Ohio mom with conceal carry permit accidentally shoots and kills her two year old daughter.

Courtesy of Cleveland.com:

A 2-year-old girl was accidentally shot and killed by her mother at a hotel Friday night, police say. 

The shooting happened just before 11 p.m. at a hotel on Euclid Avenue, according to a post on the Wickliffe Police Department's Facebook page. 

Police received a call about a child that suffered a gunshot wound. 

The first officer who made it to the scene performed CPR on the child and paramedics took over once they arrived. The girl was pronounced dead at Lake Health West Medical Center, police said. 

A preliminary investigation indicated the mother was handling the gun when it went off and a bullet struck the girl in the chest. 

The mother was in legal possession of the gun and has a concealed carry permit, police said.

It has not yet been determined whether or not the mom will face criminal charges. 

This literally makes me so sad that I cannot come up with anything snarky to say.

But let's just remind people that having a gun in your house, or on your person, increases the likelihood that a loved one will be shot and killed 100%.

No gun = no accidental shootings.

Gun introduced = dead two year old.

Three year old shoots pregnant mommy in the stomach with her daddy's gun. Man, it does not get more American than that!

Not actual child in story. I think it's one of the Olsen kids.

Courtesy of Newsweek:

A pregnant mother of two is in critical condition after she was shot by her 3-year-old daughter, who picked up her father’s gun inside her car. 

The mother, 21-year-old Shaneque Thomas, was parked outside a Plato’s Closet thrift store in Merrillville, Indiana when she was shot from behind by her young daughter. 

Police said the father, Menzo Brazier, left the legal but loaded 9mm handgun between the console and the front passenger seat after he left the vehicle to go inside the store, reported WMAQ-TV. 

The child is then said to have climbed over from the backseat and reached to pick up the gun before accidentally firing, hitting her mother though the upper right part of her torso.

It's a good damn thing that bullet did not hit the fetus, because that is the only thing that would convince the Republicans to do something about gun violence in this country.

Men, women, and children can die by the truckloads and the Republicans could not, and do not, care one little bit.

But abortion, even bullet abortion, is one thing they simply could not handle.

Of course their solution would almost certainly involve some kind of maternity size bullet proof tummy shield, but at least they would have to weigh in.

The 2nd Amendment, causing death and mayhem for over two hundred years.

California teacher accidentally fires gun in classroom while teaching class on safety.

Courtesy of KSBW: 

A teacher who also serves as a reserve police officer accidentally fired a gun inside a Seaside High School classroom Tuesday, police said, and three students were injured. 

Dennis Alexander was teaching a course about gun safety for his Administration of Justice class when his gun went off at 11 a.m.

Alexander was pointing his gun at the ceiling when it fired. Pieces of the ceiling fell to the ground.

A news release from the Seaside Police Department said no one suffered "serious injuries." One 17-year-old boy suffered moderate injuries when fragments from the bullet ricocheted off the ceiling and lodged into his neck, the student's father, Fermin Gonzales, told KSBW. 

The teacher had just told the class that he wanted to make sure his gun wasn't loaded, when the gun fired, according to Gonzales. 

"It's the craziest thing. It could have been very bad," Gonzales said. 

The teacher was about to use the gun for a demonstration about how to disarm someone, according to Gonzales.

So to be clear a teacher, who is also a police officer, with extensive training in firearms, accidentally fires his weapon in a classroom full of children, injuring one. 

And yet the solution to gun violence in schools is supposed to be MORE armed teachers?

Got it.

There are a number of things about this story that deeply trouble me, but right at the top is the fact that this individual was teaching children that they should attempt to "disarm" a gun man.

I studied martial arts for decades, and the idea of going after a gun wielding assailant was NEVER encouraged.

As one instructor put it, "You are not going to be a help to anybody while bleeding out on the floor."

This teacher was teaching dangerous ideas while also introducing an instrument of death into his classroom.

He should be fired immediately. From BOTH of his jobs.

The Brady campaign has a rather tongue in cheek remedy for keeping guns out of the hands of toddlers. Deport them.

Courtesy of the Washington Post:

There are numerous proposals floating around Congress for reducing America’s gun violence epidemic, including: 

Shutting down online gun sales. 

Strengthening background checks. 

