Girl mistakes gun for Wii controller - kills herself

what?

I find myself gagging as I agree with you! (partially)

First, we DON'T know that the parent EVER let the child play with the wii gun control. You have assumed that.

And we know now that the gun got left out because the stepdad thought he'd heard a prowler and got it out, then forgot to lock it back up. Big OOPS there.

As for teaching kids, as a gun owner, we have made a concerted effort to 1) keep guns completely out of the reach of the children, 2) educate the children on the dangers of guns, 3) to never assume that a "toy" they found is actually a toy and NOT a real gun, 4) what to do if they are in the presence of a child who has a gun, even if they are told it's a toy, and 5) how to safely handly any gun.

#5 may sound odd in that list, but I do believe that children need to understand (not "theoretically" but REALLY understand) how dangerous guns are, and how they should be handled, so they will recognize a dangerous situation.

We do this because even though we keep our guns and ammo separated and safely locked up, we can't guarantee that in another house where they are playing that this will be the case. So we want them to recognize when someone picks up a gun--especially a handgun--and starts waving it about, they should instantly be struck with fear that this might be a real gun and could kill someone. So far, so good. The kids have commented on things they see on TV and say "that's not a safe way to handle a gun" etc. So I hope they are getting the right idea.

This parent CERTAINLY made a terrible mistake. No arguing that. He or she MIGHT even have been negligent...but there are some things we don't know. For example, the gun might normally be kept locked up, and the personmight be a security guard etc and was preparing for work, a sudden "emergency" with a child distracted him/her and he set down the gun as he solved that problem and the other child found the gun in the meantime. Dumb mistake? yes. proof that the owner was a totally negligent douchebag? Not necessarily.

But this is why gun training has to make safety a HABIT and not just a theoretical concern. No matter WHAT "emergency" or distraction is occuring, the gun owner must automatically take the steps to neutralize the gun danger before setting off to do anything else. So without a doubt this person failed on those grounds.

You're not all that smart if you have a gun that isn't loaded. What is the point of having a gun? So you can throw it at the intruder.

This is purely on the shoulders of the parents.

that's the lbieral solution, pal. you can have a gun: but it must be unloaded AND locked.

an unloaded gun, also known as a club.

Do you remember that Tea Party guy that wore the sidearm to the protest in New Hampshire, and the liberal reporters all got so excited and asked him, "You brought a gun to a rally...is it loaded?"

And he very calmly looked at them like they were the morons they actually are.

"You'd have to be pretty silly to carry an unloaded firearm!"

CLASSIC!

If you have a gun for home defense, you're already not that smart. There are other options that are much more effective and less dangerous. Owning a dog is one of those options. However, if you absolutely need to own a gun for home defense, you probably want to own a shot gun. A shot gun shell does not penetrate walls like a pistol round, and it blankets a general area so you can shoot from the hip more effectively. Also, there are few noises that will scare the shit out of someone like a shotgun being cocked. If you are going to own a shotgun, keep it in an area where your kid does not have easy access to it, but that goes with any gun. If you absolutely need a pistol, get a semi automatic and keep a loaded clip separate from the empty gun. If someone breaks into your home it doesn't take that much time to load the damn clip and chamber a round. If you do have a small child, odds are that they won't be able to figure out how to put the clip in on their own, and even if they do they likely will not have the strength to pull the slide back to chamber a round.

The biggest fuck up here though is that the father left the gun on the table where the child could reach it. Yes, he thought he heard a prowler and went to go check. No one is saying that this is a bad thing. But if he had the wits about him to think to load the gun and take it with him to check, he should have had the wits to consider that the gun should have been kept out of the child's reach at all times.

varex_sythe,

It's not up to you to tell me how to best defend my home and property. If I feel a gun is the best protection then I will use a gun. If you want to be a future victim then that is your choice. Nobody is making you buy a gun.

