Just up the road from my work today, a horrible tragedy took place. A 2-year old got into his Mother’s purse and shot her with her concealed carry weapon at a local Wal Mart. I do not know all the details of this incredibly sad story, but you can bet the left and the anti-gunners are going to have a field day with this one. This obviously could have been avoided, I will add more information as it becomes available.
Reason #249 why “purse carry” is a really bad idea.
I hate to criticize the dead but this was a very preventable tragedy. But people put something in their purse and they walk away from it to get something off the shelf and here you go.
It is not much different from any of us unholstering our carry weapon, putting it on the floor and walking away from it for a minute or so to look at big screen TVs. There is a minimum standard of responsibility that needs to be observed if you are carrying a firearm, sadly not everyone understands what that minimum level is nor do they observe it.
About the only good thing that can be said is at least the kid isn’t dead.
While everyone has the right to own a gun, the reality is there are many people who really shouldn’t.
We are on the same page and I got blasted for saying roughly the same thing on a local forum, I meant no disrespect to the dead, but very easily she could still be with us.
Always hate to hear about accidents like this that didn’t have to happen. That kind of irresponsiblity and ignorance of gun ownership makes me wonder if the parent even knew how to use it or it just was there to make her feel safer, I agree with Styer, some people shouldn’t have them, and thankfully the child wasn’t hurt or killed, that would be awful to have to live with on your shoulders. Prayers sent to the family.
A lot of those who would criticize both of us for not being respectful of the dead are probably similarly complacent or have a wife who is similarly complacent. The bottom line is the both of us are angry (or at least I am) because with a incredibly small amount of personal responsibility would have meant the mother would still be alive.
I don’t want to deny her a right to carry or a means to protect herself. But I also don’t want her dead because somebody didn’t instill the proper amount of personal responsibility into her head when it came to firearms.
If you aren’t going to make sure you are being safe and aren’t a danger to yourself or others, then the reality is your firearm is NOT making you safer and it has in fact become a liability to you and everyone around you. Do it right or don’t do it at all.
These kinds of situations should NEVER happen. With an incredibly small amount of personal awareness and correct instruction we could prevent it from every happening again. Then we could just have the useless, pointless tragedies be mostly associated with swimming pools and cell phone usage while driving.
With rights come responsibility. Do these people not use a holster, and just drop it in there? Ugh, so sad! The ease of prevention makes it so much worse.
If you are not going to have it on you, and a round chambered, at a minimum you’d better have a good safety. I’d be interested in what kind of handgun it was.
Report on NBC this morning says the handgun was in a purse designed to carry a handgun. She received the purse for Christmas. She appears to not be your stereotypical Walmart shopper. She was a chemical engineer employed at the Idaho National Laboratory. I am also curious to what kind of handgun a 2 yr old can actually fire. My guess is small semi auto.
This is a tragedy and a reminder of the responsibility that goes with carrying a concealed firearm.
If you cannot reach out and easily touch your firearm, you do not have control over it. If you are not standing between children or any other unauthorized persons and your firearm, you do not have control over it.
I am going to use this incident as a teaching point in future CCW classes. Unfortunately, there are too many examples to use.
She still walked away from it and left it accessible to her kid. This is why I hate purse carry, even if it’s a special purse. People like to criticize certain paddle holsters because they can be ripped away from you, how about if I leave my paddle holster in the shopping cart while I grab crap off the shelf.
Carrying a weapon isn’t convenient. Ideally I’d hang my handgun from a lanyard around my neck like a Flava Flav clock. But that wouldn’t be very responsible even if it still is probably better than leaving it in a purse which you walk away from while you shop.
How many of us would briefcase carry and then put the briefcase down in public and walk away from it temporarily? How many of us would leave it unattended with young children?
