I know this man, we were good friends in high school. This happened last year at christmas. This is a chopped up version of the news story.
My thoughts on it are that he wasn't so much careless as he just failed to retain control of a loaded firearm. Assuming that the kids wouldn't go into the room and play with the gun is acceptable when you have college aged kids who grow up with guns, but it would have been bone headed stupid to assume that with a houseful of 5 year olds. I think that even at 14, he should not have left a handgun in plain sight in the home while a group of teenaged girls were visiting.
My thoughts on it are that he wasn't so much careless as he just failed to retain control of a loaded firearm. Assuming that the kids wouldn't go into the room and play with the gun is acceptable when you have college aged kids who grow up with guns, but it would have been bone headed stupid to assume that with a houseful of 5 year olds. I think that even at 14, he should not have left a handgun in plain sight in the home while a group of teenaged girls were visiting.
County Sheriff * said the shooting took place when the girls ventured into a room in the two-story house that the homeowner did not anticipate them entering.
“He had received a new holster as a Christmas gift and got the gun out of a safe to try out the holster,” the sheriff said.
* had left the holstered gun on a piano in the room, he said. When the girls entered the room Monday night, one of them, another 14-year-old girl, spotted the .38-caliber weapon and removed it from the holster, assuming it was not loaded. She pointed the gun in a joking manner at the girl and the weapon discharged, the sheriff said.
“No one has been referred for charges and no one is in custody,” * said.