I also buy guns because I just like shooting. I do not need a reason. That's the good thing about this country.

why exactly should we do that? the headline is exactly what happened and every detail of this is horrible.

the two are inextricably intertwined, I think. I am pretty sure the wii gun looks very little like a real gun, but infants don't know that. So it really comes down to a parent who made a dumb mistake and will suffer incredible trauma for the rest of his/her life because of ONE moment's distraction.

it's sad all the way around

I stand corrected. I had failed to follow the link and see the actual wii controller photo, instead of the one in the photo above. You are right, the wii controller looks WAY too much like a real gun. FAIL #1.

However, even if the controller was white, like the one in the image above, the child could STILL have killed herself with it, because she will not at that age know the difference.

So you have to ask yourself how the gun was left out. The story has some updates that clarify that point:

"UPDATE: New details come pouring in, courtesy of local news outlets. The gun is apparently a .380 caliber semi automatic handgun. The stepfather claims he was asleep at the time of the incident, according to authorities. The stepfather also claims the child's mother was in the room with the child at the time of the incident. The mother has told authorities the girl might have thought she was playing with a Nintendo Wii controller that resembled a gun. According to the stepfather, the gun was out because he had heard a prowler and gotten the gun out earlier that evening. He then left the gun on the table in the living room.

FURTHER UPDATE: More details coming in from a new source which claims that the child had been playing a Wii game. The game’s controller, according to authorities, was shaped like a gun that looked very similar to the real handgun, which her stepfather had put on the living room table. The authorities claim the girl "pulled the gun off the table and it went off." "

So, the owner got the gun out because he thought he heard a prowler. He left it out and then fell asleep. This does suggest that he is normally more careful but made a FATAL and stupid mistake. He also assumed because the wife was there she would keep an eye on the child. Another mistake.

If the wii controller had looked less like the real gun, the mother might have recognized the danger earlier. THAT is becoming more and more of an issue inthis story.

actually, we don't kow that the child "mistook" the wii controller for the gun. she found a gun, played with gun, end of her story. Sad, but that's all there is to it.

Her MOTHER on the other hand, said she "might have" thought the gun the girl had was the wii controller.

I am curious about how she said she "mighta have mistaken" the wii controller for the gun. so, is she "unsure" if she saw the girl with the gun? or can't remember if she thoguht it was the wii controller? there's something really weird with that part of the story.

however, if my child had just died in a similar situation, I might not be in the mental state to remember all the details of the story either, so who am I to judge.

At what point did they interview the 3-yr old to find that she thought this gun was real or fake. There is no evidence to suggest this had anything to do with the wii paddle. Sounds more like a scape goat to me.

This is hilarious how these NRA folks are out here blaming a video game system and simultaneously making the argument that guns have nothing to do with killing people. Good ol boy hypocrisy at it's finest.

what? I think you've either misunderstood or misrepresented the statements being made. I'll give you the benefit of the doubt.

I don't see any "NRA types" (by that I assume you mean people who believe gun rights) blaming the Wii controller. I certainly haven't, although I was surprised to see the photo o the controller and how similar it does look to the real gun in the incident. Toy guns really should have something on them to quickly indicate that it's NOT a real gun--like the Air Soft guns that have the bright red tip on the end of the barrel.

Meanwhile, it wasn't the "gun's fault", it was "user error". A bad mistake by the gun owner.

i'm gonna go with the careful observation of... gun lock? the dude had a semi automatic sitting on his counter. this man does not care about safety.

what do you know about gun locks? we know nowthat the owner had thought he'd heard a prowler outside his house and got it out for defense. I guess that you--and the EZLN you apparently endorse--keep gun locks on the trigger at ALL times, even when you think you will need to use it?

as for senators opposing gun lock laws, it depends on the law, there have been many laws passed in states to require them to be kept safely locked up. so your post seems to be an absurd generalization without basis

So you are justifying an innocent girl killing herself under the guise of the 2nd amendment? In the 2 extra seconds it takes to remove a gun lock... are you really going to miss your opportunity to kill? I suppose that rare chance is worth this child's life to you. Are you listening to yourself?
These children need to be protected from their dim witted parents. Sad, but true.

