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Big Chief
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Idaho woman accidentally shot and killed by 2-year-old in Wal-Mart
Big Chief
Senior MemberPosts: 32,995 Senior Member
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2014/12/31/woman-accidentally-shot-and-killed-by-2-year-old-in-walmart/
"An Idaho nuclear research scientist who had taken her young relatives to Wal-Mart to spend their holiday gift cards was killed Tuesday when her 2-year-old son pulled a loaded pistol from her purse and shot her.
Deputies who responded found Veronica Rutledge, 29, dead in the Hayden store's electronics department in what Kootenai County sheriff's spokesman Stu Miller described as a "tragic accident." Rutledge, who worked at the Idaho National Laboratory, was from Blackfoot in southeastern Idaho, and her family had come to the area to visit relatives.
Rutledge had a concealed weapons permit. Miller said the young boy was left in a shopping cart, reached into his mother's purse and grabbed a small-caliber handgun, which discharged once.
The victim's father-in-law, Terry Rutledge, told The Associated Press that Veronica Rutledge "was a beautiful, young, loving mother."
"She was not the least bit irresponsible," Terry Rutledge said. "She was taken much too soon."
Miller said Rutledge's husband arrived shortly after the shooting. All the children were taken to a relative's house."
"An Idaho nuclear research scientist who had taken her young relatives to Wal-Mart to spend their holiday gift cards was killed Tuesday when her 2-year-old son pulled a loaded pistol from her purse and shot her.
Deputies who responded found Veronica Rutledge, 29, dead in the Hayden store's electronics department in what Kootenai County sheriff's spokesman Stu Miller described as a "tragic accident." Rutledge, who worked at the Idaho National Laboratory, was from Blackfoot in southeastern Idaho, and her family had come to the area to visit relatives.
Rutledge had a concealed weapons permit. Miller said the young boy was left in a shopping cart, reached into his mother's purse and grabbed a small-caliber handgun, which discharged once.
The victim's father-in-law, Terry Rutledge, told The Associated Press that Veronica Rutledge "was a beautiful, young, loving mother."
"She was not the least bit irresponsible," Terry Rutledge said. "She was taken much too soon."
Miller said Rutledge's husband arrived shortly after the shooting. All the children were taken to a relative's house."
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I'd rather have my sister work in a whorehouse than own another Taurus!
Words of wisdom from Big Chief: Flush twice, it's a long way to the Mess Hall
I'd rather have my sister work in a whorehouse than own another Taurus!
Replies
I disagree. If you leave a loaded gun (or any gun) where a 2 year old can reach it, you ARE irresponsible.
"Nothing is safe from stupid." - Zee
I'm sorry, but the story doesn't add up. And I also agree, if it happened the way the report says it did, she was irresponsible. I feel really bad for the kid.
Small striker-fired automatic, maybe .25 or .32 caliber (Davis, Lorcin, etc.)
Safety off
Purse-carried with no covering device to prevent something getting into the trigger guard
Kid rummaging around in the purse while Mama shops
BANG!
Nope, nothing irresponsible here!
:roll:
Jerry
I feel the same. Seems like it would have to have been a very light trigger pull weight and few (if any) safeties. In any case, you'd think a nuclear scientist would be smart enough to know better than to leave the gun where the kid could get to it. First thing I told my wife when we talked about this last night was "That's why you don't carry in a purse".
Exactly- - - - -not to mention the very real possibility of arming a purse-snatcher so he can be a more effective criminal at his next attempt!
Jerry
I called the Kootenai County (Idaho) Sheriff's Department, and asked what kind of gun was involved. They were unable to tell me at this time as the incident was still under investigation, however I was told to check their website periodically for more information as it becomes available.
I would say that carrying in that manner sure isn't a recipe for a fast draw, but then neither is an ankle holster.
Purses, even dedicated gun purses, not to include fanny packs, are a bad idea because the purse is not under direct control and can be laid down or lost and easily stolen.
This is what my wife NEVER does...she's very cognizant that her gun is in there...certainly not the way to carry for a scatterbrain...
It was a S&W Shield 9mm
Very sad and regrettable and a hard legacy for that child to grow up with.
Yes.. it is a hazard inherent with that mode of carry....as I've described here in the past...we had a friend who had her purse grabbed by a couple of thugs at the mall back in MI...only issue was...she didn't let go. She got a beating that put her in the hospital. From her hospital bed, she always said that she felt worse about loosing her gun to a thug than taking the beating...
I tend to agree that an actual external manual safety would have prevented this kid from simply pulling the trigger to fire the weapon. That much is very likely.
But as bream says, other things happened to set up this tragedy. Yeah, IF the gun had an external safety, yeah, it's unlikely the kid would have flipped off the safety first and then pulled the trigger. So I do disagree technically with bream, in that imo, a safety would have prevented the discharge.
But to extend what bream says, allowing a child (a baby, actually) to put its hands on a loaded weapon? Total abrogation of parental responsibility. So he's totally correct on the general issue of a downward slide.
Later reports say that the pistol was in a special side pocket meant for a firearm and that it was not a case of the gun accidentally catching on a fabric or whatever, that the child actually did pull the trigger.
The operative point, as I see it, was that the woman allowed her firearm to be accessible to a child, even for 4-5 seconds. All of us who've raised kids know that it only takes a split second for a child to do something hazardous. Consider little kids reaching up and pulling a boiling pan or pot upon themselves from the stovetop. That's why parents learn to turn the handles toward the back. Or to keep kitchen knives or pointy scissors totally in a drawer and away from eager little hands.
Little kids are by human nature inquisitive and reachy -- and as you who've raised kids know, if there are 99 non-harmful things within reach and only 1 harmful thing, the kid will ALWAYS reach for that one sharp knife or hot spoon or whatever. Murphy's Law.
This was a terrible tragedy but preventable. And the situation was also "covered" by the standard firearm safety rules that we all know: You are always responsible for a loaded gun.
I agree, and let us go one step further, and put mandatory gun locks on all firearms. This would have prevented this as well. You could just keep the key on a wrist chain, and unlock it whenever it is needed. And also no one was ever shot accidentally with a gun prior to 1982 when the Glock was introduced. It is also a proven fact that no child has ever been killed by the 1911, because it has a safety. This death has nothing to do with maintaining control of your firearm, it is about safeties.:roll:
Oooooh kay....
What you meant was: I don't know how to properly handle a firearm, and rely on mechanical means to prevent me from being stupid and hurting myself.
Yea that's it.
:that:
No amount of safeties will prevent a negligent discharge. The ONLY installed safety that matters is the one installed between the ears.
Woman should not have left purse with pistol in shopping cart with child. This is a gross failure of keeping the firearm out of the reach of the child. And this resulted in the tragedy that could have been avoided.
Edit to add: any revolver or semiauto pistol can be made safe for the safe handling challenged by carrying with the cylinder empty in the case of the revolver, or the chamber empty and magazine removed in the case of the semiauto. But I still bet someone would have a ND doing that.
― Douglas Adams