Toddler playing with gun shoots man dead

[KIISQueen]

Police in Alameda, California, are searching for the owner of a .38-calibre handgun a toddler used to fatally shoot a 22-year-old man.

The three-year-old boy apparently found the revolver in a bedroom cupboard while his mother fed his one-year-old sister, and two aunts and a grandmother played cards, said police Lt. David Boersma.

When the boy walked into the living room playing with the gun, the adults tried to get him to put it down. But the pistol fired and struck Luis Fernando Zepeda-Silva, a recent immigrant from Guatemala.

Police said Silva had been on a patio sorting bottles for recycling when he returned to the living room through a sliding glass door and the boy pulled the trigger.

Silva was shot in the chest and later pronounced dead at Highland Hospital in Oakland.

Early evidence indicates it was a “big, tragic accident,” but questions remain, Boersma said.

“I’ve got to tell you, I thought it was completely implausible that a three-year-old could manipulate a revolver,” he said. “Was he using both hands? Just fooling around with it?”


Investigators searched for an uncle of the boy’s who lived in the apartment, but was not home during Monday’s shooting. California law allows prosecutors to file criminal charges against adults when children find guns and shoot and harm somebody.

“He’s the key to all of this,” Boersma said of the uncle. Police did not release the man’s name, but said he was Silva’s cousin.

Boersma said the gun may have been stored with the hammer cocked. It was unregistered and unlocked, he said.

The boy had recently played with a water pistol and may have been familiar with how to operate a gun, Boersma said.

An interview with the boy was not very helpful, Boersma said. Both English and Spanish are spoken in the home and the boy speaks neither very well.

The boy was allowed to stay with his parents. Police believe they were not even aware the gun was in the apartment.

http://www.breakingnews.ie/2006/05/10/story258032.html

[Houdini]

If only people would keep their damn guns away from kids. If it's a smooth double-action, it wouldn't even have to be cocked. Anyway, hide and lock your guns when kids are around! And teach them to respect these weapons, etc.!

[bachviet]

I hope the police finds the gun owner.

[brainsmile]

honestly it's not surprising... it's loaded and not locked away? That's darwin.

[gwilks98]

THEY ARRESTED the kid!!!!!!

Smoking gun has a mugshot.

link (http://img118.imageshack.us/img118/6231/mugmaggie1la.gif)

[sizemic1]

Just goes to show how impressionable young kids are when they're given toy guns to play with. It doesn't matter how absurd looking they might be. I just about flipped out when I saw my 2yr old nephew pull a cigarrette out of a pack and put it in his mouth.

[LegendKiller]

Sigh...

My wife is so anti-gun for reasons EXACTLY like this. Her mom has her ingrained that guns are evil and kids will do crap like this.

I have several firearms that are family heirlooms, including an italian over-under, that I cannot even bring in the house.

I have tried saying I would get gun locks or even go as far as taking out the firing pin, to no avail.

Idiot people ruin it for society. The uncle should definitely go to prison.

[Markel]

Poor kid. Poor victim. STUPID UNCLE! :angry:

[dougadam]

That's why gun locks are so important.

[BigJon]

I don't care how you do it...lock you guns.

Craziness....

[molecularfire]

Man... can never trust those shifty toddlers. I think he did it intentionally. Who's with me.

[Houdini]

Sigh...

My wife is so anti-gun for reasons EXACTLY like this. Her mom has her ingrained that guns are evil and kids will do crap like this.

I have several firearms that are family heirlooms, including an italian over-under, that I cannot even bring in the house.

I have tried saying I would get gun locks or even go as far as taking out the firing pin, to no avail.

Idiot people ruin it for society. The uncle should definitely go to prison.