And banning people on the terrorist watch list from purchasing firearms. 

But in its latest PSA, the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence has introduced a solution for ending gun-related deaths that you’ve probably never considered: 

Cracking down on America’s toddlers. 

“Americans are shot by toddlers at least once a week,” the one-minute video notes. We need to lock them up. Not the guns — that’s just un-American. Round them up. Deport them. Get them out of our country. And keep them away from guns.”

As much as I want to applaud the Brady Campaign's inventiveness, I have to admit that I am still a little freaked out by seeing all of those kids holding guns.

But perhaps that's what we need, a little more freaking out about this.

Then perhaps somebody will start to care enough to do something to protect our kids from the amendment supposedly designed to keep us safe.

Because it's not.

The AP and USA Today combine forces to study just how any children are dying from gun violence in this country every year.

Here is what the study found as reported by the New York Daily News:  

The findings: During the first six months of this year, minors died from accidental shootings — at their own hands, or at the hands of other children or adults — at a pace of one every other day, far more than limited federal statistics indicate.

Using information collected by the Gun Violence Archive, a nonpartisan research group, news reports and public sources, the media outlets spent six months analyzing the circumstances of every death and injury from accidental shootings involving children ages 17 and younger from Jan. 1, 2014, to June 30 of this year — more than 1,000 incidents in all. Among the findings: 

— Deaths and injuries spike for children under 5, with 3-year-olds the most common shooters and victims among young children. Nearly 90 3-year-olds were killed or injured in the shootings, the vast majority of which were self-inflicted. 

— Accidental shootings spike again for ages 15-17, when victims are most often fatally shot by other children but typically survive self-inflicted gunshots. 

— They most often happen at the children's homes, with handguns legally owned by adults for self-protection. They are more likely to occur on weekends or around holidays such as Christmas. 

— States in the South, including Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee and Georgia, are among those with the highest per capita rates of accidental shootings involving minors. 

In all, more than 320 minors age 17 and under and more than 30 adults were killed in accidental shootings involving minors. Nearly 700 other children and 78 adults were injured. 

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that 74 minors died from accidental discharges of firearms in 2014, the latest year for which comparable data are available. The AP and USA TODAY analysis counted 113 for that year, suggesting the federal government missed a third of the cases.

Great, so now we know that the information that we had which horrified us concerning the number of children dying due to gun violence, is actually watered down and the REAL numbers are even more horrific.

And all it does is to reinforce the knowledge that the guns people buy to protect their families actually put their families at greater risk.

Just try to imagine how many more children would be alive today without the 2nd Amendment to protect us in this country.

Father shoots and kills son at firing range while retrieving spent shell casing from his shirt.

Steven Brumby, the deceased.

Courtesy of WFLA:  

The incident happened at approximately 3:15 Sunday afternoon, at High Noon Gun Range in Sarasota. 

William Brumby was positioned in the last shooting lane where there was a solid wall on his right-hand side. After firing a round, the spent shell casing struck the wall causing it to deflect and fall into the back of Mr. Brumby's shirt. Brumby then used his right hand, which was holding the handgun, in an attempt to remove the casing. While doing so, he inadvertently pointed the firearm directly behind him and accidentally fired. The round struck his 14-year-old son, Stephen, who was transported to Sarasota Memorial Hospital and later died as a result of his injuries. 

Man I have heard some fucked up stories about people accidentally shooting their family members, but this is may be the most fucked up one of all. 

I am not going to make any tasteless jokes here because this is an absolute tragedy.

But damn people need to start recognizing that the thing in their hand is an instrument of death and make sure they treat it as such.

P.S. There is a Go Fund Me page for anybody interested. 

Former NFL running back accidentally shoots himself in the stomach, fatally.

Courtesy of The Detroit News: 

Former Central Michigan University and Indianapolis Colts running back Zurlon Tipton Jr. died Tuesday after he accidentally shot himself in the stomach at a car dealership while reaching into a bag that held two firearms, officials said. 

Tipton’s death was confirmed Tuesday afternoon by the Wayne County Medical Examiner’s Office. An autopsy is scheduled for Wednesday. 

“The department has been notified by staff at St John (Hospital on Moross) that the individual that suffered the gunshot wound has passed away due to his injuries,” Roseville Police Deputy Chief Donald Glandon wrote in a statement Tuesday. “Condolences to the family.” 