"Here honey you play Wii with your Wii gun while daddy shoots this intruder 10 times a second with my semi-atuo .38, maybe it's the King's army trying to get in my house. Oh man, this paranoia and my constant ambition to kill another person is making me sleepy. I'm going to leave this load gun here while I take a nap. You wake me if you see any Brittish military 'round here."

Yeah you're right, a gun lock would have gotten in the way of this Bubba's nap. Good thing that 2nd amendment stopped that bullet before it hit that little girl. Oh wait, it didn't. Dammit. Oh well, nothing an law would have done, right?

my point was there are law makers who think deregulation of guns is a good thing, even though shit like this happens. Obviously, this guy's IQ is probably technically retarded, which maintains republican powers.

I didn't mention the second amendment, genius. I didn't even allude to it.
You apparently don't have any experience with firearms, to make such a stupid comment about gunlocks. If you think you might be in danger, you don't stand there with the gunlock over the trigger until the person is IN the house. "Excuse me Mr Burglar, I'd like to kill you now, hold still until I get the lock off the gun." What stupid concept.

"are you really goint o miss your opportunity to kill"? Again, stupid is as stupid says. A locked up gun is as good as an unloaded one. Let me ask you, since you apparently think you know everything:
How many times had the house been burglarized in the past?
What kind of neighborhood did they live in?
What is the crime rate in that area?
Exactly how many seconds DO you have from when a person has entered your house until you "miss your opportunity to kill"?

You don't have those answers, do you?

I've never made excuses for the parent, not once. I've said he made a stupid mistake. "No doubt" was my exact quote.

But it's rich coming from a brilliant person like yourself, who uses the Zapatista logo by his name, to deride individuals who keep guns to defend themselves, either from the criminal element, or governmental abuse.

You probably have NO IDEA who the EZLN are, and what they have to defend themselves against, OR, you just use that logo because you think it makes you look like a cool pro-revolutionary liberal.

"10 shots per second with my semi-auto .38" it was a .380, and you'd be hard pressed to shoot one 10 times per second--because most of them only load 6 rounds, and secondly because you could NOT manually squeeze 10x in a second--further evidence you don't know shit about guns.

the gun owner might be technically retarded, which would still make him smarter than you.

name the senators who want 'deregulation of guns'. That's yet another broad, sweeping and unsubstantiated accusation. I can't think of a single senator or congressman who opposes prohibiting firearms for felons, for example.

but there are LOTS of them who believe in the individual's right to possess firearms for their own protection. the vast majority.

and it makes no sense to try to rationalize tossing out the second amendment because there are a few (or a few dozen) accidents each year. There are FAR more people killed in car wrecks than accidental shootings, I guess you--Mr Fashionable Revolutionary Wannabe--would support a car ban as well.

Clam down internet philosopher.

If you had a life jacket gun lock, it would take you as long as it takes you to open a pad lock. It's your fault if you're slow.

My point was uneducated idiots who would do something like this are the reasons why there should be gun lock laws. Once we reform our current oppressive society and realize food clothes shelter and education should be rights, we won't need laws that protect children for idiots such as this step father in this tragedy.

Did I say I don't believe in the 2nd amendment? I issue is 1: assault rifles should not be in homes, 2: you have have to lock-up your gun, especially when children are present. It's just sad you still argue while the fact of the matter is if there was gun control this little girl who wanted nothing more than to play a video game, may still be alive. BTW: There has been recent pushed to deregulate gun laws. Look at the national parks and DC...

Your questions are rhetorical and worthless. You hypocritically attack me, you tell me I have no clue what I'm talking about, while you make assumptions about me.

You assume I have never handled a gun when I've handled an M4, an AR-15, a Beretta T3, as well as a pocket 9.

You assume I know nothing of crime, while I work in a High School with metal detectors and lock-downs... not that's any of your fucking business. You can see on my profile I live in Milwaukee, you can do your own goddamn crime rate research.

