I don't talk about my job much, and I'm not going to go into any details here that aren't available in the local media.

Friday a 4 year old found a loaded handgun and shot herself through the neck. Miraculously, she has thus far survived, but remains critical.

Saturday another 4 year old found a loaded handgun and shot himself in the head. He did not survive.

Incidentally, the same investigator spent roughly 20 hours in two days on those two cases.

Today an 8 year old found a loaded handgun and shot himself in the chest. He did not survive.

Please, for the love of god, lock up any weapons that are not under your direct and immediate control if there is even the possibility of children being present. Hiding them isn't enough. Lock. Them. Up.

Thanks. Just needed to vent a bit.

Huge fear of mine. We had my kids plus 4 others over today for a BD party. Any gun that wasn't locked up was unloaded and separate from ammunition in a case or otherwise difficult to access.

My children are everything...I couldn't imagine being responsible for their death like that.

"Jesus. I don't care how short handed we are. You're taking tomorrow off."

Supervisor of the year right there. He'll be getting something in desk drawer around Christmas this year...

What area of the country are you in, where news of the first injury wouldn't cause everyone else to come up with a plan?

That is horrible X3.

A plan? youve clearly never visited SW TN...

That's not even close to all the shootings this weekend. That's just 3 self inflicted incidents involving children in a 48 hour period. I'm aware of 4 other shootings one of which at least resulted in a death. That's probably not all that occcured, I've been busy with my own workload and might have missed a couple.

When I teach my Ccw class I repeat that phrase at least ten times.. Always keep your firearms secure and unaccessible to unauthorized people especially children..
There is no excuse.

Hell my kids are teenagers and I still don't allow unattended guns.

Yes tragic, what more can be said. It's always a consideration, who may be around & have access.

Thanks for the post and the critical reminder. There are so many affordable options available to secure weapons today; there is just no excuse.

Silent

Memphis.

http://www.wmcactionnews5.com/...lly-shooting-himself

Hardly ever are there any small children in my hime, but regardless ! I have made it a long term practice to never have more than one pistol out of the gun safe, and that one pistol is always on me.

Unatteded weapons can be accessed by adults too.

I am sorry for those children, it could have been prevented.

When I received my permit, I got a call a few days later from the local police who issued my permit.

They asked how I was storing my weapons when I was not carrying it/them.

We had a short discussion and he said it looks like you have it covered.

Have a nice evening.

At the time, I thought it was a bit intrusive.

Now I am not so sure.

quote:

Originally posted by sig2392:
When I received my permit, I got a call a few days later from the local police who issued my permit.

They asked how I was storing my weapons when I was not carrying it/them.

We had a short discussion and he said it looks like you have it covered.

Have a nice evening.

At the time, I thought it was a bit intrusive.

Now I am not so sure.

Well I'm very sure. It's extremely intrusive and none of his darn business.

quote:

Originally posted by Some Shot:
What area of the country are you in, where news of the first injury wouldn't cause everyone else to come up with a plan?

That is horrible X3.

Unfortunately I think the reality is that those who see news like this and think they need a plan already have a plan. For people who don't already have one, I don't have much confidence in the local news being the catalyst for action.

This is horrible to read. I have a 1 and a 5 year old in the house, all but my carry pistol are in a locked safe, and although I am sure I will catch flak for it, I keep my carry glock with an empty chamber. It is just an extra element of safety if I set my pistol down inadvertently, or if it comes unholstered while wrestling with them on the floor or whatever, they cannot pull the trigger and fire.
I still make sure they can't access the gun, buy not every single event can be foreseen.

I'm sure a "professional" gunslinger will chime in here with what a horrible idea it is, but honestly, I'd rather take a bullet in the unlikely event I am ever in a speed draw contest, than take a chance to have one of my kids kill themselves with my gun.

This drives me nuts. How hard is it? Get a safe, no safe?, get a lock box. When I was younger and living on Ramen I still managed a small fire safe which was good enough to defeat children. Revolvers went in the safe, as well as the bolts of rifles and slides of pistols. Everything else was locked in a cubbard.

Combine this with solid teaching and you're good to go as far as little pitchers are concerned.

quote:

Originally posted by Balzé Halzé:

quote:

Originally posted by sig2392:
When I received my permit, I got a call a few days later from the local police who issued my permit.

They asked how I was storing my weapons when I was not carrying it/them.

We had a short discussion and he said it looks like you have it covered.

Have a nice evening.

At the time, I thought it was a bit intrusive.

Now I am not so sure.

Well I'm very sure. It's extremely intrusive and none of his darn business.

^^^This.

When I work with new shooters I make it abundantly clear to them, my guns are either in or on my waistband or in my safe. Anything short of that IMO is completely irresponsible.

It's not irresponsible if you have no young children around. I keep a gun in each room. If kids come over, THEN I'll put them away.

I use to teach concealed carry classes and part of the class covered safe gun storage. I'd start the section by asking 'when you were young, how many of you found a Christmas or other gift that you're parents hid?' That always seemed to get everyone's attention.

Then I'd ask, what makes you think you could hid a gun so well that a kid will not find it?

These are sad stories. The only upside is sharing these so we all take a minute to examine what we do in our home. When the grandkids visit, everything stays in the safe.

quote:

Originally posted by SBrooks:
It's not irresponsible if you have no young children around. I keep a gun in each room. If kids come over, THEN I'll put them away.

You're assuming 'children' are the problem. My wife has friends over to our house regularly that I really don't know very well. We have a cleaning crew clean our home every two weeks. There are all sorts of people in and out of my house weekly I neither know well or can control. As such, there are 'zero' uncontrolled guns anywhere in my home, because I will not take the chance of someone doing something stupid. Kids just add an entire additional layer of concerns to the equation.