The shooting occurred as the 26-year-old Detroit native placed personal belongings into a bag containing the firearms, police said. It remained unclear Tuesday who owned the weapons or why Tipton was carrying them.

I think it says something really terrible about our society when we hear about an accidental shooting and breathe a sigh of relief when we learn it was an adult this time and not a child.

Or is that just me?

Two year old girl hit in the face when the gun in her mother's purse goes off after being dropped.

Courtesy of TPM:  

A two-year-old child was struck in the face after a gun concealed inside her mother's purse accidentally fired inside a Jackson, Mississippi hospital, police said. 

The woman was standing next to a vending machine at Merit Health Center when she dropped her purse, causing the gun to fire, WJTV reported. A bullet bounced off the vending machine and grazed the child's face. 

The injury was non-life-threatening.

Apparently the incident is under police investigation because no guns are allowed in the hospital.

Actually it seems to me that hospitals should be the ONLY place where you are allowed to have a gun in your possession. That way when it goes off and shoots somebody, which seems to happen with increasing frequency, they will be right where they need to be.

Though in some cases I guess the best place to be standing would be the morgue.

Just another day in the NRA's America.

Six injured by shotgun blast at Florida shooting range.

Courtesy of WKMG-TV: 

A family of five and another teenager were hurt after an accidental shooting Saturday at an Ocala shooting range, the Marion County Sheriff's Office said. 

It happened at 1:30 p.m. Saturday at the Forest Road 88 Shooting Range on Northeast 31st Street. 

Deputies said a 21-year-old man was loading an antique shotgun when it accidentally discharged into the concrete floor. 

The shotgun pellets ricocheted and hit six people. Deputies said a family of five were hit -- two men and three children ages 8, 10 and 14. 

A 15-year-old child who is not related to the family was also hit, deputies said.

Gee so many armed people there and not one of their guns kept these people safe?

The NRA keeps talking about guns as if they are magical talismans that keep people free from harm simply by having one on their person.

I guess not.

Wife of founding member of the Eagles rock band killed when rifle accidentally discharges in home.

Courtesy of Fox News:  

"Lana Meisner, wife of Eagles member Randy Meisner, was tragically shot with a firearm that accidentally discharged," the LAPD tweeted. 

The police explained in a press release that after a thorough investigation it was determined her death occurred when she moved a firearm and it discharged. 

"Mrs. Meisner was moving a rifle that was stored inside a case in a closet," the press release explained. "As she lifted the rifle in the case, another item within the case shifted and hit the trigger of the rifle causing it to fire and fatally injure Mrs. Meisner."

Okay perhaps one of you gun owners can explain this to me.

I am told repeatedly that pulling a trigger to fire a gun is something that does not happen accidentally, and that guns are safe so long as they are handled with care.

Yet here is an incident where a gun was IN THE case, with nobody touching the trigger, and it still killed this woman dead.

In other words sometimes guns really DO kill people. And apparently without any help from people whatsoever. 

Texan accidentally exercises his 2nd Amendment right on himself during church. Dammit Jesus!

Courtesy of the Longview News-Journal: 

Sulphur Springs police say a man accidentally shot himself in the foot Wednesday evening at a church. 

Police said at about 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, officers responded to a shooting at the Davis Street Baptist Church in Sulphur Springs. Officers discovered a person, who was not identified, had accidentally discharged his pistol and shot himself in the foot. 

The victim sustained a minor wound, and no one else was hurt.Police said the shooting happened in the church's family life center.

For some reason the fact that this happened in the "family life center" makes it seem especially ironic.

Once again the best thing that can be said about this is that at least he didn't shoot somebody else. 

Man shoots and kills 14 year old son he mistakes for an intruder.

Courtesy of the AP:

An armed man who believed he was confronting an intruder in the basement of his home Tuesday morning instead fatally shot his 14-year-old son, who was supposed to be on his way to school, police said. 

Police said the teen had headed to the bus stop but apparently came back home through a back door. The man said he heard a noise in the basement. Police said when the father opened a door within the basement, the boy appeared. 

"He scared me!" the distraught father said in his 911 call shortly before 6:30 a.m. "I thought he was in school. I heard noise, so I went downstairs looking and he jumped out at me. .... Oh, God. Get here quick!" 

