WEST MIAMI-DADE, FL – A three-year-old is recovered from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the hand after she gained access to a relative’s gun while the relative cheered for a touchdown.
This past Saturday, two children were supposed to be in the care of their grandmother. There was also a 23-year-old male relative in the home at the time. The man was watching football on a laptop and, for some reason, had a loaded, unsecured gun lying on the couch.
As he cheered for a touchdown, the 3-year-old girl jumped up on the couch and grabbed the handgun. In the survivable footage below, the man was right next to her when she got on the couch, but his attention was focused on the football game instead of the child he was supposed to be watching.
The 3-year-old girl had the gun pointed at her chest when she pulled the trigger. The round went through her finger and was lodged in her hand. In an interview, her mother said, “Her hand saved her life.”
The young girl underwent surgery and was released from the hospital on Tuesday. The 23-year-old man was arrested on child neglect charges.
After the man was bonded out, he told local media, “I’m not no child neglecter. I never neglected a child in my life. That’s what I want to be known right there.” Well, you have neglected a child. Leaving a loaded gun on a sofa while you prance around cheering for your football team? I’m not sure if he knows the definition of child neglect, but maybe he can look that up if he spends time in jail for his neglect.
After hearing about this incident, I can’t help but shake my head. How does something like this even happen? If you are going to own a gun, you have to take it seriously and be responsible for that gun 24/7, especially with kids in the house. I mean, getting distracted by a football game? Seriously? It’s simple: if you have a firearm, keep it on your person or lock it up. Period. A 3-year-old should never, ever have the chance to get her hands on it. Let’s all remember this and make sure it doesn’t happen again.
It boggles the mind how someone could be so completely mindless and careless as to leave a loaded gun around where a child could get it. What a very near thing that was, and just more ammunition for the antis to use against gun owners.
That BOY should not be allowed to carry a firearm until he can prove that he’s mature enough to do so. Leaving a loaded gun unsecured with small children in the room was a punk kid’s mistake, despite him being 23, and almost a fatal one.
I had a similar thing happen in the late ’80s involving my kid brother, although no one was hurt other than the floor. I took his firearm away from him, and I still have it.