Authorities say mother loading gun shot son

[WD40]

http://www.wistv.com/Global/story.asp?S=6824445



ATLANTA (AP) - Rockdale County authorities say a misdemeanor warrant has been issued for a woman whose 9-year-old son was shot in the stomach as she tried to load a gun.
Johnny Andrews remains hospitalized at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta at Egleston after authorities says he was shot about 1 am Saturday.
Sheriff Jeff Wigington says authorities believe the shooting of the boy was an accident. But he says authorities have questions about why people would have been using a gun at that time of the morning when children were present.
Wigington says a warrant has been issued alleging reckless conduct by Carey Fitts, the mother. The sheriff says she has been given time to turn herself in.
The sheriff's department says it appears the woman's boyfriend was showing her how to use a .45-caliber gun when two shots were fired -- one hitting her son in the stomach. Authorities say it appears the 30-year-old woman was pulling the slide back to load the weapon and her finger must have been on the trigger.
Two other children -- ages four and ten months -- were in the Brandon Glen apartment at the time. The sheriff says the boy was taken to the hospital, where he underwent surgery.

[jeff221]

Yet another reason NOT to do your own trigger job... A buddy of mine had a 1911 that he worked on, when it racked the slide the hammer would fall from time to time....

[D_Fence]

It took at least a half dozen stupid decisions to lead to the negligent (i.e., not accidental) discharge and she gets a misdemeanor reckless conduct charge? The finger "accidently" pulling the trigger is just the last step in a chain of negligent decisions.

Yet, I can wander into a Chipotle and be a felon.

When I taught my wife how to operate a handgun, we were home alone. The gun was empty until I saw she could handle it with finger off the trigger and pointed in the least destructive direction. Then, I showed her how to load it using dummy rounds and she practiced loading/chambering and unloading/unchambering. We reviewed this with dummy rounds when we went to the range. Then, I told her to load one live round, chamber it, fire, and clear the gun. She did that a few times, then loaded two live rounds. She was fantastic, so I let her go ahead and have fun with a 50 count box of ammo while I backed off and kept an eye on her.

[jeff221]

Originally Posted by D_Fence

The finger "accidentally" pulling the trigger is just the last step in a chain of negligent decisions.

It doesn't actually mention the pulling of the trigger. I got the feeling from the article that it may have been some malfunction of the firearm (hammer fall after slide rack, which I've seen when people do trigger jobs themselves... or, on really bad guns..)...

Now, do you rack your slide pointed at a child? NO! Do you rack your slide anywhere near a child? NO! So, it's certainly a ND, but a dropped hammer on rack slide could remove SOME (not all) of the "Your a dumbass" from the discussion.

[cid_ayrbourne]

The article suggests that she "accidentally" pulled the trigger while loading the weapon, but it could have been an issue with the weapon. However, two rounds going off suggest a serious issue one way or another. The first one going off is an accident, but the second?

Either that weapon is severely damaged, or she was hold the trigger while loading it, and the shot going off unexpectedly made her squeeze it again.

[D_Fence]

Purple space monkeys could have stopped time, jumped into the room, pulled the trigger twice, left the room, and restarted time. But, I'm going to put my money on her putting her finger on the trigger as she struggled to rack the slide and then pulling it again when she was startled from the first discharge.

A person struggling to slingshot the slide with their weak hand/fingers can cause a sympathetic tightening of the strong hand/fingers. If the trigger finger is on the trigger, it goes "bang."

[brewguy]

while this is a terrible accident, it is hardly a reason to not have guns, which is how this will be used. How many kids get cut on kitchen knives, or fall down stairs, or get bee stings in the yard. I think we should work to ban everything. lets just all get in the goo and fire up the Matrix..

At 1am he is showing her how to use the gun, my money says they were drinking at the time.

[dave_in_delaware]

I always load my XD's at 1:00am while pointing the muzzle towards my kids. What's the problem here?



Seriously, whether this circumstance was the fault of the mother, the boyfriend, the gun, or a combination, one of the rules was forgotten: point the gun in a safe direction!

[dave_in_delaware]

Originally Posted by brewguy

.... I think we should work to ban everything. lets just all get in the goo and fire up the Matrix..

I think we should go more the direction of Demolition man, where everyone is afraid of everything, the police don't know how to handle anything, and we use the 3 seashells!!



I'd hate for America to become the quote from Demolition Man: "I'm sorry to say that the world has become a pu$$y-whipped, Brady Bunch version of itself, run by a bunch of robed sissies."

But for some reason I see it heading in that direction. But it'll happen before 2031 I believe.