Detective: Girl, 15, charged in teen’s death said she didn’t think gun was loaded

[jpak]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/detective-girl-15-charged-in-teens-death-said-she-didnt-think-gun-was-loaded-/2011/03/21/ABsyY88_story.html

A 15-year-old girl hanging out with friends in a Southeast Washington apartment Sunday picked up what she thought was an unloaded handgun, playfully pointed it at another teen and pulled the trigger, a homicide detective testified Monday.

The girl told police in an interview that she had taken out the ammunition clip before she aimed the gun at an 18-year-old, Detective John Bevilacqua said.

“She removed the magazine, was playing with the gun, pointed it at , pulled the trigger and shot him,” Bevilacqua said. “She didn’t believe the gun was still loaded.”

Gary Gordon, 18, was killed. He was a senior at Anacostia High School who loved to play basketball and was serious about his studies, said Richard Williams, a friend who said he has known Gordon since kindergarten.

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and to think there are moran republics that want high school students to bring guns to school in their cars.

the stupid

it burns

yup

[petronius]

1. Sounds like a fine argument for some basic gun safety teaching in school

Horribly sad story, but easily avoided...

[Dont_Bogart_the_Pretzel]

5. +1

[Remmah2]

13. +1

The solution seems simple and obvious.

[GreenStormCloud]

2. A better alternative would be to teach gun safety in school. N/T

[Sonoman]

3. Funny thing, it IS being taught (video)

I think this is just hilarious.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=am-Qdx6vky0

[HockeyMom]

4. If you INSIST on giving your child a gun,

at least LOCK IT UP and don't let them have access to it UNSUPERVISED. Is that asking too much?

[one-eyed fat man]

7. What changed?

Why could we grow up in the Forties and Fifties with our own guns and manage not to shoot ourselves or each other? My gun was kept in my room. If my parents hadn't been able to trust me to be responsible with it they'd never have given me one.



Did the higher standards of personal responsibility my parents expected of me have anything to do with it? When I grew up, if your parents couldn't trust you with a pocket knife by age 8, a .22 rifle by age 10, and your own shotgun by age 12, you were pretty much a failure in the eyes of adults as well as your peers. Character and integrity meant doing the right thing when no one was watching, that was the standard we were held to!

[Common Sense Party]

8. Kids today are dumber, coddled, and not taught by parents to be

responsible and sensible.

[jpak]

9. That poor kitty!

:cry:

[oneshooter]

12. What "kitty"? Look again, thats supper! n/t

[Marengo]

16. LMAO! Wow...anything to discredit a gun owner, eh? N/T

[X_Digger]

10. Danged if I know..

[GreenStormCloud]

15. Dad gave me a shotgun (.410 bore) when I was eleven.

I was allowed to hunt unsupervised. The difference is in the maturity of the child. I handled mine responsibily.

[one-eyed fat man]

23. Actually, now that I think about it

The only time I remember us taking extra pains to hide the guns in the house was when our stupid city slicker cousins came out to visit in the summer. You couldn't trust them around machinery or livestock either. They would go fooling with a calf and wonder why a cow was after them. They didn't know to close gates or keep from pissing on the electric fence either!

As kids we were driving tractors and farm trucks when we could reach the pedals. It was strictly practical. For example, at ten you could drive a tractor pulling a hay wagon in a straight line, that left older, stronger kids on the ground tossing bales onto the wagon.

[Name removed]

6. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[David West]

11. I brought guns to school...

If this girl had known anything about guns, this tragedy likely wouldn't have happened.

I often left guns in one of my buddy's truck when I was in highschool (I didn't have vehicle). He usually had an AK behind the seat and during hunting season his .300 magnum. I usually left some of my .22s or my .243 in there. We usually just parked across the street so we could be legal. I actually bought an M1 Carbine from one of my teachers in the while I was working for my school one summer. Sold it to me in the parking lot (he was always one of my favorite teachers). One time just after I graduated I went in to puck up my little brother and left my .45 in my car since I didn't have my concealed carry permit yet and therefore couldn't legally carry on a campus. The principle and me were good friends and upon seeing my empty holster he asked me why I didn't have my gun. Seemed downright disappointed that I wasn't carrying it.

Yeah, my high school was awesome.

I'm sure jpak is utterly horrified now. I don't see what the big deal is...

