A 5-year-old Utah boy died when he accidentally shot himself with a handgun in a small town south of Salt Lake City on Thursday. Lt.

A 5-year-old Utah boy died when he accidentally shot himself with a handgun in a small town south of Salt Lake City on Thursday, police said.

Lt. Mike Wall with the Santaquin Police Department told KSL-TV the boy found a 9 mm handgun in the back room of his house and fired a single shot. The boy’s parents and siblings were inside the home when the shooting happened but were not with him in the room.

  • octopus_ink@lemmy.mlEnglish
    722·
    2 months ago

    It’s a real shame there’s literally nothing else to be done to curb gun deaths in this country. Oh well, guess we tried.

     

    /s not needed, I hope.

     

    We’re locking up those parents, right? At the very least we’re locking up the one who was registered to own and safeguard that firearm, right?

    Authorities do not suspect foul play, and investigators are trying to determine how the boy got ahold of the gun.

    If you leave a gun you own unsecured such that a child gets it and kills themselves or others, it should be mandatory jail time. How much investigation is really needed here? Did a 5 year old spin the combination lock on a gun safe? Nope.

    • Hellinabucket@lemmy.worldEnglish
      402·
      2 months ago

      I saw people in a thread for a similar case this week arguing that the person who left a gun on a couch with a bunch of kids shouldn’t be held responsible.

      This country is fucked.

      • TrickDacy@lemmy.world
        131·
        2 months ago

        The sad part is that I believe you saw that. People argue the most garbage positions imaginable and they do it boldly and shamelessly online.

      • ramble81@lemm.ee
        51·
        2 months ago

        Hey come on. Personal responsibility and all that. Don’t you know that republicans think that extends to children. That’s why they want to force them to have kids and get married. “Oh, they can’t consent? Pay no mind to that part. We’ll fix that soon enough”

      • brygphilomena@lemmy.world
        3·
        2 months ago

        I can’t imagine jail time for this, but then I also can’t imagine what it’s like to go through life losing your child and knowing it’s your fault.

        To me, that would be literal hell to live with every day. No amount of jail time would come close to matching that torment.

    • ours@lemmy.world
      81·
      2 months ago

      A safe or the lock that usually comes for free with most pistols. But no, Fox news says we have to fear imminent “migrant crime” or “antifa” so better to be all loaded up and ready to blast away. Common sense be damned.

    • Kalkaline @leminal.space
      291·
      2 months ago

      Wait, I think you’re on to something. This situation could have definitely used more guns, less gun laws and less gun safety measures.

  • dinckel@lemmy.world
    362·
    2 months ago

    Would love to hear about how this could have been prevented, by having more guns, and less guns restrictions

    • Ioughttamow@fedia.io
      361·
      2 months ago

      With more guns, the staggering weight of choice paralysis would have stopped this

    • ASDraptor@lemmy.autism.placeEnglish
      151·
      2 months ago

      Easy: if the kid had a gun, he could have threatened the kid with a gun with his gun so the kid with a gun wouldn’t have shot the kid with a gun.

      I mean, isn’t it obvious?

    • ravhall@discuss.online
      21·
      2 months ago

      Obviously if there were more guns back there he would’ve been overwhelmed by the number of guns it would not have been able to select a single gun. Solution is purchasing more firearms, And displaying those firearms fully loaded.

  • JCreazy@midwest.socialEnglish
    282·
    2 months ago

    Media needs to stop calling these accidents. There are multiple preventable things that took place before this happened. This is negligence.

  • Shawdow194@fedia.io
    293·
    2 months ago

    At least they had a weapon to defend their family against people who would hurt them. You wouldnt want your kids getting hurt by someone being reckless with a firearm

  • SoJB@lemmy.mlEnglish
    5·
    2 months ago

    Kid didn’t deserve that shit.

    The parents, however, absolutely did.

  • JaggedRobotPubes@lemmy.worldEnglish
    4·
    2 months ago

    The only thing that stops a bad five year old killing himself with a gun is a good five year old killing himself with a gun.