The man told police he accidentally shot his son with a .45-caliber handgun. After initially telling the 911 dispatcher the boy was hit in the chest, he then said it was in the neck. The dispatcher told him to put the gun on the kitchen counter, then talked him through first aid steps and tried to calm him until police and emergency vehicles arrived. 

The boy died at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center. Police identified him as Georta Mack.

You know the really sad part of this is that I have to pick and choose which gun fatality stories to share, out of a never ending stream of them that show up in my e-mails and in the comments.

There are so many, and come at such a quick pace, that at times it literally seems overwhelming.

When are people going to finally understand that the weapon they have purchased to keep themselves safe is the very thing that now puts them is constant danger?

California pastor shot by his own gun safety instructor. Well it's a good thing he was trained.

Pastor Tom Smith. Now holier than ever.

Courtesy of CBS News:  

A Modesto pastor is recovering after being shot during a gun safety class, CBS Sacramento reports. 

Tom Smith, a family pastor who also helps with church security, was shot by his own gun safety instructor. 

Modesto Police say they were acting out a scenario when a loaded gun the instructor was holding accidentally went off. They say they gun fired at the end of class after the instructor put a mock gun down and picked up his real loaded gun. 

Police say so far it's unclear if the instructor believed he was using the mock gun he had been using to teach the class.

You know I'm certainly no expert on gun safety instruction but it seems to me that the first rule of gun safety class is to NOT shoot any of your students.

But hey, maybe I'm wrong.

Yep, more guns in more hands is certainly keeping us all safe.

Three year old sheriff deputy's son kills himself with gun. Because that's what guns do.

Courtesy of The Wichita Eagle: 

The 3-year-old son of a Reno County sheriff’s deputy accidentally shot and killed himself with a loaded 40-caliber Glock handgun Friday morning, according to a news release from Sheriff Randy Henderson. 

Kaden Nagel, the son of Deputy Andrew Nagel, found the gun at 8:15 a.m. in the apartment his father shares with a roommate, according to the release. 

Andrew Nagel woke up to the sound of a gunshot. 

According to The Hutchinson News the gun did not belong to the father:  

Reno County Attorney Keith Schroeder said the handgun was not Deputy Nagel’s service weapon or personal weapon. He said it belonged to a friend of Deputy Nagel who wasn’t aware it was in the apartment.

The father did not even know the gun was in the apartment, and yet this three year old found it, and ended his life with it, before anybody could do anything to stop him. 

Just another day in the NRA's America.

Arizona man shoots friend in torso with new gun. Because that's what guns are for.

Oops.

Courtesy of ABC 15:  

A man was taken to the hospital from the Arizona State Fairgrounds after he was accidentally shot by his friend, according to the Arizona Department of Public Safety. 

DPS said a man was inspecting a semi-automatic handgun that he had recently purchased when he accidentally shot his friend in the torso. The victim was taken to a hospital and is expected to be OK. 

The Arizona Exposition and State Fair website says the Crossroads of the West Gun Show is taking place at the fairgrounds this weekend. 

Signs outside of the exhibit hall say 'No Loaded Guns' allowed. 

Well clearly this is a case of a good guy with a gun stopping a bad friend with a.....I don't know, attitude problem?

But hey the state fair is covered, after all they did put up a sign and everything.

Seriously what else could they have done? It's not like they can stop selling guns on a fairgrounds full of innocent people and children or anything.

Preschooler finds gun in glove box, keeps America safe by shooting himself in the side.

Courtesy of TPM:  

A preschool-age child in Troy, Michigan shot himself after finding a gun in the console of his mother’s Ford Mustang, the Detroit Free Press reported on Friday. 

According to the paper, while his mother loaded groceries into her car in a Kroger parking lot, the child found the 9 mm Smith and Wesson and shot himself in the side. The wound was not fatal and the child is out of surgery, Troy Police Captain Robert Redmond told the Free Press. 

Redmond said that it was unclear whether the gun was left in the car by the boy’s mother or her husband, but that “she’s still responsible for the child’s safety.”

It seems that this is just about the best outcome one can expect when the headline contains the word "preschooler" and "gun."

Yes he shot himself, but no he is not dead.