[badtoworse]

14. My high school had a 50 foot rifle range in the basement

We were all taught marksmanship and gun safety. The school had a very competitive rifle team and even though we were located in Manhattan, nobody thought it was a big deal.

[AtheistCrusader]

17. A magazine disconnect would have prevented this.

Still, the height of monumental, seen-from-orbit stupidity to point a gun at another human and 'playfully' pull the trigger.

[David West]

18. Screw magazine disconnects

Terrible ideas those things. Best to remove them as soon as you purchase a firearm with one. Makes practicing dry-firing a right pain. Teaching proper gun safety is a far better idea than adding a useless safety feature to placate the idiots who think a gun is unloaded when it's magazine is removed.

[AtheistCrusader]

21. I don't mind them.

I use snap caps for malfunction drills and dry firing.

[one-eyed fat man]

20. One of the guns I happen to own

Is a Smith & Wesson Model 1076. It is from the era of the notorious Andrew Cuomo/Ed Shultz appeasement pact. It has all the "features" demanded by the Clinton administration, magazine capacity of 9 rounds, loaded chamber indicator, magazine safe.... OOPS



It's a former FBI gun. No magazine safety, the slide emblazoned to that effect, "Capable of firing with magazine removed."


Like every other half-baked scheme, like "secret decoder ring smart guns," micro-stamped ammunition, or integral key locks, high capacity magazines law enforcement versions of the firearm are exempted from nebulous safety schemes meant mostly to inconvenience the peons.

[AtheistCrusader]

22. Which is funny, because LEO is the crowd most likely to shoot themselves in the ass without

that sort of feature.

[one-eyed fat man]

24. You are correct.

When old Louisville PD switched from S&W to Glocks, the 1500 man police department had a half dozen negligent discharges that made the papers in the first two weeks.

One involved a police sergeant who manage to blast off a round in the locker room while tying his shoe. No one was hurt, but I want some expert in law enforcement to explain to me how someone that stupid, that inept, gets promoted to sergeant unless the mayor is screwing his wife?

The best thing about a Glock is when you pull the trigger, they go, "Bang." The worst thing about a Glock is when you pull the trigger, they go, "Bang!"

As simple as the mechanism is I can't, for the life of me, figure out why so many people do stupid things with Glocks. Does having a Glock make otherwise rational people complacent or do stupid people just gravitate to Glocks? Is it a function of market penetration? There are more Glocks out there so they are involved in more dumb ass incidents say than something less common, like Webley-Fosbery Self-Cocking Automatic Revolver.

[David West]

25. Loaded chamber indicators...

Another mostly useless "safety" feature. I don't really mind them because they never get in the way, but I don't see why anyone would ever trust them. In fact, it seems to me that adding such features is just ASKING for some ignoramus to put trust in it and have a negligent discharge because he didn't actually check the chamber.

Most of the time I forget my 1911 even has a loaded chamber indicator, because it's kind of a joke. It's just a tiny notch on the top of the breach that lets you see a sliver of brass. To even see inside the indicator you usually need to forget about muzzle control and finagle the gun just-so to where light is shining directly on it. No way in hell I'm going to trust my life to that. When I want to empty my gun, I pull back the slide and visually inspect the chamber. When I want to carry, I do a press check to insure theres a round chambered.

[AtheistCrusader]

27. I like the loaded chamber and cocked hammer indicators on the Springfield XD9

I can feel them through a glove in the dark.

Nice to verify that the pistol is cocked and ready to go when I take it out of the safe.

[one-eyed fat man]

28. Go back over a century.

A loaded chamber indicator was standard on the Luger in 1900. "Geladen" (German for loaded) is visible on the extractor when there is a round in the chamber. Plus the extractor is raised above the bolt giving a tactile indication can be felt in the dark.



Anleitung zur Kenntnis und Behandlung der Pistole 1900/06

The P-38 pictured below has a "pin" which can be seen protruding from the rear of the slide. That is the loaded chamber indicator. Apparently Second Lieutenants were still second lieutenants, even in the German Army.

[ileus]

19. She should have raked the slide....

[RamboLiberal]

26. I'm gonna put a little blame on TV and movies as well

I get so irritated when someone like Jack Bauer or one of the TV cops draws from their holster and rack the slide like they wouldn't already be carrying with 1 in the chamber. IMHO it just misinforms the crowd who know nothing about guns.