3-Year-Old Boy Shoots Dad, Pregnant Mom in Albuquerque Motel Room - Polidicks

[QUOTE=Da Big Man;47054117]Not all firearms have safeties, but that doesn't mean you can't ensure that it is safe from children.[/QUOTE] I heard somewhere that the vast majority don't, is that true?

I would say keep it unloaded like any proper gun owner would do when transporting it, but that sorta defeats the purpose of a CC. Either way even without a safety it'd be wiser to store it in say a latched holster or you know...away from the toddler in the first place.

You can't shoot the gun if it's unloaded. So they could have left the gun on the floor for the kid to play with and if it's unloaded, no worries. That to me is better than relying on a safety. People who keep the gun loaded are implying that they feel they may need to use it in that time and place. Maybe it's a sketchy hotel and there are nefarious people lurking out by the vending machines? The bigger outrage to me is they have two kids and now another one on the way. Holy Jebus! If I ran the world there'd be a special fund we'd use to pay stupid people to NOT have kids. They could use the money to buy more guns and eventually the problem would solve itself.

[QUOTE=cecilbdemodded;47054552]People who keep the gun loaded are implying that they feel they may need to use it in that time and place. Maybe it's a sketchy hotel and there are nefarious people lurking out by the vending machines?[/QUOTE] Well, it IS Albuquerque.

[QUOTE=Ekalektik_1;47054042]The article doesn't specify what kind of handgun as far as I can see. Revolvers don't have safeties and are incredibly common concealed carry handguns, so that could be the reason. Not all revolvers have particularly heavy trigger pulls either, so it's completely feasible for a child to be able to operate it. If anything, this means it was secured [I]extremely[/I] poorly. With children around, and in such a non-threatening environment, at least keep the goddamn thing out of the kid's reach.[/QUOTE] Uhh, you mean revolvers don't commonly have them because I own three revolvers that have a safety on them.

man imagine if the boy actually killed them, living the rest of his life with that branded on his mind. shit easily could have been so much worse.

It went through his ass, came out then went through her shoulder? Wonder what her shoulder was doing doing there.

[QUOTE=cecilbdemodded;47054552]You can't shoot the gun if it's unloaded. [b]So they could have left the gun on the floor for the kid to play with and if it's unloaded, no worries. [/b]That to me is better than relying on a safety. People who keep the gun loaded are implying that they feel they may need to use it in that time and place. Maybe it's a sketchy hotel and there are nefarious people lurking out by the vending machines?[/QUOTE] That does not sound like a smart idea at all. Every gun should be treated as loaded even when it isn't. It is not a toy.

[QUOTE=noh_mercy;47055516]man imagine if the boy actually killed them, living the rest of his life with that branded on his mind. shit easily could have been so much worse.[/QUOTE] let's not and just be glad that everybody will be okay.

[QUOTE=cecilbdemodded;47054552]You can't shoot the gun if it's unloaded. So they could have left the gun on the floor for the kid to play with and if it's unloaded, no worries. That to me is better than relying on a safety. People who keep the gun loaded are implying that they feel they may need to use it in that time and place. Maybe it's a sketchy hotel and there are nefarious people lurking out by the vending machines? The bigger outrage to me is they have two kids and now another one on the way. Holy Jebus! If I ran the world there'd be a special fund we'd use to pay stupid people to NOT have kids. They could use the money to buy more guns and eventually the problem would solve itself.[/QUOTE] That's a great idea until the kid releases the slide and has to get stitches on one of his fingers. Guns aren't something to play with.

For a gun to be effective it can't be safely kept locked up. Tragic, but I don't know if I'd charge the parents unless the safety was off already in the purse. Regardless of the situation you're fucked though. Gun is locked up? It doesn't do shit when you need it. Gun is not locked up? Something bad like this can happen.

[QUOTE=kariko;47055858]That does not sound like a smart idea at all. Every gun should be treated as loaded even when it isn't. It is not a toy.[/QUOTE] I'm trying to meet the stupid people halfway. Instead of giving them all these apparently complicated rules to follow, just give them one- unload the gun. Keep in mind that these are parents who can go from "let's order pizza" to both shot by one bullet fired by a 3 yr old Lee Harvey Oswald in the blink of an eye. I felt that maybe remembering to unload the gun might be within their reach someday.

[QUOTE=proch;47054200]That's right, the trigger is a lot harder to press on a revolver though, which kinda doubles as safety, something similar is with the Glock.[/QUOTE] Not necessarily, my single action has a 2 1/2 pound (hair) trigger and no safety, though there is a "half cock" on the hammer that locks the whole mechanism until you draw the hammer all the way back. Most compact self defense handguns are double action so they have an inherently heavy pull, but this one can't have been too heavy or the kid wouldn't have been able to pull the trigger.

[QUOTE=Zero-Point;47054124]That doesn't sound like a good idea.[/QUOTE] A heavy trigger like on a conventional double-action revolver is a better safety mechanism than a light trigger with a thumb safety literally designed to be easy to disengage. Self-defense weapons are designed from the ground up to be easy to make lethal in a split second with minimal effort. There's no way that can be designed to also be safe if a kid gets their hands on it. The responsible thing is to keep loaded weapons out of reach of children, and expecting the gun to compensate for the owner's negligence is unreasonable.