2 year old Tennessee toddler shoots self in finger

A two year old in Tennessee has shot his own finger with a gun he found in his home. From an article:

You protect them from everything, electrical sockets, stairs, and yes guns.  It’s the last one that has sent police and paramedics rushing to a south Memphis home Monday night. 

  A two-year old boy found a gun somewhere inside a house and before it was over pulled the trigger. The family didn’t shed much light on the shooting. 

It all happened behind closed doors, police say the boys’ parents were home, other family members and children were also there.

Somehow the two-year old found and fired the gun, hitting his finger and scaring everyone out here. 

Neighbors say the family just moved in to the area and they’ve seen the boy playing outside, and are so saddened to hear he was hurt.

They hope the parents take steps to make sure it never happens again.

Every gun in the hands of a child must first pass through the hands of an adult.

Shooting range proposed across the street from a Florida school

Parents and other members of Jacksonville Beach, Florida, are upset today because of a proposal to install an indoor shooting range across the street from a school.

From an article:

The only thing separating Montessori Tides School from a prospective pistol range are the two lanes of Penman Road. The school is 200 ft. from the building the range would open in, and for parents, that's simply not enough space. 

"Accidents happen," said Montessor Tides parent Steve Kowkabany. "We're concerned with 2-4,000 people coming to this range per month that an accident can happen and when it does its within a few hundred feet of all of our children." 

Two other schools would be within a 1,000 ft radius of the range, including a school for autistic children as well as a Duval public preschool. Florida law says that's perfectly legal, but parents say the rules aren't black and white." 

"There's a federal law prohibiting people with weapons that are not locked up and unloaded and licensed within 1,000 ft of a school zone," said Kowkabany. "They claim they can meet that we think that's very difficult to enforce." 

The people who want to open the shooting range acquired a conditional use application, obtained by Action News. In it, they say they are looking for a "safe location for beaches people," pointing out that the next nearest range is 10 miles away. They also propose an "upscale experience," with retail and flat screen TVs. 

Kowkabany says he has no problem with the idea of a pistol range, just not right across the street from where he drops off his two-year old every morning. 

"I own guns, my wife is a former Marine we shoot guns," he said. "We're all for a gun range at the beach but in a safe location."

Even though gun ranges stress safety, incidents certainly do happen at them, often with deadly consequences.  Here is a list of 39 that have happened so far in 2012.

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17-year old Jacksonville boy found with drugs and a gun in school

Security at a Jacksonville, Florida high school caught a drug deal in process between two boys, with marijuana.  One 17-year old boy ran, but was caught.  He was found to possess drugs and paraphenalia as well as a handgun and ammo, which he attempted to hide.

From an article:

Police say a security officer at First Coast High School confronted two individuals in the bathroom, exchanging marijuana in plain view. 

One person, a 17-year-old, ran from the bathroom. The security officer confiscated marijuana from the person in the bathroom, then chased after the second person who ran. 

The security officer eventually caught up with the 17-year-old who stated, "You can search me, I don't have anything on me." 

The security officer found marijuana at the bottom of the student's pants leg. The teen also denied throwing anything from his pockets in his run from security. 

But the officer searched and found an automatic pistol under a gas grill by the rear door to the gym. 

The security officer searched the teen's bookbag and found a scale to weigh drugs, and bullets. 

The teen has been charged with possession of a weapon on school property and possession of marijuana.

The article didn't say how the boy got the gun and ammo.

Every gun in the hands of a child must first pass through the hands of an adult.

Georgia second-grader brings pistol to class in backpack

A teacher at an elementary school in Brunswick, Georgia, looked into the backpack of an 8-year old boy in her second-grade class and found that he had brought a pistol to school.  Luckily the gun was unloaded.

From an article:

School spokesman, Jim Weidhaas, said the teacher was, "Looking for candy that she suspected may have been taken off of the desk." 

The pistol that was found was a Raven .25-caliber semi-automatic. Weidhaas said the gun was not loaded, and that the second-grader was not carrying any ammunition.
"We think he brought it to school to show to his friends," he said. 

That game of show and tell came with serious consequences, a one-year suspension, the mandatory minimum by Georgia state law.  

Now, investigators have to figure out how the 8-year-old was able to get his hands on a gun.  Who was the adult in charge?  And will they be punished?   

"I couldn't comment on that," Weidhaas said. 

Administrators say the teacher did the right thing, by discreetly removing the boy from the classroom without causing a commotion. And the good news is that no one was hurt. 

"I think with young children, they just don't understand the consequences and unfortunately these things happen sometimes," said Weidhaas.

"Unfortunately these things happen sometimes" isn't an excuse.

Every gun in the hands of a child must first pass through the hands of an adult.

Two boys, 7 and 11, attempt armed carjacking in Oregon

Two boys, ages 7 and 11, were able to get a .22-caliber handgun and attempted to carjack and rob a woman in Portland, Oregon.  The woman fled without injury, and the boys were apprehended.

From an article:

Two Oregon boys, ages 7 and 11, are accused of trying to rob a woman with a loaded gun, police said Sunday. 

The boys tried to carjack a 22-year-old woman who was in her family's truck waiting for her parents in a church parking lot, Portland police said in a statement. 

Ami Garrett, of southeast Portland, told officers that when the boys approached her, the younger boy told the older boy to “show her your piece.” 

The woman said that when she refused to give them her vehicle, they demanded cash and her phone. She said that as she drove away, she saw the 11-year-old boy pull a gun from his pocket. 

The boys were apprehended in the parking lot by officers responding to reports of children with guns. Police said they recovered a loaded .22 caliber handgun from the older boy's pockets. 

