4-Year-Old Shoots Sister, Boy; Older Sibling Tries to Protect Them

I found it. And it includes not just Cal, but all these other states.....

Connecticut Delaware Florida Hawaii Iowa Maryland Massachusetts Minnesota Nevada New Jersey North Carolina Rhode Island Texas Virginia Wisconsin

My stupid brother-in-law stayed with us for awhile once. He was packing up to leave, and all his cr*p was all over my living room floor. I had a 4 year old and a 2 year old at the time. The 2 year old climbed out of her crib and came into the living room--and I turned around to find her picking up a Dan Wesson .44 and pointing it right at me where I was holding her brother. Okay, that is one heavy-duty trigger and she had all she could do just to hold the darn thing UP, but she was trying to pull it. She likes me fine. It's just the way the thing is made. It's intuitive. Point and shoot. She'd never seen any movie more violent than Winnie-The-Pooh and the Honey Tree. We don't want network television at all. We are philosophically opposed to TOY guns so she had never played with one of those. (Do we make toy guillotines? toy land mines? There's a place for weapons--and that is in responsible hands.)

But she knew right what to do with that gun.

My husband's family still thinks I'm an hysteric. "It wasn't loaded; I don't know what your problem is."

Strange how a child can pick up a gun and the first thing that occurs to him is to point it at someone else and pull the trigger.

How else are guns ever used on TV or video games?

Yep, the gun had to be loaded, chambered and easily accessible to the 4-year-old.

It had to be loaded, chambered, and accessible--but not "easily" accessible. If you have something in your house, your kids will eventually find it (this includes alcohol/drugs, pornography/sex toys, weapons/explosives, hitchhikers' corpses, old yearbooks with pictures of you with big hair and goofy glasses, etc. etc.)...

There's really no way to pick up a gun and handle it easily without holding it "right." They are made to balance, made to be held, a certain way, and no other way is easy to hold. Try to pick up a gun another way, by the barrel for instance. It is awkward.

If you have small hands--and I do--that is especially true.

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