You are a message board prick with nothing to say except that you used to be a "socialist" therefore, now that you're a born again whatever... American I suppose, you have me pegged, you have the right to chastise socialists because maybe you were a phony and one day you realized it.
Good for you, you got older and saw the light of greed, or god, or whatever. Sure I sport the EZLN banner, it doesn't take a genius to realize I'm not a Zapatista, but that doesn't mean I don't support them. You say you're all about the American-way, well it's my right to support that ideology. Who the fuck are you to tell me different? Capitalism has not always been the American way. I would think I former socialist would understand that.

I guess you labeling me as one of these bumble-fuck Obama supporting "liberals" probably makes you feel better... whatever you need to do buddy. That I'm some spoiled mamma's boy credit card Marxist that doesn't know what life's about. Well fuck you hypocrite. You don't know me, you attack me as if I attacked you, while attacking me you then criticize me for doing something while you yourself do it!

You've just got me figured out, huh? There's obviously no rationalizing with someone such as yourself. I assume you will attack me again, call me a liar, a hypocrite and whatnot. I guess the bottom line is, you hold no merit. I wanted a debate about gun control and you turn it into your mission to expose who you assume is a faux socialist. Just becasue you may have been one in the past doesn't mean we all are.

We are everywhere.

You wanted those who support deregulation....
http://www.votesmart.org/issue_keyvote_member.php?cs_id=25824

BTW: I would support banning cars ;D Since I don't own one, who cares.

EZLN: Formado durante la revolucion Mexicana, ejercito Zapatista de Liberacion Nacional. El unico anti ejercito capitalista no empotrado.
El socialismo libertario es lo que el como creo en. Ellos son un simbolo de posibilidades.

Deregulation of guns is a good thing. How is this in any way a fault of the gun?

Just more anti-gun propaganda.

"Once we reform our current oppressive society and realize food clothes shelter and education should be rights, we won't need laws that protect children for idiots such as this step father in this tragedy."

Clearly you are a socialist wanna be, who else would ignore the constitution and vomit out such time-honored socialist bullshit as "food, clothes, shelter and education should be rights". That implies that the government should be responsible for providing homes to evryone? clothes for everyone? It already provides food to our kids at schools, and churches feed the poor, but that's not enough for a loud mouthed neo-marxist like you. No, the govmint be needin' to give more shit away for free.

And you are a TEACHER?! pathetic. Please don't tell me you teach civics. And you wonder why people fear public education.

"Did I say I don't believe in the 2nd amendment? I issue is 1: assault rifles should not be in homes" Bullshit. Assault rifles didn't kill that little girl, did they?
In what percentage of crimes are "assault rifles" used? Try less than 1/2 of one percent.
Assault rifles, my communist loving revolutionary wannabe, are EXACTLY the kind of weapon that will keep us free from a totalitarian nation that liberals like you would impose upon us--"for our own good", after you have decided what our NEW RIGHTS are to be, and with that of course you will decide what is COMPULSORY for everyone.

"2: you have have to lock-up your gun, especially when children are present. It's just sad you still argue while the fact of the matter is if there was gun control this little girl who wanted nothing more than to play a video game, may still be alive." No shit, sherlock. Which is why in most states there are legal guidelines for what constitutes negligence regarding proper care for guns. In this case, you DON'T know that the girl wanted to play any video game, she just picked up the gun. I guess even tho you are a teacher you can't read and comprehend the article. There is NO evidence that the girl plays that video game.

You obviously talk a big talk, just like so many other liberal young men, here you are a TEACHER in an American public school proudly displaying the EZLN logo, without being able to put 2 & 2 together, that without weapons, the EZLN would be totally defenseless against the government and private forces that wish to take their land, and that we citizens could end up in the same place if "people" like you (I gave you the benefit of the doubt) ever got control of government.

I'd call you a "Hipocrite" but it seems to generous.

AGAIN, you prove MY point. YOu are one of the arrogant, ignorant liberals who, if given your way, would turn the country into a totalitarian state where bookish worms like you make the decisions for the entire country what they can drive, what guns (if any) you would allow, probably you'd even support Sean Penn's statement that anyone who calls Chavez a dictator should be jailed. Right?

You are the kind of person who ends up electing leaders who become fascists. And all the while you congratulate yourself on being so much smarter than everyone else.