Detectives were investigating how the boys obtained a gun. Because of their age, the boys could not be taken into custody at a juvenile detention center, so they were returned to their families, police said. 

The 11-year-old tried to escape his parents’ house but was quickly caught by officers and returned to his parents. 

Police planned to give the case to the juvenile court.

According to another article, the gun was found cocked and loaded in the older boy's pocket.

According to yet another article, the 11-year old is known to the police for causing trouble by making threats and vandalizing by throwing rocks.

It is unknown how the boys got the gun.

Every gun in the hands of a child must first pass through the hands of an adult.


UPDATE (12/12/12):  The 11-year old's father, Joseph Charlton, has now been arrested and will likely be charged in leaving the gun available to his son.  Portland has a Child Access Prevention law.  Charlton is also a convicted felon and will be charged for illegally owning a gun.  The boy and his two younger siblings have been taken into protective services.

From an article:

The gun was a .22-caliber derringer pistol, said Sgt. Pete Simpson, spokesman for the Portland Police Bureau. .... 

About 10 a.m., the Police Bureau's Gun Task Force served a search warrant in the 16100 block of Southeast Alder Street in connection with the case. The state Department of Human Services took a 4-year-old girl,  the 11-year-old accused in the gun case and a 9-year-old into protective custody. 

"The overall conditions in home, circumstances, are not healthy for kids," Simpson said of the decision to take the children into protective custody. 

Police also obtained search warrants for two Dodge trucks belonging to the family. Multnomah County animal control officers removed two animals, a cat and a dog, from the property, police said. 

The home searched sits next door to the Freedom Foursquare Church, where 22-year-old Amy Garrett said she was accosted Saturday by an 11-year-old with with a gun and a 7-year-old toting bullets in a backpack.  

"We have probable cause to arrest the dad for at least leaving the gun unsecured,"  Simpson said. 

Police also charged Charlton, a convicted felon, with felon in possession of a firearm, unlawful possession of a firearm, endangering the welfare of a minor and endangering a child by allowing access to a firearm under the city's two-year-old ordinance. No other guns were found inside the home during the search, police said. 

Charlton is the first person in Portland to be prosecuted under the city ordinance.

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Three small children shot, one killed, among mass shooting victims at Tule Reservation

Hector Celaya, a resident at the Tule Indian Reservation in central California opened fire on his family's travel trailor.  He shot and killed his mother and two uncles and his son, 6-year old Andrew.

He then fled with his daughters, 8-year old Alyssa and 5-year old Linea.  He then shot and killed Alyssa, and seriously wounded Linea.

Hector then got into a firefight with reservation police and was subsequently killed.

From an article:

Police say Celaya opened fire in a travel trailer on the reservation of about 800 people on Saturday night, killing his mother and two uncles. He left behind his seriously wounded 6-year-old son Andrew. He took with him Alyssa, whose name is tattooed on his right leg, and his other daughter, 5-year-old Linea. 

Sheriff's spokeswoman Chris Douglass said it was unclear when Celaya shot his daughters. .... 

Authorities said the bodies of Irene Celaya and her 61-year-old brother Francisco Moreno were found in the trailer. The body of their 53-year-old brother, Bernard Franco, was in a shed that was a makeshift bedroom. 

Hunter said Irene took care of her brothers and extended family. .... 

Deputies found Celaya by tracking his cellphone. A chase ensued, though Celaya never exceeded the speed limit, and he eventually pulled over in the heart of citrus country outside the tiny community of Lindsay. Celaya opened fire, prompting deputies to shoot back, Douglass said. 

The church bells of Mater Dolorosa Catholic Church toll slowly when a tribal member dies, and the mournful sound echoes through the canyon where the reservation sits. It's how the word is spread. They rang out five different times on Sunday. ....

"The community is peaceful one, and the tribe tries to teach children to be nonviolent," said Tribal Council Secretary Rhoda Hunter. "We teach our children to not even kill insects. The battle between good and evil is there. Bad is always going to be there. I tell my grandkids that. I tell them to work for good."

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7 year old Pennsylvania boy shot by own father at gun store

A father accidentally shot and killed his own son, aged 7, outside of a gun store in Pennsylvania. From an article:

Authorities say a 7-year-old boy was shot to death when a gun accidentally went off as his father was getting into his truck outside a western Pennsylvania gun store.

The boy was shot Saturday morning at Twigs Reloading Den in East Lackawannock Township, 60 miles north of Pittsburgh. Store owner Leonard Mohney said it happened in the parking lot.

The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reported that the boy was shot when his father's handgun went off as the man got into the truck while holding the gun.

Police said 44-year-old Joseph V. Loughrey told them he had emptied the magazine but didn't realize a bullet was still in the chamber. Seven-year-old Craig Allen Loughrey was shot in the chest and died at the scene.

Guns should always be treated as if they are loaded.

From another article about this incident:

photo from the linked article

But officials are still reviewing surveillance video from the shop, the father  could face charges, including manslaughter and negligence, Hermick said.

'I know that little kid was everything to him,' Mark McLaughlin, a friend and co-worker of Loughrey’s at Superior Well Services in Fredonia, told the local paper. 

The father had visited the gun shop on Saturday morning, with his son accompanying him inside the store, to try and sell two guns - one a scope rifle and handgun, state police said. 

The shop owner was not interested in the offerings so Loughrey and his son returned to the truck. (...) 

Loughrey place the 7-year-old in a booster seat on the passenger side and he loaded the long rifle into the truck. 

He was attempting to get inside and reached to put the handgun in the center storage console when it fired, state police said.

Loughrey and Craig’s mother are divorced and the 44-year-old father had custody of the child over the weekend. 

'He was a wonderful little kid. He was special. He was full of life, a lot of fun,' McLaughlin said.