Father trying to fix pistol accidentally shoots daughter, 11, in head

www.startribune.com...

BRAHAM, Minn. - An 11-year-old girl is hospitalized after authorities say her father accidentally shot her in the head in east-central Minnesota.

Pine County Sheriff Robin Cole says the man was doing target practice with a .22-caliber pistol outside his home near Braham (bram) when the gun jammed.

Cole says the man brought the gun inside the house and was trying to fix it when it went off Thursday evening, shooting his daughter in the head from across the room. The man had been in the living room while the daughter was seated at the kitchen table.

How does this happen? This is my daughter's classmate that got accidently shot by her dad, in their home. This is something that I have a hard time dealing with. I live in a rural area where it's certainly not outside the norm to be target practicing in the backyard, but it's so wrong what has happened. I asked my husband what he would have done if his gun got jammed and he said he would have, "Cleared the chamber." I asked him if he would have brought the gun inside the house and he said, "I probably would have taken it into the shed." I'm so upset and it seems so close to home, which it is, I told my ten year old her classmate probably won't be back for the rest of the school year.

I'm so numb, we are a family of hunters and my daughter target shoots with her dad and we hunt. But this, this has just got me stuck somewhere in the middle. And I'm not usually one to be in the middle; it's usually pretty clear cut for me.

Was this just a really bad unfortunate accident or??

very unfortunate.

i find that the more some people are around guns, the more complacent they become. they can often forget the simple rules that will always keep everyone safe

these situations usually involve alcohol. (i know a gun expert who accidentally shot his dog in the face.) (the dog is ok, but blind)

never point a gun at anything.....ever...that you don't plan to shoot

never ever put your finger on, or pull the trigger of a gun....unless you plan to shoot

always assume the gun is loaded

as a relatively new gun owner, i am so ridiculously careful....i pray i never become lax with gun safety

best of luck to you, your kid, and the victims family

reply to post by queenofsheba


Stupidity..
I've heard of people bringing malfunctioned guns into homes and garages before and either shooting someone, shooting themselves or damaging the home.. Why? I never understand.. I cannot think of a single instance where a malfunction will force me into my home to fix it. If you need a tool or you are missing something important, leave the gun leveled downrange and get what you need. With a typical handgun there's only a few ways to malfunction, and to fix most malfunctions involves turning the gun at 90 degree angles. Some involve tapping or hitting the magazine, which of course could cause a misfire. Obviously, an intelligent person does this on the range, because there is no reason to bring a malfunctioned gun into your home let alone where your children are.

PS: The girl will probably be out of school for a little bit, but quite honestly .22 isn't going to cause severe trauma that would impair her for the rest of her life in a critical way. Had it been a 9mm or larger, she very well could have died.

When I was a teenager, I lost a friend to gun play. He went to a boy's house, the boy said something along the line of "Let me show you my dad's shotgun."

He showed my friend the shotgun alright and ended my friend's life in the process. Total accident if that can be called an accident.

Imagine sending your son to a friend's house. "Bye son, see oyu when you get back." And you never see him alive again.

He was shot in the neck. He died before EMS arrived.

It's three decades later and I still miss him.

reply to post by queenofsheba


Unfortunately some people are just plain idiots. The man should never have taken the gun in the house. He also should have followed the basic safety rules. If he had been smart enough to follow the big four this would have been avoided.

I don't think it was a conspiracy or even attempted murder. It is just the unfortunate side effect of having a shallow end of the gene pool.

I am sorry that this has hit so close to home and I hope your kid deals with it well. It is hard for kids to understand why bad things happen to people they know. Don't let it change your stance on the second amendment though. Let it serve as a teaching moment and be resolute in demanding proper safety from those around your family.

There are several people I refuse to shoot with. Several of them I even refuse to let be around my family when they have a gun. I do not trust them to follow basic safety rules. That means they are forbidden to carry on my property or in my car.

Be safe and be vigiliant.

reply to post by Rockpuck


Agreed. Absolute stupidity on the man's part. That story is incredibly upsetting, because it was completely avoidable. When handling deadly weapons, one should always be careful and mindful what direction the weapon is positioned. Target practice outside in the yard can be equally deadly. I remember hearing about a case where an old man was shot dead by a stray bullet by someone who was shooting their gun in their yard a mile or so away. The guy had missed the target, and the bullet crossed into a park full of people celebrating the 4th of July. Too many gun owners don't possess the intelligence and foresight needed to handle a deadly weapon. Too many people die because someone chooses the wrong place to practice, doesn't lock their gun away from his/her kids, leaves the gun loaded, doesn't follow safety rules, etc. These are all senseless and perfectly avoidable accidents.

reply to post by queenofsheba


There is no good excuse for this.

Purely sad and preventable event.

I've got nothing else to say except for some really nonloving things,,,,,and I don't want to go there.

Except for one thing. I hope the little girl recovers and will be well.

reply to post by queenofsheba


Accidents happen, unless he had a motive to shoot his daughter, he would of never done it on purpose, plus hes a cop, so his aim would of been dead on..well for the most part anyways.

reply to post by queenofsheba


Thank you all for your replies. I was driving home with my daughter from Easter shopping and listening to the local news on the radio when the news was reported on this little girl and my daughter said, "Oh, my gosh Mom!" "She's in my class!" She heard it that way and all I could do was reassure her that her friend was being well taken care of. But you know, in that mindset, of a ten year old...they don't know how to process that stuff. I was more heartbroken for her parents and I stopped breathing for a sec, just one sec, you know; thinking this never happens to me and no, it didn't but it sure was close to home. I'm not a big ATS thread maker but this one, I thought perhaps I could share and most likely, unfortunately, get responses from....