Coño, pero tu escribiste eso? Porque con los errores que contiene, seguro no lo copiaste de un sitio en el internet.

No me digas que eres un profesor de español y tienes la gramática tan mala!?

Guevón, porque tu presupiste cambiar de idiomas? Are you showing off? Pendejo, don't try to show off by switching languages and prove to me that you can't even speak the F*ing language. Your grammar is just a litteral translation of English to Spanish.
Why would you do something so stupid? Are you trying to prove something about your supposed "knowledge" of the EZLN?

What exactly is a "anti ejercito capitalista no empotrado" supposed to mean? Is it "anti-capitalist" or is it "anti-military"? What you've written makes no sense. I presume what you meant is "Es el unico ejercito anti-capitalista no empotrado".

Next, we have this jewel. "el socialism libertario es lo que el como creo en." Say what? Maybe you mean something like this: "El socialismo libertario es lo que apoyo", as in whatI support. You can't say "lo que el como creo en", that's fucked up. "is that like I believe in", your translation tool SUCKED or you suck.

So, here is what you claim to believe:
Libertarian socialism (sometimes called socialist anarchism,[1][2] and sometimes left libertarianism[3])[4] is a group of political philosophies that aspire to create a society free of coercive hierarchies.[5]

Adherents assert that a desirable synthesis of societal equality and freedom could be achieved, at least in part, through abolishing authoritarian institutions that own and control certain productive means as private property.[6] Libertarian socialism also constitutes a tendency of thought that informs the identification, criticism and practical dismantling of illegitimate authority in all aspects of social life. Accordingly, libertarian socialists believe that "the exercise of power in any institutionalized form– whether economic, political, religious, or sexual– brutalizes both the wielder of power and the one over whom it is exercised."[7]

Libertarian socialists generally place their hopes in decentralized means of direct democracy such as municipalities, citizens' assemblies, trade unions, and workers' councils.[8] Many advocate doing away with the state altogether, while others propose that a minimal, non-hierarchical version is unobjectionable.[9]

GREAT. Socialist Anarchism. Do away with the government, "create a society free of coercive hierarchies."

Except, of course, that YOU would BAN CARS by your own admission.

I was right. "Hipocrite" was WAY TOO KIND for you.

I elevate you to BRAINLESS TWIT.

Que tremendo maricón eres, chiquillo.

I agree, to a point. I don't want convicted felons being allowed to carry, but I sure as hell believe in the right of all upstanding citizens to carry and defend themselves.

Even proven morons like PigFarmington.

I'd recommend that when you own a gun, and you need it to defend yourself, you keep that gun lock on yours until the VERY last second.

see how that works for you

the guy made several mistakes. but you don't get a gun out because you think there's a prowler or a burglar and leave the gun A) unloaded, and B) locked.

he fell asleep and forgot to put it away. mistakes happen.

you monday morning quarterbacks aren't helping much

Why shouldn't convicted felons be allowed to own a handgun? If they served their penalty to society then they are simply innocent Americans who should be afforded the same Constitutional protections as everyone else.

Therefore should be found incompetent to posses a weapon, but, the NRA would hardly budge on doing background checks. Like Pig said, they would even take the lock off of guns if they had their way.

....and the laws you speak of were passed by democrats and fought by republicans and members of the NRA. Don't try to take credit for good gun control laws that you had nothing to do with supporting.

Probably should keep a hold on to the gun though if you are going to take the lock off.

Senators who want to deregulate guns.....the entire Republican National Party for starters.

The last resort of a Glenn Beck is always to call them a socialist.

Sell out. Sorry sell out, my spanish isn't perfect.
"You grow up, and you calm down. Working for the clampdown."

well, I tend to consider that if they have been tried, convicted and done time for a felony, they also run the risk of recidivism so they seem to be a greater risk for abusing that right.

there might be subtleties to this I might consider, for example non violent felons--a tax crime, copyright infringment, etc for example--that kind of thing I could probably agree with.

but an armed robber, murderer, rapist--no, I think we need to tread carefully on giving them their "rights" to carry firearms after that.

you are right, that becomes a dangerous gray area to tread in, but we'd seriously put everyone's rights in jeopardy if we weren't willing to make some reasonable exceptions.