Your good news story of the day.

Texas woman drops gun in doctor's office hitting patient in other room. Well, at least they were in the right place.

Courtesy of KCEN TV:  

A witness told KCEN's sister station 12News that a woman was in the waiting room of a medical office. When she reached into her purse to pull out some paperwork, a gun fell out of her purse causing it to discharge. The round went through a wall and hit another patient in the hip. 

Bobby Pressley was in the waiting room when it happened. 

"Everyone was sitting in the waiting room and there was a gun shot. A woman dropped her purse down on the counter and it shot through the wall and shot another lady," said Pressley. 

A spokesperson for the Beaumont Police Department told 12News that the injuries of the person whom was shot are not considered life threatening. The victim was taken to the hospital for treatment.

Yep that 2nd Amendment is keeping us so safe that it even reached through walls to stop a bad patient in an open back gown.

Sure this seems bad, but if the NRA has taught us anything it's that guns are not inherently dangerous, therefore the doctor's patient was probably up to no good, and the gun sensed that and leaped (Or in this case fell) into action.

Three year old finds gun and promptly shoots herself in the leg. Sadly this is considered a positive outcome for a shooting in America.

Courtesy of Newsweek:  

The 3-year-old daughter of a Georgia sheriff's deputy accidentally shot herself in the leg in Dodge County, according to the local news channel WMGT. 

The little girl, who was not identified because of her age, is the daughter of Deputy Dorian Johnson and Lakeasha Smith. Dodge County Sheriff Lynn Sheffield told local media that while moving some furniture around in the family's home, Smith had removed the gun from a chest of drawers and put it on the bed. At the time, Smith believed the girl was in a different room, but it appears that the child crawled onto the bed, picked up the gun and shot herself in the right leg. 

The weapon was a personal firearm of Johnson's, not a police-issued gun. He was not at home during the incident. 

I actually feel badly for this father since it seems he took steps to keep his firearm out of the reach of his daughter. However a gun in the house, by definition increases the likelihood that somebody will be shot, whether on purpose of accidentally.

The minute this firearm entered the house the possibility of his child being shot went up 100%.

Simply put guns are designed to kill. Even guns owned by law enforcement professionals. 

8 year old girl dies after gun falls to the floor while her mother braids her hair.

Courtesy of Raw Story:  

A Georgia girl was killed in an apparently accidental shooting that also wounded her mother. 

Marsha Lynch said she was braiding her daughter’s hair when a handgun fell to the floor and fired, striking her in the leg and then shooting her 8-year-old daughter in the head. 

Sharia Lynch died from the gunshot wound before she could be airlifted to an area hospital.

Not a day goes by where some child is not killed by a gun in this country.

And yet every single one of these weapons were undoubtedly purchased because their owners believed that having them would be them and their loved ones safe.

That is the mindset created by the NRA and its supporters, and that is the mindset which needs to be changed before we can take the important steps necessary to protect the lives of our children.

This has gone on fucking long enough, and the time for change is now.

OK Corral reenactment gets a little too real when one of the participants shoots a live round into the groin of his "opponent."

Photo courtesy of Raw Story.

Courtesy of Tuscon News Now:

It wasn't quite the "gunfight at the OK Corral," but a member of the Tombstone Vigilantes gunfight reenactment group accidentally shot another member of the Vigilantes Sunday afternoon, according to the Cochise County Sheriff's Office. 

One of the Vigilantes arrived late and did not have his gun properly inspected. He then accidentally shot another member of the Vigilantes. The man was shot in the upper groin area sometime around 2 p.m. and had to be airlifted to the hospital, said CCSO spokeswoman Carol Capas. 

According to an update from the Tombstone Marshal's Office, actors Tom Carter and victim Ken Curtis were facing off against each other when Carter fired his gun. Curtis fell to the ground after being hit by a live round. 

Curtis was flown to Banner-University Medical Center to have the bullet removed.

Why do these people always seem to get shot in the groin? Is that where everybody aims?

When the shooter's gun was inspected it was found that all six rounds had been live with five expended, and one live round in the chamber.

Two nearby businesses were also hit, as well as a bystander, but only by shrapnel.

Gee I guess guns are still dangerous even when you think you have rendered them safe.

Who knew?

I mean besides most people?