That sucks. What about a large gun safe? There is (or used to be) a pic that refreshed every 30 sec or so of some guy's pistol that the world could watch to make sure it didn't do anything bad. :)

Ignorance re: firearms runs rampant in our society. A German friend of mine was aghast when I told him I had 3 in my trunk one day and he was in the car. As if the guns were going to somehow exit the trunk, break through a window, and start gunning us down. He said guns should be banned. I reminded him that Hitler did that as one of his first major actions to prevent revolt. That shut him up for a while. I even offered to take him shooting, to teach him safety, and annul his fears and propagandic ideas of firearms. He NEVER went with me. For some reason, he took pride in his ignorance of something that in many years past has saved more lives defensively than has taken lives criminally. Let me rephrase that. The guns weren't responsible at all for either. Firearms are tools. Nothing more, nothing less. An unloaded gun is about as useless as any object in existance. Of course, all guns are loaded (should be treated that way,) but it's the guy who pulls the trigger, not the gun itself, that is culpable in any use, good or bad.

H <---climbs off soapbox

[clutchy]

Sigh...

My wife is so anti-gun for reasons EXACTLY like this. Her mom has her ingrained that guns are evil and kids will do crap like this.

I have several firearms that are family heirlooms, including an italian over-under, that I cannot even bring in the house.

I have tried saying I would get gun locks or even go as far as taking out the firing pin, to no avail.

Idiot people ruin it for society. The uncle should definitely go to prison.


My wife's mom is violently anti-gun. She's had her house broken into twice and always has the door locked, but for some reason she won't allow a gun into the house AT ALL, ever.

it's pretty ridiculous if you ask me, however that didn't transfer to my wife, she feels alot safer knowing that i have a gun and wouldn't hesitate to use it in order to protect her.


be a man, tell her it's coming in and that's the end of it.


bummer about the illegal. it's liberals armed with type of ammunition that will try and get guns banned...

[Houdini]

bummer about the illegal. it's liberals armed with type of ammunition that will try and get guns banned...

Not to make this too political, but yeah, the liberal leaders in the Senate and Hollywood generally have exceptions for themselves (carrying, no-duty-to-retreat, etc.) within their own states....

Trust the elite! The rest of us can't be trusted with such horrible tools!

[clutchy]

Trust the elite! The rest of us can't be trusted with such horrible tools!

and there is the mantra for our favorite political party. :shakehand

[InfiniteNothing]

My wife's mom is violently anti-gun. She's had her house broken into twice and always has the door locked, but for some reason she won't allow a gun into the house AT ALL, ever.

it's pretty ridiculous if you ask me, however that didn't transfer to my wife, she feels alot safer knowing that i have a gun and wouldn't hesitate to use it in order to protect her.


be a man, tell her it's coming in and that's the end of it.


bummer about the illegal. it's liberals armed with type of ammunition that will try and get guns banned...

To be fair your wife's mom has a point:

These days, Jarvis often finds herself citing the Journal of the American Medical Association statistic: "You are 22 times more likely to use a gun kept in the home in an unintentional shooting than you are to injure or kill in self-defense." Make that 43 times more likely if you look at urban settings alone.Link (http://www.detnews.com/2005/lifestyle/0509/15/E01-315249.htm)

Take what ever safeguards you want, it's still going to be pretty hard to overcome those statistics.

[Jeffbx]

:stupid:

There's no cure for stupidity, and as long as you have stupid people with guns in the house, you're just asking for an accidental shooting.

[clutchy]

To be fair your wife's mom has a point:
Link (http://www.detnews.com/2005/lifestyle/0509/15/E01-315249.htm)

Take what ever safeguards you want, it's still going to be pretty hard to overcome those statistics.

while i enjoy quoting stats as well, they're not damning and certainly not predictive of individual behavior maybe as a whole but i don't know a single gun that's ever killed anyone, it's generally people that do the maiming, killing, and accidental shootings. You know the fun stuff when you give people the ability to make their own choices...

http://www.assaultweaponwatch.com/

I have my gun waiting by my bedside with a loaded clip close at hand at all times. If i had a kid in the house that would completely change, but as it stands there are only adults...

[InfiniteNothing]

That's like saying you can't predict lung cancer in individual smokers. True but not really a good argument for smoking.

"Cigarettes don't give you cancer, cell mutation causes cancer"

[Houdini]

That's like saying you can't predict lung cancer in individual smokers. True but not really a good argument for smoking.