I think you've mischaracterized the argument. there are certain types of locks the NRA promotes its supporters to use for gun safety, and other laws about locks that they have opposed. For example, as some people here have said, some folks think guns should be kept unloaded "until they are needed", which is pretty silly, since no one I know of can predict the precise moment in which they will need their guns.

it's like asking police to run around with unloaded guns and only load them when they need them. You'll have a lot more dead officers if you were to make that a policy.

regarding your spanish: I woudlnt' mind but you apparently tried to use that as some sort of dumbass attempt to gain credibility. the fact you speak some spanish doesn't mean you have the first clue whot he EZLN are, just like so many liberals who run around wearing Che's T shirt and have NO CLUE that he was a brutal mass murderer.

At least be honest with yourself: if you HATE the alleged crimes committed in the name of capitalism and corporatism and the like, ask yourself why you would pardon equally heinous crimes committed in the name of socialism.

AS for "sell out"...unlike empty headed socialists like you, I continued to read and listen and think and realized that what I had thought was wrong. A sell-out is a person who betrays what he believes in for expediency. An adult is someone who realizes that the idealistic and foolish things he believed in as a youth cannot be reconciled with the knowledge he acquired with experience and increased knowledge.

You have apparently chosen to cling ferociously to ideals that cannot survive a simple test of logic, nor the close examination of history.

Here's a Spanish lesson for you: "No hay nadie más ciego que él que no quiera ver"

if you had pulled your head out of your ass and read the thread, you would have seen that pigfarmington admitted that he is a "Socialist Libertarian". He wrote that in (horrendous) Spanish above:
"El socialismo libertario es lo que el como creo en. Ellos son un simbolo de posibilidades"

the fact of the matter is that there are socialists everywhere who pretend they are these liberty loving pacifists, but when you press them you learn they are eager to ban our rights, as the PIG did above when he admitted he would happily ban the use of cars.

Perhaps there is a reason why FIST is part of the word pacifist. They are perfectly willing to bludgeon you into peacefully accepting their idea of freedom.

click the link and read the article.

UPDATE: New details come pouring in, courtesy of local news outlets. The gun is apparently a .380 caliber semi automatic handgun. The stepfather claims he was asleep at the time of the incident, according to authorities. The stepfather also claims the child's mother was in the room with the child at the time of the incident. The mother has told authorities the girl might have thought she was playing with a Nintendo Wii controller that resembled a gun. According to the stepfather, the gun was out because he had heard a prowler and gotten the gun out earlier that evening. He then left the gun on the table in the living room.

FURTHER UPDATE: More details coming in from a new source which claims that the child had been playing a Wii game. The game’s controller, according to authorities, was shaped like a gun that looked very similar to the real handgun, which her stepfather had put on the living room table. The authorities claim the girl "pulled the gun off the table and it went off."

The child was three. At that age, you believe everything is a toy or plaything until instructed otherwise. I don't believe toy guns or violent games are the problem, but lack of parenting like you said. Even when children play with toy guns, if they are told the dangers of real guns and you make sure you handle your own guns responsibly, then there should be no reason why tragedies like this one would happen.

I agree with you that at that age a child will play with anything. At three years old a child has no idea what is dangerous and what is not. It is the job of the parent to protect and insure the safety of their child. My point was that there is a more serious parenting/societal issue that underlies all of this. Whether a child is 3 or 13 they should be taught that guns are not toys!!! With the advent of toy guns, remote control guns and violent video games the issue of fantasy versus reality becomes muddled in the mind of a child.

At 3, socialization to think that guns are toys is probably NOT the issue.

it was a moment of carelessness. terms like "irresponsibility" might apply but at this moment I personally don't have enough information to make that call.

I say that because it's possible the gun owner normally keeps the gun locked up, but who knows, maybe he was headed to work, or for whatever situation was preparing to take the gun, got it out and something happened that called his attention away, and in that instant the accident occured.