I've had dangerous FTF malfunctions before.

Rules for those who don't know:

1. Point muzzle in SAFE direction

2. Switch on safety

3. Pull magazine(if applicable)

4. Clear chamber

5. After 1-4 is completed THEN disassemble firearm and work on it.

Not following these rules will get you what is being discussed in this thread.

wow i think unfortunate is an understatement! i dont know what i would do if this happened to my child! I know i would kick the fathers a** after i told him where to stick that gun of his, which is apparently in the same place where his head is located!!!

the fathers actions were clearly irresponsible. anyone who owns a firearm should know at the very least the basic safety rules! i can imagine how terrible this man feels by doing this and will have to live with this for the rest of his life. this whole thing could have been avoided, and you would think someone would take even more precautions knowing his daughter was around when he was doing it. but bottom line...SAFETY FIRST!!!! especially with a deadly weapon DUH!

unfortunate yes, but VERY careless. why in the hell he would ever point a gun at his daughter much less one that has live ammunition in it!

and the fact the he is a sheriff is even more disappointing he should know gun safety and to always be aware of where your gun is being pointed at. its called muzzle awareness

I hope this guy get fired, and attempted murder charge.

Seriously I really don't get how people "accidently shoot a gun". like someone else above me said don't point a gun at something unless you intend to shoot it. but how do you accidently pull a trigger, its not like you lightly braze it with your finger and it fires, you actually have to apply pressure to fire. thats like... oh sorry man I accidently punched you in the face, or I accidently pushed you off the cliff.

I have been in a scenario similar to this, where someone "accidently" pulled the trigger with a 45 handgun pointing inches from my head. that would have ended me instantly had it been pointed slightly over and also the fact being it was a hollow point. this # is not funny and it happens frequently more then you think.

I never really got why they keep people in the army who have a accidental discharge. anyone who accidently shoots a gun should be branded as never being allowed to own or even TOUCH a gun EVER AGAIN.

reply to post by tempesillest


You don't always have to pull the trigger. I hate to say that out loud, but it is honest. I bought a Glock and quickly sold it off. Every time you racked the slide manually it would fire. I sold it to a friend for a song with the understanding that they had to get it fixed.

Remington has also had a few recalls lately for their guns going off at inapropriate times.

We can not say the guy intentionally pulled the trigger. We can call him an idiot all day though.

reply to post by MikeNice81


It's VERY possible that the pin was cocked and under stress. All the man had to do was manipulate a small portion of the gun and BOOM. Doesn't even have to be the trigger.

This could very well be the result of on half thoughtlessness and one half manufacturer defect.

Anyone know what kind of .22 pistol it was?

reply to post by projectvxn


I still say it was 100% his fault. He never should have removed the gun from the range untill it was cleared. Like you said, keep it pointed down range. There is no need to remove the gun from the area unless you are at a public range with no range master and nobody to help you get the tools together to take it apart.

I understand that a manufacturer's defect may have instigated the initial scenario. However, his action produced the result.

reply to post by queenofsheba


It was criminal negligence and stupidity if I had to guess. It's tragic anyway. I wouldn't be surprised to find out alcohol was involved either. It doesn't really say what the malfunction was or what type of gun it was but dad ignored some basic safety rules. I've seen complacency get a lot of people over the years, none fatally thankfully. I had a friend pull out a 9mm he had just bought to show his wife and blow a hole in the wall just above his wife's head. He had just cleaned the gun and swears it was unloaded but they were the only two there. Come to think about it he was pretty much an idiot anyway.

reply to post by MikeNice81


I agree entirely. Wouldn't argue that.

All I'm saying is that all things that could go wrong will go wrong. Following the simple rules I illustrated above would go a long way to minimize the chances of something going wrong.

Any gun who would produce dangerous FTF/FTE malfunctions like this should be looked at very carefully is what I'm saying here. If there's a problem with the gun we should know about it right away so that it can be remedied so that something like this never happens again.

Originally posted by MikeNice81
reply to post by tempesillest

 

You don't always have to pull the trigger. I hate to say that out loud, but it is honest. I bought a Glock and quickly sold it off. Every time you racked the slide manually it would fire. I sold it to a friend for a song with the understanding that they had to get it fixed.

Remington has also had a few recalls lately for their guns going off at inapropriate times.

We can not say the guy intentionally pulled the trigger. We can call him an idiot all day though.

edit on 23-4-2011 by MikeNice81 because: (no reason given)

well yeah I have seen guns go off by themselves. but the fact being he had an uncleared gun pointed at his daughter, I just don't see it as an "accident"

reply to post by tempesillest


We don't know the circumstances.

The girl could have been walking by when the weapon went off.

The article says she was in the kitchen sitting down while he was in the living room.

No need to demonize the father before we even have all the facts.

Basic common sense safety rules broken.

And these are the guys who are supposed to better than all of us.

With the growing trend of lowering police score requirements and intentionally turning down applicants who score too high this type of thing is going to happen more and more.

The police all across America are intentionally recruiting idiots and it's going to suck for every one of us exponentially worse than it has ever sucked before within another decade or so.


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