A young mother was shot and killed by her 2-year-old son today in an Idaho Walmart, police said.
Lt. Stu Miller of the Kootenai County Sheriff’s Office said that the boy was sitting in the shopping cart when pulled the handgun from his mom’s purse and pulled the trigger. The victim, whose name hasn’t been released, was 29 years old.
Walmart of course sells guns among other things. One-stop shopping – you can buy a gun there and get shot with it in one easy trip.
It doesn’t read to me that she got the gun at WALmart; the “from his mom’s purse” bit made it sound like mom was carrying concealed, whether illegally or legally.
Marcus, Ophelia wasn’t suggesting it had been, rather she was being sardonic.
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Yeah, I saw that story but was not particularly surprised.
So long as the culture sees guns as things that provide protection rather than as killing tools, these unfortunate incidents will continue. Obviously.
(After all, “guns don’t kill people”!)
I don’t think Walmart actually sells guns anymore except for the BB/air guns in the link. I don’t think it was due to their conscience getting to them, it was probably too much hassle vs. profit.
I believe the chief poobah of the NRA said something like ‘the only answer to a bad guy with a gun, is good guys with guns’. Where were the good toddlers packing heat to stop this bad one??
Sorry, but this seems to me the obvious outcome of having killing devices all over the place. I reckon you’d be better off with as little of them available to good and bad guys. Toddlers or otherwise.
Just a couple of years ago, a grandmother was shot to death by her toddler granddaughter who found the gun in her purse while they were shopping in Sam’s Club. But of course all gun owners are the epitome of careful! @@
Good gawd, imagine growing up knowing you committed matricide when you were a baby. That poor kid.
If his mother was that irresponsible with guns, he might never had a chance to grow up at all. Quite possibly, this was case of him or her.
I live in rural UK at the foot of the hills and surrounded by farms. Many of my neighbours have a gun. I don’t. They are required to keep them in a locked cabinet. They need a reference, before buying a gun, from a “responsible member of the community.” I don’t know anyone who owns a pistol. I have never heard of anyone being shot. Burglaries are also unknown but that may be due to the near universal ownership of dogs, including myself. We occasionally rip themselves with a chainsaw or get injured by a farm vehicle. This is the cultural norm and it leaves us much safer than insisting on “the right to bear arms.”
A purse is a pretty poor place for quick access to the gun unless they start making purses with a special holster-like compartment built into the side and maybe disguised with a flap if the material the purse is made of. Get Q on it right away and don’t carry when supervising kids.
Actually,I find the widespread concealed carry thing in the US ridiculous. I used to hear about concealed carry licences mainly for people like private security (including detectives and bodyguards), people whose job involves carrying around cash or precious materials and maybe people like judges and prosecutors who have a high likelihood of being personally targeted for revenge.
Now it’s increasing a normal privilege easier to get than a driver’s licence in some places. While I’m not saying everyone who does it is a weirdo, those who have a carry permit and talk a lot about it (that I’ve met, at least) generally have an exaggerated sense of their own importance and level of danger and often a fetish for guns as a political symbol.
“I have a 9mm under my jacket and its totally legal!–In yer face, you liberal!” OK, maybe not quite as openly hostile as that, but it’s the implied message.
The victim is described in The Guardian as a “successful nuclear scientist”.
I doubt if the unfortunate young woman is eligible for the Darwin Award.
Oh jeez!
Really. She worked with nuclear material every day at her job, but felt unsafe going to WalMart without a gun.
Yea, Wal-Mart`s a rough place.
“Gunfight in Aisle 4”.