Was it a dumb mistake? no doubt.

but was it indicative of a general lack of education or irresponsibility? Don't know yet.

I've heard cases where police officers have made mistakes, people who are HIGHLY trained in gun safety but somehow make a mistake their weapons end up in the hands of kids. Or they are even misplaced or lost! It seems so stupid it's hard to believe it could happen--how in the heck to do you misplace a GUN?! But humans are fallable, they make mistakes.

sadly, guns are VERY unforgiving.

He wasn't going to work, the dumb fuck when to bed.

You are right, the guy fell asleep and forgot the gun. Like I said, people make mistakes.

Like you did when you picked a fight with me! Libertarian socialism. What a fricking crock of shit.

Sounds like socialism. So stricter parental laws?

What do you think should be done about this irresponsibility, nothing?

The father needs to do some time but let's face facts here: the whole thing was an accident. A 3-year old child mistakes a wii remote for a real gun. The blame goes to the father no doubt about that. As a parent, one has to make the environment for his/her child as safe as possible. Also, to blame the child for this accident too by saying that parents should teach their kids about the dangers of guns. At three years old, even if the father did tell the child about his gun, the relation of the two guns is shockingly high. When i first looked at that picture for a second i couldn't tell which one was the real gun until i looked closely seeing as though i have one of these wii guns of my own. The thing that bugs me the most is that, I'm pretty sure that toy guns, are not supposed to even look like their real counterparts. They are supposed to be built in a way so that they are obviously distinguishable from the real thing.

Leaving the keys in your car is a mistake. Leaving a loaded weapon without the safety on a counter that your 3 year old toddler can reach it is complete irresponsibility. Yes, this is a JUDGMENT on my part. This is a weapon, a thing designed to do one thing, kill and/or cause great bodily injury. To leave this lying around is completely irresponsible. No I do not advocate outlawing or restricting guns.

An actual Wii gun controller is solid white. The one depicted in the pictured was altered after market. It was not purchased that way in the US. That being said, I agree with your post..I just wanted to clarify a misleading part of this story. All other things aside, even if it WERE solid white, a 3 year old will have trouble controlling his/her curiosity whether they realize it is a real gun or not.

"People should know by now that it's not a good Idea to place loaded guns near small kids!" Really? is that a bad idea? I didn't know.

I'm sure this kind of thing happens because the gun owner had NO idea that guns are dangerous in the hand of a child.

Can you recommend a book?

OK, sarcasm aside, do you really think that a gun-owning parent doesn't know that guns and toddlers don't mix?
Or do you think maybe it's more likely the gun owner just set it down in a moment of tragic distraction?

there are LOTs of scenarios I can think of where it could happen without the person being so stupid he didn't "know that kids should not play with guns".

No, after this they're thinking about tightening wii control laws.

In the UK, the date is abbreviated day/month/year instead of month/day/year. So you didn't miss half the year....

(Or if so, the rest of us did too.)

FURTHER UPDATE: More details coming in from a new source which claims that the child had been playing a Wii game. The game’s controller, according to authorities, was shaped like a gun that looked very similar to the real handgun, which her stepfather had put on the living room table. The authorities claim the girl "pulled the gun off the table and it went off."

I call BS, the dad is trying to pass the blame here. All of the Wii gun controllers Ive seen dont really look like a real gun. I dont think the poor kid mistook the gun for the Wii controllers so much as (like sophosthegreat mentioned) decided to pick up the gun and play with it like a toy.

This is 100% to blame on bad neglectful parenting.

Even so, the father should not have casually left a LOADED GUN on a counter top where a three year old could reach it.

Can't blame the Wii on that one.

i thought it was the other way around and i have plenty of experience with guns

Right...

Isn't there anything you jerks won't politicize?

No! Some of the people here can politicze going to a skid-O-can.

your right tho...

Guns don't have a bad rap except to the anti-gun statists.

The person who should have a bad rap here is the irresponsible parents who leave a loaded gun laying around for a 3 year old.