3YO killed after mistaking pink handgun for a toy

[mominatrix]

3-year-old S.C. boy killed after mistaking pink handgun for toy

By David Edwards
Tuesday, February 5, 2013 12:26 EST

Topics: Greenville ♦ Haywood Plantation Apartments ♦ south carolina ♦ Tmorej Smith

 

A 3-year-old boy in Greenville, South Carolina was shot in the head and killed on Friday after he started playing with a pink handgun because he thought it was a toy.

Police responding to the shooting at Haywood Plantation Apartments said that Tmorej Smith was found with a gunshot wound to the head, according to The Associated Press.

Investigators determined that Tmorej and his 7-year-old sister had been playing with a pink handgun when the incident occurred.

Deputy Coroner Jeff Fowler ruled the shooting an accidental homicide.

Fowler said that the shooting happened in a bedroom, while the boy’s grandparents were in the living room. The parents were not at home at the time.

“If you have guns, if you own guns mostly we would prefer you have them in a lock box,” Greenville Police Media Relations Officer Jonathan Bragg told WYFF. “At least have them out of the reach of children.”

Police had not yet revealed who fired the weapon.

Pink handguns and Hello Kitty assault rifles have been part of an effort to get firearms in the hands of women and younger groups in recent years. In 2011, Arizona state Sen. Lori Klein (R) was criticized after she pointed her loaded raspberry-pink handgun at a reporter.

“Oh, it’s so cute,” Klein told the reporter as she aimed the gun’s laser pointer at the reporter’s chest, adding that the firearm’s lack of a trigger safety should not be a reason to worry.

“I just didn’t have my hand on the trigger,” she said.

Watch this video from Discovery’s American Guns.



www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/02/05/3-year-old-s-c-boy-killed-after-mistaking-pink-handgun-for-toy/

[meshaliuknits]

Poor kid.

[penguingrrl]

That poor child!

[Deleted]

That's just awful.

[Velar Fricative]

OMG.

[msmerymac]

To state the obvious... this is tragic. It's likely not just that the kids thought it was a toy because it was pink plastic, but that they were playing unsupervised in a bedroom where they could apparently find a loaded, unlocked weapon!

This is why people who say they need to be able to keep their hand gun, loaded, in an unlocked drawer in their bedside table in case of ïntruders" are NOT responsible gun owners.

[mominatrix]

Feb 5, 2013 17:38:41 GMT -5 msmerymac said:

To state the obvious... this is tragic. It's likely not just that the kids thought it was a toy because it was pink plastic, but that they were playing unsupervised in a bedroom where they could apparently find a loaded, unlocked weapon!

This is why people who say they need to be able to keep their hand gun, loaded, in an unlocked drawer in their bedside table in case of ïntruders" are NOT responsible gun owners.

ITA

I mean, look at that thing.  I'm a grown up, and if I saw that I'd think it was a toy.


GIS'ing "pink handgun" brings up a ton of different models, some look like actual real guns with some pink on them:



But others for-real look like toys. 


...but, yeah, leaving it where the kids can get it... and leaving it LOADED where the kids can get it =/= responsible gun ownership... and I love this quote:

“If you have guns, if you own guns mostly we would prefer you have them in a lock box,” Greenville Police Media Relations Officer Jonathan Bragg told WYFF. “At least have them out of the reach of children.”

Yeah. "we would PREFER" if you didn't let your kids play with loaded guns. But if you do, whatevers.
There's law enforcement's response, right there.

[msmerymac]

Yeah, that was my favorite quote too, Momi. Uh, like, hey, this MIGHT be a good idea. Locking your weapons. You know, if you want to. Jury's still out, though, the opinion could go either way. *-)

[Deleted]

Didn't AW have a pink gun?

[Deleted]

How horrible. I will never understand how anyone will be comfortable with guns and toddlers in the same room room.

Also, Hello Kitty ASSAULT RIFLES???

[penguingrrl]

I honestly shake my head that guns that look like toys are legal in some places (I remember seeing signs on the subway that they are decidedly not legal in NYC). That's just an accident waiting to happen.

And flameful, but this is part of why I don't allow my kids to play with any toys resembling guns (even water guns). It seem innocuous until the child is convinced that guns are toys.

[flyintheointment]

Jesus... that poor baby.


One of my girlfriends re-pinned this:



on pinterest. She has a toddler and a newborn. I just... wtf?

[earlgreyhot]

I hope the gun owner is charged.

[meshaliuknits]

Feb 5, 2013 18:10:08 GMT -5 @septimus said:

Didn't AW have a pink gun?

I thought it was SIIHPAPP's wife who did? Rifle, though.

