THL

What the h3ll is wrong with people? What on earth would inspire either of these parents to leave a loaded unlocked gun on their head board? Do they have any idea at all what they have just done to their daughter? For the rest of her life, while the rest of the world is getting ready for holidays and visits with family and friends and skiing trips and tropical vacations, this girl is going to have to think about and live with the fact that her irresponsible parents left a gun where the kids could get it, obviously taught them nothing about not touching it, and because of this, her brother is dead.

Even though they are saying it was an accident, at least one of those parents (most likely the father since he was the one living in the house and I would assume it was him that left it out) needs to be held responsible for having an obviously illegal gun in the house as well as supplying the daughter with the means to do this. When a gun gets into the hands of a child, and someone else gets shot and killed, there is nothing "accidental" about it. There are so many things that could have taken place to have prevented this.

I really hope that whichever of those parents brought that gun into the house gets charged with a crime. I would like to see it be 2nd degree murder - nonintentional, but something so grossly stupid occurred that it happened anyway.

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leib10

Having a gun cocked and locked in your home is not illegal. Stupid, when there are children around, but not illegal.

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THL

Everything about this is illegal in Illinois:
The serial numbers were rubbed off.
No one had an FOID card.
IL has a Child Access Prevention (CAP) law.


"CAP law enacted 1999
The Illinois law makes it illegal for a person to store or leave any loaded firearm in a way that allows a minor to gain access to the firearm without permission from a parent or guardian and use it to injure or kill. A firearm is properly stored if it is secured by a trigger lock, placed in a securely locked box or placed in some other location that a reasonable person would believe to be secured from a minor.

The penalty is a misdemeanor.
Child is defined as anyone under the age of 14."

Unfortunately, it is only a misdemeanor. I personally do not think a headboard is a secure enough place to store a loaded gun.

BenRoethig

I don't see these as extactly reputable people. Does a loaded .380 with the serial filed off seem odd to anybody else? .380 is a type of ammunition very popular in concealed carry pistols. You're not going to find paperwork for this because it wasn't bought through a traditional dealer.

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Shek

The serial # was filed off - the safe assumption is that there's something dirty about this. I'm sure a negligent homicide charge can be filed. Also, I wonder if the parents ever provided firearms training to the kids - the forbidden fruit is a strong draw.

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Monk

Daddy needs to go to Jail.

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leib10

Oh damn I missed that. Must've been half asleep.

But yep, there's something fishy about that weapon. It was probably used in a crime or by a criminal prior to being sold to the man.

dalem

I don't care if the parents are crack smoking scumbags or fine upstanding NRA members - leaving a loaded gun that accessible in a house with children is inexcusable. But I would imagine that, if they are the kind of people that can learn lessons, the one they just learned will be burned into their brains forever.

Now, mistakes happen. Just yesterday, in fact, I was over at my best friend's house for a party he & his wife were having. I showed up early to help set up and I put my gun up in his bedroom on top of the TV. Perfectly acceptable and standard practice for us when visiting each other for the last couple of years.

But none of us have kids.

After people started arriving I noticed that someone had brought their kids over - a whole assortment of ages and definitely some explorer types. I went up and policed up my gun and my buddy's, put them in the closet 'way up high, etc. Mission accomplished with no more than a "man I feel dumb" 3 minute danger window.

But a lot can happen in 3 minutes.

Now me, myself, when I have people over I have everything locked away or up and out of play, but I also let my friends with kids know that I have guns in the house so they can decide whether to bring their kids over and/or whether to teach their kids about what to do or not to do with guns.

-dale

Shek

However, my guess is that your guns weren't packing heat with the safety off

dalem

These were our carry guns - fully loaded and no safeties. My point is that the responsibility was ours to think about kid access in a new situation (new house, first social occasion there with little explorer kids), which we demonstrably failed to do in time. There could have been a situation very similar to what happened in the article.

When I make or witness mistakes in gun safety I tend to announce them as lessons to myself and others.

-dale

p.s. In our defense, before THL rightly fires a shot across my bow , I will point out that people WITH kids have no idea how little people WITHOUT kids think about such things.

THL

Oh, sure - pick on the Democrat!

I absolutely can relate here, Dale. I did not always have a daughter. When I did not have a daughter, I had a gun (btw, I did not exchange the gun for the daughter, I exchanged the gun for a husband, who is now an ex). I can completely understand how someone without kids would not think about such things.

Since those parents were at that party with their kids, it would have been the parents responsibility to make sure their kids were not running all over the house getting into things or to at least say to the homeowner, "Is there anything they can get into?". Not just meaning guns, but also meaning can the kids make a mess of anything, do you have a room full of breakable irreplaceable china - whatever.

lemontree

Stupid parents ....

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Samudra

What about Mummy?

The best part is somebody will stand up and say ,"You spoil the girls life by putting a parent in Jail because of an accident ? "

However the death of the boy must have been the biggest punishment to the parents.

THL

It does have to be found out who brought and left the unlocked loaded weapon into the house before it is assumed it was the father I agree.

They should have had some forethought when buying an unregsitered, illegal gun with the serial numbers scratched off. Surely the parent could have wondered if this was the best idea for the family. Allowing the child access to the gun may only be a misdemeanor in Illinois, but possession of an illegal gun I believe is a felony and I sure hope it is treated accordingly.

Monk

It was the dad, says so in the article.

Mommy couldn't have known daddy had a serial number filed off, illegal weapon without FOID and with the safety off.