10-year-old kills himself in gun accident

[MechAg94]

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/7574085.html

Mom with shop owner in garage and kid wanders into office, finds gun in drawer, plays with it, and shoots himself.  Very sad story.  

I was listening to the radio and someone brought this up saying the guy was going to jail for the death of the kid.  He had the facts wrong.  After readings the story, I am not sure if he is even liable or not.  At some point, do you have to right to expect that people won't rifle through you desk and stuff (even kids)?

Regardless, for someone who doesn't have kids, it is a reminder to keep firearms under control or locked up if you have people around you can't trust.

[grislyatoms]

I grew up with Grandad's .38 snubby in the end table by his easy chair. "Under pain of death" should I mess with it.
So, of course, I messed with it every chance I got.  He knew it, too.

What kept me apart from the kid in the story? Grandad taught me how they worked, what they could do, how to make them safe, and took me shooting, so that there was no "mysterious appeal".

[Regolith]

I was able to get into my dad's locked gun closet by the time I was six (maybe earlier, but I can't remember).  I could either get the key, which he kept in a predictable place (NEVER assume that because it's in up high a kid can't get to it), or wiggle through a hole under a workbench in another room that lead into the closet (the other room was a workshop that has never been completely finished), and so there was no wall board between the closet and the workshop in that one spot).

Like grisly I had been taught about guns from a young age, though, so I never did anything stupid with them.

[Hawkmoon]

Very sad all around, but I hope the shop owner doesn't get charged. The kid was old enough to have been taught that kids don't go poking around in other people's desks.

[Sergeant Bob]

I would say the mother is more responsible than the shop owner.

[coppertales]

The gene pool just got strengthened.  Mom learned something too, maybe......chris3

[Lanius]

Maybe. But kids are curious, and the media tells them guns are cool. So they have more positive attitude and not enough fear.

I mean.. how common is death of kids by negligent discharge in media, compared to gun glamorisation?

If half family sitcoms were spiced up by some overly curious kid's brains on the walls, you can bet your underpants kids would be more careful around guns.

[GigaBuist]

I mean.. how common is death of kids by negligent discharge in media, compared to gun glamorisation?

We don't hear about every case, at least not at the national level.  They tend to pop up in local news though.

The actual rate of children (14 and under) dying from accidental gun shots has been around 100 incidents per year for quite some time.  It's been inching down since the 70's in terms of raw numbers, not to mention incidents per 100,000 people.

It's good news.  The only thing I think we can do at this point is introduce Eddie the Eagle type of programs to kids right in school.  Everywhere.

[gunsmith]

its not like the kid wandered in there, he was left in the office unattended.
bone headed move on shop owners part.

I sometimes sleep over at a house with a 5 yr old boy and I sleep with my gun in its retention holster in between me and the back of the couch I sleep on.

The kid shouldn't be going thru the guys desk but shouldn't have been left alone, & a 25 for shop defense?? come on!  That alone proves the guy doesn't know anything about firearms for self defense, if you're in TX and own an auto shop & you don't have a 1911 ready to go I aint giving you my biz.

I bet the shop owner is some kind of felon that isn't legally allowed to own.