year's Eve so you can hear all of the weapons fire here from my porch. Last hear I heard several full-auto weapons and quite a number of pistols being fired at midnight. This year I was asleep by midnight...

And remember we are almost by definition not talking law-abiding registered gun owners here, though some of those are dangerous idiots too. And I really do believe that the criminals with guns out-number the honest citizens with guns in many parts of this country. Absolutely that is true in Chicago, for example.

I blatantly don't believe you. Most New Years Eves I hear many small explosions and strings of explosions.

They're all fireworks. I know because I can tell the difference between a friggin gun and a friggin firework.

I absolutely, completely, and totally do not believe that where you are there are multiple guns, including (illegal to own) automatic weaponry, fired off around you.

I call absolute BS on your stupid anecdote, and would love for you to produce ONE newspaper story from your hometown about copious amounts of gunfire (not some isolated jerk, but the repeated incidents, including the automatic weapon ones), which must certainly be noted by someone other than you. Protip: I'm not counting the Onion, which is about the only place you have a hope of finding that story.

 

[Cavemonster]

This is extremely tragic. But to put it in context, there are 150 or so kids killed by bicycles each year, and anywhere from 400-4000 drownings (depending on how you do the statistics, you aren't listed as 'drowned' if you survive 24 hours - I regard the higher number as pretty inflated).

If you ever left your kid in the bathroom for 'just a moment' to grab a towel or something you probably exposed your kid to more risk than this father did*. If you have a pool and ever mistakenly left your door unlocked, well the stats for swimming pool drowning just ain't pretty.

Not trying to make this a gun thread, just pointing out how easy it is to go from safe to very unsafe and all of our homes, and just how fragile these little knee biters are.

That's true, but about 250 kids die a year from accidental gunshot wounds. And considering how much less often kids will be handling a firearm than they'll be on a bicycle or swimming, it's actually a muuuch higher rate of death per exposure.

 

[One Eyed Jack]

So you are actually, unlike most gun supporters actualy arguing that the father was responsible in leaving loaded firearms around the house for a 3 year old to play with.

I haven't seen gun supporters absolving the father of responsibility. I have seen them reacting to the "guns are the problem" attitudes of some posters.

I am a gun owner. I have a son. My guns are stored properly. My son has been through firearm safety training and is never allowed access to any firearm unless I'm with him. I also constantly reinforce proper procedures for safe handling and operation through instruction and example.

This parent acted irresponsibly and should be prosecuted for negligent homicide. That is my opinion as a gun owner. I don't pretend to speak for all gun owners.

 

[bpesta22]

It can't be a darwin award because the gun owner was a step father, so no gene pool implications (except those genes that made mom attracted to him)

Even with responsible handling, mistakes happen. When mistakes involve guns...

 

[bpesta22]

Some of the responses here are just amazing and obviously based in personal bias towards gun control and video games.

The simple heart of this story is that the child was 3 years old and the parent did not properly secure his fire arm. This child could have just as easily killed themselves with a bottle of poison, a kitchen knife, a plastic bag, or a tub of bath water.

It's about parental responsibility.

A loaded 357 is likely far more lethal, probabilistically, than all these combined.

eta: I think guns are the problem because as long as they're legal we'll have to tolerate more deaths like these (though compared with other things-- as noted above-- the deaths are relatively rare. But, dead is dead).

 

[Drudgewire]

A loaded 357 is likely far more lethal, probabilistically, than all these combined.

It better be. I don't buy garbage bags to potentially use lethal force against someone.

 

[roger]

That's true, but about 250 kids die a year from accidental gunshot wounds. And considering how much less often kids will be handling a firearm than they'll be on a bicycle or swimming, it's actually a muuuch higher rate of death per exposure.

Sure. What, 70-80% of kids ride bikes regularly? But is rate/exposure important? I'm just trying to put things in perspective with the #s, not make absolute determinations of what to do. Should we outlaw bikes, outlaw riding without helmets, or just educate people?

I'll note that when I grew up in the 70s in rural NH, everyone just kept their firearms readily accessible. There was no talk of gun safes. My father kept cartridges and magazines in his night stand, and the guns in the closet next to him. Wouldn't have been hard for me to do something with them. And that was par for the course. Now we do better thanks to how much focus has been brought on this issue, and yes, now he locks his guns up because they have a steady stream of kids through the house. And the stats bear this out - child deaths due to firearms have steadily dropped since the 70s.

I'm not making light of the tragedies - they are horrible. But I knew several kids while growing up that didn't make it to adulthood - they succumbed to drowning and cars, and one suicide, which is pretty much what the stats say was most likely anyway. It just seems that people blow the risks way out of proportion to what they really are. In the same way, (some) people exaggerate the risks of flying or whatever while they nonchalantly drive down the highway while talking on the cell phone. We underestimate the risks we face every day, and overestimate the risks we rarely face.

There's also probably a severity aspect to that. You crash in a plane, you are facing very likely death or serious injury. Ditto if you get shot (though survival rates are much higher than you might think). OTOH, everybody has crashed their bikes hundreds of times (at least if you rode them like we did as young boys). I think that kind of numbs you to the fact that there's a bunch of kids out there in wheelchairs or coffins because they crashed one too many times.

 

[Stout]

I haven't seen gun supporters absolving the father of responsibility. I have seen them reacting to the "guns are the problem" attitudes of some posters.

I am a gun owner. I have a son. My guns are stored properly. My son has been through firearm safety training and is never allowed access to any firearm unless I'm with him. I also constantly reinforce proper procedures for safe handling and operation through instruction and example.

This parent acted irresponsibly and should be prosecuted for negligent homicide. That is my opinion as a gun owner. I don't pretend to speak for all gun owners.

OEJ. do you carry a weapon for personal defense, a weapon that's ideally loaded and ready to fire at a seconds notice? Do you keep a loaded home defense weapon at the ready and if so, how did you deal with your son having possible access to that/those weapons before he could properly understand firearms training..like when he was three ?

Or are your guns only for sporting use?