Child, 6, accidentally shoots, kills 16-year-old in Eatonville

[trumad]

Yeah I know...guns don't kill people, people kill people....whatever!---

An Eatonville teen is dead after he was accidentally shot in the head by a 6-year-old child.

Eatonville police identified the victim as 16-year-old Anthony Lane Jr.

Detectives investigating the accidental shooting said police were called to the home in the 100 block of Deacon Jones Boulevard around 8:22 p.m. Sunday.

The teen was inside the home with family playing video games when he was shot in the head, Detective Roy Smith said.

The child, who has not been publicly identified, picked up the small handgun from the floor because he thought it was a toy, Smith said.

When the gun fired, the child dropped the weapon and ran from the room, Smith said.

The teen was transported to a local hospital where he died a short time later.
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/orange/os-child-kills-teen-eatonville-20120116,0,3726383.story

[Greybnk48]

1. A loaded handgun on the floor!!!!!

That happens ALL THE TIME at our house.


Guns kill people. If anything else had been on the floor (knife, bat, rock, etc.) that boy would still be alive. I'm not debating my pov here either, I'm going to be a "last word asshole" on this one.

[TheWraith]

3. So the person who left it there isn't responsible?

Inanimate objects have no particular properties of their own. It's the responsibility of the people who know better to handle them safely, including not leaving them around where children can get at them.

[theAntiRand]

5. +1,000,000

[trumad]

8. I knew that would be the first argument...

Again--- whatever.

[CakeGrrl]

17. Yep, it's all on the person who left the loaded gun there.

If it was the 16-year-old, then lesson learned the hardest way possible.

[xchrom]

7. I'm w/ you. Nt

[LanternWaste]

10. Which is why no one ever secures pesticides and household cleaners

"if anything else had been on the floor (knife, bat, rock, etc.) that boy would still be alive..."

Which is why no one ever secures pesticides and household cleaners-- because they're safe, and no child has ever died from ingesting them....?

[RC]

2. The kid picked up a load gun laying on the floor?

How stupid can some people be? Not the kid, the idiot that caused the loaded gun to be there in the first place.

[obamanut2012]

4. Irresponsible gun owners give responsible ones a bad name

Why would there be a loaded gun anywhere accessible in a home with children, let along loaded and on the floor? A press-button combo case high in a closet, at minimum.

Nothing but heartache for these families.

[Missy Vixen]

11. "Responsible gun owners"?

Considering the fact we see these stories almost every day in national media, it's hard to believe such a person exists.

I might also mention, as an adult living in a blue state, there are a disproportionate number of "irresponsible" gun owners running around. I've never met a gun owner that couldn't wait to tell anyone who will listen about their deadly toys, for instance.

[Egalitariat]

13. Do you believe there is such a thing as a "responsible driver"

or are they as unicornish as responsible gun owners.

[Missy Vixen]

15. I've had a driver's license for 30 years

No tickets. No accidents. Thirty years. Let's just say our auto insurance company loves us. My husband also has had no tickets and no accidents in over thirty years of driving.

Cars aren't used solely as a tool to kill with. When one kills someone via car accident, they spend time in jail. There are those walking around who've killed with a gun, and we're told it was "justified", aka the case of John Williams in Seattle, for instance.

[Kellerfeller]

16. That can't be

I see stories in the media every day about people dyinging car accidents and far more people die every year from car accidents than gun accidents so "it's hard to believe" responsible drivers exist.

Guns also are not solely for killing. They are also used for skeet and other recreational activities.

[Odin2005]

19. What a disgustingly ignorant post.

I grew up in a rural area, most people have guns there, the vast majority are VERY responsible about their guns.

[Missy Vixen]

20. Almost as ignorant as your response

We live in a rural area. We've been here over ten years.

We know hundreds of LEO's. My husband has a limited commission with a local police department, and my father-in-law is a former Washington State Patrol officer. We also know a special agent with the ATF. Every person we know in law enforcement has told us, at one time or another, the "VERY responsible gun owners" are few and far between.

[BiggJawn]

22. Most LEO's have a high opinion of the citizenry...

That's why some of them call us "Perps" instead of citizens.

Why, in my area, we had 3 people die in car wrecks last week. No gun deaths.

[AceWheeler]

6. Guns don't kill people.

Peaple kill people...with guns. That's the full statement. Whether intentional, or accidental, people kill people with all kinds of things, but guns are by far the easiest means. That's what they're designed for...killing.

[Egalitariat]

14. Actually, it's the bullets you need to look out for

[sylveste]

9. seems like a

darwin award winner more than anything. at 16 one should be smart enough not to have a loaded hangun on the floor with a 6 year old.

[Fumesucker]

12. How do you know the gun was left there by the sixteen year old?

It seems a bit premature to be blaming the victim.

[Odin2005]

18. Jesus Christ! Gun Safety MEGA-FAIL!

We like our guns here in MN, but we have this thing called a GUN SAFETY CLASS.

[moriah]

21. The person who killed the 16 year old was the IDIOT who let a gun into the hands of a child.

The primary responsibility of a gun owner is to keep guns away from the 3 Cs.

Children
Criminals
and the Clueless.

Edit to add: Took this opportunity to re-post the Three Cs and the Four Rules to my Facebook, along with this article.