[cattledogkisses]

People with small children who leave loaded handguns laying around are giant flaming idiots. People WITHOUT small children who leave loaded handguns laying around are giant flaming idiots.

We don't have children at all, and H's handgun is kept locked up in a gun safe with a trigger lock on it, ammunition stored in a separate place, etc.

These tragedies would be so easily preventable if the people involved exercised a modicum of common sense.

[thatsmypurse]

Feb 5, 2013 18:11:19 GMT -5 sunmoonstars said:

How horrible. I will never understand how anyone will be comfortable with guns and toddlers in the same room room.

Also, Hello Kitty ASSAULT RIFLES???

The Hello Kitty assault rifle got me too. I didn't know they made those so I looked it up. Hello toy. What grown adult wants to shot with that!?! I like pink probably more than the next girl but good grief. It just seems so wrong.

[Deleted]

Feb 5, 2013 18:13:46 GMT -5 penguingrrl said:

And flameful, but this is part of why I don't allow my kids to play with any toys resembling guns (even water guns). It seem innocuous until the child is convinced that guns are toys.

I don't either, and my in-laws roll their eyes at me. I hope to never have us in a position where my DD questions if a gun is real or not.

[decemberwedding07]

Feb 5, 2013 18:15:50 GMT -5 flyintheointment said:

Jesus... that poor baby.


One of my girlfriends re-pinned this:



on pinterest. She has a toddler and a newborn. I just... wtf?

You have GOT to be fucking kidding me.  What. the. hell. are people thinking???  This makes people who don't vax their kids looks like rocket scientists.

There was one gun that my dad apparently kept unlocked when we were kids.  It was a shotgun and he kept it (unloaded) far under their bed. Honestly, if you were ever to try to load that particular shotgun, you'd find that it is really hard for a fully grown woman my size to open in order to load it.  If I had managed to find it as a child, and then gotten a ladder to climb up to the top shelf on my dad's side of their bed to get the shotgun shells that he apparently had hidden up there, there is NO WAY that I would have been able to load it.  My dad said that's the only reason he felt fine about leaving that particular gun unlocked, but unloaded. 

In addition to being nearly impossible to open to load, it's incredibly heavy.  I wouldn't have been able to lift it in the first place.  I don't like the idea of leaving unloaded guns out near children, just because I'd be worried about a small child taking it outside as a toy, and someone thinking it was loaded and it being a (rightfully) huuuuuuge problem.

[decemberwedding07]

Feb 5, 2013 18:41:58 GMT -5 thatsmypurse said:

Feb 5, 2013 18:11:19 GMT -5 sunmoonstars said:

How horrible. I will never understand how anyone will be comfortable with guns and toddlers in the same room room.

Also, Hello Kitty ASSAULT RIFLES???

The Hello Kitty assault rifle got me too. I didn't know they made those so I looked it up. Hello toy. What grown adult wants to shot with that!?! I like pink probably more than the next girl but good grief. It just seems so wrong.

I do think it's interesting that everyone thinks the Hello Kitty assault rifles look like toys.  Black and they're scary, pink and they're toys?  They otherwise look the same.  They don't look like toys to me.  I don't know about Hello Kitty in particular, but it's been possible to have your gun made in a huge range of colors for a long time.  I had a friend in high school who was a high powered rifle champion in her state and her AR was pink with her name painted on it with a rose.

[meshaliuknits]

Feb 5, 2013 18:49:41 GMT -5 decemberwedding07 said:

I do think it's interesting that everyone thinks the Hello Kitty assault rifles look like toys.  Black and they're scary, pink and they're toys?  They otherwise look the same.  They don't look like toys to me.  I don't know about Hello Kitty in particular, but it's been possible to have your gun made in a huge range of colors for a long time.  I had a friend in high school who was a high powered rifle champion in her state and her AR was pink with her name painted on it with a rose.

IDK about the Hello Kitty assault rifle (didn't google), but I do think the pink handgun in the article looks like a toy. It looks plastic to me. I associate plastic guns with toy guns. Once you pick it up or maybe upon closer inspection I can see the slide (?) is metal and I assume it's heavier than it looks when you pick it up.

Of course, I don't think black guns are 'scary' but they do appear to be made of metal. I associate metal with a real weapon.

[Deleted]

Feb 5, 2013 18:41:58 GMT -5 thatsmypurse said:

Feb 5, 2013 18:11:19 GMT -5 sunmoonstars said:

How horrible. I will never understand how anyone will be comfortable with guns and toddlers in the same room room.

Also, Hello Kitty ASSAULT RIFLES???

The Hello Kitty assault rifle got me too. I didn't know they made those so I looked it up. Hello toy. What grown adult wants to shot with that!?! I like pink probably more than the next girl but good grief. It just seems so wrong.

