Girl, 3, Accidentally Shoots and Kills 2-Year-Old Brother

[festus]

Girl, 3, Accidentally Shoots and Kills 2-Year-Old Brother
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Girl, 3, Accidentally Shoots and Kills 2-Year-Old Brother - Local News | News Articles | National News | US News - FOXNews.com

Print ShareThisBAKERSFIELD, California — Police in central California say a 2-year-old boy has died after being accidentally shot by his 3-year-old sister.

Bakersfield police Sgt. Greg Terry says the girl apparently found a .45 caliber semiautomatic handgun under her parents' bed Wednesday afternoon and accidentally shot her brother.

The wounded boy was taken to Kern Medical Center where he was later pronounced dead.

Police say the children's mother was in another area of the apartment at the time of the shooting. Their father was at work.

The investigation is continuing.

[Scarecrow]

and how does a 3 year old girl get a hold of a gun??? well when you have parents as stupid as that then I guess it's not that hard. hopefully the blame will go to the parents where it belongs and not to the gun... such a tragic thing could have easily been prevented.

[HK4U]

Very sad. The burden that the 3 year old will face as she grows older for what happened will be great. I feel sorry for the parents also but what a mistake to leave a gun that easy to get to when you have children of this age and to leave the children unattended long enough that this could happen. Of course the gun will be blamed buy some.

[svrivera]

If we could all carry in theis great nation, the gun would be on the fathers hip & not jammed under a bed. I feel bad for the child to have to live with this action...

[rheaj]

I am sure this will be used in NY when the Senate debates the bill to require that all handguns be "child proof."

Wait a minute, does California already have a law requiring "child proof" handguns?? If so, why didn't this law stop this horrible accident?

[gvaldeg1]

The only way a 3-year old could shoot a 45 auto is if it was left cocked and UNLOCKED (safety off) with a round in the chamber. This is called Condition Zero (Condition 1 is cocked an locked). This is by far the least safe condition for any autoloader. A simple 4 to 6 pound pull on the trigger will fire it. This must have been the case for this incident. In any event, it's clearly a case of gross negligence on the parents part. Whether it rises to level of criminal reckless endangerment is for the prosecutors and courts to decide. Unfortunately, I must agree that this reflects poorly on all gun owners. It's too bad that we all continually suffer from the actions of a few idiots.

[HK4U]

You are describing a single action auto however the article did not specify what type it was but only gave the cal.

[gvaldeg1]

Originally Posted by HK4U

You are describing a single action auto however the article did not specify what type it was but only gave the cal.

Actually...you should try reading before you comment! The article says "Bakersfield police Sgt. Greg Terry says the girl apparently found a .45 caliber semiautomatic handgun". That's a little more information than just the caliber. Sheesh...some people will jump on anything. I'm sure that you got my point exactly. Your post is just nit-picking!

[WmFarnum]

To think the tragedy that could be avoided if if parents like this would only realize 60 bucks or so and you have a pistol safe beside the bed and this kind of disaster would never happen. And yes it will be used against us all.

[HK4U]

Originally Posted by gvaldeg1

Actually...you should try reading before you comment! The article says "Bakersfield police Sgt. Greg Terry says the girl apparently found a .45 caliber semiautomatic handgun". That's a little more information than just the caliber. Sheesh...some people will jump on anything. I'm sure that you got my point exactly. Your post is just nit-picking!

Perhaps you should read more carefully. I read that it was semi auto however what I was refering to was that the danger of condition zero compared to conditiion condition1 usually refers to a single action auto such as a 1911 rather than a double action or Dbl action only. As I said before the article did not address which it was. So yes I got your point and my point was that it is not dangerous to have one in the chamber and safety off if it is a dbl action and in fact on many dbl action autos there are no external safeties. If you can find something in the artilcle that I missed on that be sure and let me know. Have a nice day.