"Cigarettes don't give you cancer, cell mutation causes cancer"

Not really. Guns have multiple uses. Cigarettes do not. People have to point the gun at someone and pull the trigger, consciously, to do harm. That harm can come to someone who is trying to harm him/her or to commit a forceable felony. Guns can save lives. Cigs can't.

Perhaps it should be, "Guns don't kill people, people with guns can kill people."

A gun is a tool. Nothing more, nothing less. If I bashed you in the head with a hammer, you're just as dead as if I shot you. :shrug:

[InfiniteNothing]

You could always build a cigarette fort ;) I think you misunderstand my point. I'm not trying to ban guns. I realize they have a use. I'm arguing against personally keeping a gun in the house: the odds of injuring someone close to you are too high. If ones so is arguing against, they are doing so partially in self defense. Maybe a tool but it is no hammer. A hammer is much more simple and easy to understand for kids. It is also easier to defend oneself from someone attacking you with a hammer. Hammers are less likely to inflict mortal damage... etc.

[Mommypooh]

I think we need to do away with toy guns for a start. If kids don't play with toy guns they can be taught more easily that guns are dangerous. That haveing been said, I will not allow a gun in my home toy or real.

[InfiniteNothing]

They are always going to think guns are cool from TV. Not to mention kids are simply so susceptible to peer pressure. Kids are risk junkies anyways. Danger only makes it cooler. It's a lose-lose.

[MJordanash]

Unload the weapon

Put a gun lock on the weapon

Lock the gun in a secure safe

Simple Instructions for Stupid People

[clutchy]

They are always going to think guns are cool from TV. Not to mention kids are simply so susceptible to peer pressure. Kids are risk junkies anyways. Danger only makes it cooler. It's a lose-lose.


I disagree, when i was younger my parents forbade me from watching MTV, i went over and saw it a few times at friends houses, but we never had cable and so i never really watched it. I never thought it was "cool" and never got sucked into their vices. Guns, however, well that's a completely different story.

Currently i think MTV is stupid, and i feel bad for the kids of this generation, they're being manipulated and influenced for the purposes of those in control... but i love guns!!

[InfiniteNothing]

I'm not sure what your arguing. That kids won't think guns are cool just from seeing their hero's/villains using them on TV?


Unload the weapon

Put a gun lock on the weapon

Lock the gun in a secure safe

Simple Instructions for Stupid People
You never know when you're going to wake up, open the safe, load, and unlock the weapon. ;) Sounds strange but I've heard of people doing weirder things in their sleep.

[jstreet]

I reminded him that Hitler did that as one of his first major actions to prevent revolt. That shut him up for a while.Sorry H, gotta debunk this one.

http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mhitlergun.html

http://www.guncite.com/gun_control_gcnazimyth.html

[Houdini]

Sorry H, gotta debunk this one.

http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mhitlergun.html

http://www.guncite.com/gun_control_gcnazimyth.html

Ahh...thanks for the info. At any rate, a disarmed population is much more subject to a corrupt government's rule. It's another "check" on the government, should it ever need overthrowing. Of course, the military would have to be on board, and the govt. would have to really go to hell, but similar things have happened numerous times througout history.

But on topic, I'm all in favor of gun safes, etc., if kids are around. A loaded gun, or one with a loaded mag next to it, in a good safe is a good idea, IMHO. Keeping ammo hidden somewhere else in the house defeats the purpose as, well, there is NOTHING more useless than an unloaded gun. Except for maybe the old Superman shows. Bullets bounced off the guy like superballs, but when the bad guy ran out of ammo and threw the gun at Superman, he always ducked. :) Teaching kids firsthand about gun respect and safety enhances the safety aspect even more, and is arguably as important as keeping them inaccessible to kids.

Some here are against guns in the house, but are ok with them for personal protection? Where should one keep his/her guns then? If you need to defend yourself and your weapon is not available b/c it's locked up somewhere outside your house or not on your person, it defeats the purpose.

Yes, as a tool, guns are more dangerous than hammers. But they are simply tools. They don't do anything unless someone shoots them. There is a big human factor involved. No human operator = no gunshots.