I hate to break it to you but there are a fuckton of grown adults who love some hello kitty, okay? So the HK handgun surprises me none.

Does Mariah Carey count as a grown ass adult? lol

[meshaliuknits]

Feb 5, 2013 18:55:03 GMT -5 @habbsies said:

Does Mariah Carey count as a grown ass adult? lol

I think you know the answer is no.

[penguingrrl]

Feb 5, 2013 18:49:41 GMT -5 decemberwedding07 said:

Feb 5, 2013 18:41:58 GMT -5 thatsmypurse said:

The Hello Kitty assault rifle got me too. I didn't know they made those so I looked it up. Hello toy. What grown adult wants to shot with that!?! I like pink probably more than the next girl but good grief. It just seems so wrong.

I do think it's interesting that everyone thinks the Hello Kitty assault rifles look like toys.  Black and they're scary, pink and they're toys?  They otherwise look the same.  They don't look like toys to me.  I don't know about Hello Kitty in particular, but it's been possible to have your gun made in a huge range of colors for a long time.  I had a friend in high school who was a high powered rifle champion in her state and her AR was pink with her name painted on it with a rose.

Maybe if you grew up somewhere where guns are common you would easily be able to tell the difference, but I wouldn't at all. I've never seen a gun IRL (except on a cop, and I wasn't looking closely) and have obviously never touched or held one. I would not be able to decipher the difference between a more realistic looking toy gun and the real thing.

[Deleted]

Feb 5, 2013 18:57:25 GMT -5 penguingrrl said:

Maybe if you grew up somewhere where guns are common you would easily be able to tell the difference, but I wouldn't at all. I've never seen a gun IRL (except on a cop, and I wasn't looking closely) and have obviously never touched or held one. I would not be able to decipher the difference between a more realistic looking toy gun and the real thing.

I'm sure most seven and three year olds can't either.

[2vermont]

So, I'm guessing the grandparents were babysitting? If so, how horrible for them. I wonder if they knew anything about the location of the gun or if there was even one in the house.

[JLN]

Feb 5, 2013 18:15:50 GMT -5 flyintheointment said:

Jesus... that poor baby.


One of my girlfriends re-pinned this:



on pinterest. She has a toddler and a newborn. I just... wtf?

For the people that feel things like these are necessary, I have to wonder where they are living?  I mean, is it necessary to be on the alert and have your gun loaded and ready for intruders any time you're home?  

Maybe I'm naive, but I don't fear for my safety when I go to bed at night.  Perhaps that's just because I live in a super-safe city, maybe.  

[flyintheointment]

Feb 5, 2013 19:47:04 GMT -5 JLN said:

Feb 5, 2013 18:15:50 GMT -5 flyintheointment said:

For the people that feel things like these are necessary, I have to wonder where they are living?  I mean, is it necessary to be on the alert and have your gun loaded and ready for intruders any time you're home?  

Maybe I'm naive, but I don't fear for my safety when I go to bed at night.  Perhaps that's just because I live in a super-safe city, maybe.  

This particular friend lives in a rural area in NC. I really believe that some of these people have no idea what it means to live in fear of violence on a daily basis and the concept seems almost exciting.

[gpw]

Feb 5, 2013 18:13:46 GMT -5 penguingrrl said:

I honestly shake my head that guns that look like toys are legal in some places (I remember seeing signs on the subway that they are decidedly not legal in NYC). That's just an accident waiting to happen.

And flameful, but this is part of why I don't allow my kids to play with any toys resembling guns (even water guns). It seem innocuous until the child is convinced that guns are toys.

It's funny because when H and I were dating, our opinions on guns were much farther apart then they are now (we have both moved more toward center).  I was really considering whether he would actually be the one I'd marry because we had such differing opinions, and how would that work when we had kids?  

One day I said to him "you know, I'm a little concerned because I just don't see how things are going to go if we had kids.  I don't ever want my kids to have toy guns."  I was floored by what he said to me.  He said, "My kids will not have toy guns.  Guns aren't toys."

Could have knocked me over with a feather and I thought "well, there's that", lol!

[2curlydogs]

This is awful.

All I can say is we outlawed fake/candy cigarettes because of the glamorization they brought to smoking for children (c'mon, who here doesn't remember the candy cigarettes where if you puffed on them they looked like smoke was coming out?).

Guns should abso-fucking-lutely be the same.

[MrsAxilla]

DH is a "gun nut" and he won't allow toy guns, either. Even water guns made us uncomfortable for a while. We only caved because all the other little boys at the pool had them, they're a good way to make friends in a new neighborhood, and they don not look realistic.