4-year-old girl dies after finding mom's gun in closet, shooting herself: Texas sheriff

https://abc7.com/story/4-year-old-girl-dies-finding-moms-gun-closet-shooting-herself-harris-county-texas-sheriffs-office/19752585/

HARRIS COUNTY, Texas -- A 4-year-old girl is dead after investigators say she found a gun in a closet and accidentally shot herself in northwest Harris County, Texas Thursday night.

58 points · 18 comments · view on lemmy.world

18 Comments

CompactFlax@discuss.tchncs.de · 28 pts · 5d (13 replies)

A reasonable country would deem this manslaughter for inappropriately securing a firearm. This isn’t an accident.

DragonTypeWyvern@midwest.social · 8 pts · 5d

She probably will be charged.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Child_access_prevention_law

Texas, believe it or not, has one too.

Paradoxeuh@jlai.lu · 4 pts · 5d (11 replies)

To be honest, that's even worse that unreasonable. The level of individualism needed to think that your gun is a better protection than banning gun can only exist in USA.

EggInDisguise@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 17 pts · 5d (7 replies)

My gun protects me, my family, and people like me from bigots who have proven they will try to murder me for simply thinking I might vote differently.

In fact, in my state someone did just that last year. Murdered his neighbor because he thought the neighbor might vote for a Democrat.

So while I agree on principle, in practice, I'll give my guns up when I don't have to worry about Republicans breaking down my door.

But then, I practice proper firearm etiquette and lock them up, and no children are ever in my house to begun with. These parents are 100% responsible for the death of their child, no question about it. In a sane country, this wouldn't have happened.

titanicx@lemmy.zip · 3 pts · 4d (2 replies)

I just recently did the same. Not murder someone, but went ahead and picked up a few guns. Truthfully, the orange pedophile fan base crowd scares the shit out of me. I live in a republitard state and the amount of assholes here is enormous. So. They have guns. They think they have all the power. Fuck it. I'll protect mine and what I believe in just as zealous as they do. And if it comes down to it. We will see who's left.

Forester@pawb.social · 3 pts · 4d (1 reply)

Make sure you get plenty of range time in. Nothing beats muscle memory

titanicx@lemmy.zip · 2 pts · 4d

I plan on it. First thing is taking them in to get cleaned and inspected by a gun smith. Since 3 of the 4 I have were bought privately. Then either going to an indoor range, or if the weather stops raining for a minute then heading to the place I normally shoot and see how they perform. I do have experience shooting, but haven't owned my own firearm for a few years.

AceSLive@lemmy.world · 0 pts · 4d

How was the neighbor murdered?

Voroxpete@sh.itjust.works · -3 pts · 4d (2 replies)

What a fantastic country you live in.

EggInDisguise@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 8 pts · 4d

Yeah no fucking shit thanks for the reminder I didn't fucking need

dreadbeef@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 1 pts · 3d

And you want him without a gun. It's literally a dumb opinion when you realize America isn't just insecure fragile white men with the guns. Banning guns will rip them out of the hands of trans and black people first, and then the poors, and never the rich. But knowing that takes a few more brain cells to rub around and warm up than people are willing to do. Because thinking is hard.

historicaldocuments@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 4d (2 replies)

The level of individualism needed to think that your gun is a better protection than banning gun can only exist in USA.

There are places in the US where the police response time can be hours and the tax base to hire a larger 24/7 force doesn't exist. In those places you are your own line of defense. Then there are the really remote places where people might go weeks between trips into town. You won't find a set of rules to apply to cities and remote areas without making some aspect of one or the other unworkable.

Firearms, encryption, 3D printing, and a few other things I can't think of right now fit into a basket of technology that tend to be very easy to criticize from the outside looking in, easy to defend from the inside to other people on the inside, and difficult for some reason for people on the inside to explain to people on the outside.

knexcar@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 3d (1 reply)

Why is it hard to defend 3d printing and cryptography? Are those controversial as well?

I guess silly lawmakers want to mess with cryptography for nefarious reasons, but I’ve never heard of any regular people being against them.

historicaldocuments@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 3d

Why is it hard to defend 3d printing and cryptography? Are those controversial as well?

Yes, among certain circles. California recently passed a law regarding 3D printers requiring that they not be used to make parts for firearms. To accomplish this they want all parts washed through a database of known firearm parts to send back a PRINT/DONTPRINT signal. In practice this is impossible. It would require the 3D printer always be connected to the internet AND be in cahoots with the backend database. Sure you can add features like signed firmware handshakes with the database using Encryption, but there's nothing stopping the 3D printing world from buying their own devboards and using their own software to run the printer they bought.

With restricting Encryption it's sold as protecting kids and preventing criminals from doing crimes. Who could be against that? Except the entire modern digital world depends utterly on encryption. If some savant woke up this morning and published a break to AES the entire world would grind to a halt because now financial transactions don't have a security guarantee anymore. Arguments against limiting encryption usually boil down to a "backdoor" or "key escrow" if the article is being really fancy, but don't use phrases like "remove security guarantees."

So, my point was arguments for limiting encryption can sound good until you know something about encryption. Arguments about preventing 3D printers from making gun parts sound good until you know something about 3D printers, and arguments about banning firearms sound good until you know something about firearms. The 3D printing world should be taking notes from the mish-mash of firearms laws that applies to the US because that's coming their way. Paying a lawyer to explain why ordering filament used to manufacture gun parts without having a registered 3D printing device doesn't sound like a whole lot of fun, especially when the people you're trying to convince don't understand the arguments and don't care.

Some links:

RampantParanoia2365@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 4d (2 replies)

So it was kept loaded, and chambered, then.

mojofrododojo@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 4d

"anything that slows down your ability to fire is literal tyranny" - have had this exact conversation, idiots who intentionally leave loaded, ready to fire weapons all over the house. It's so fucking stupid.

and so you get what happened in texas.

Areldyb@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 3d

Yep. Madness. If you're going to choose to keep a gun in your house, it needs to be locked in an inoperable state. If it's ever ready to fire, it better be on your person. Anything else is negligence.

GreenKnight23@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 4d

a fingerprint safe is like $50. if you can afford a $500 gun, you can afford a $50 case.

poor girl. I hope it was at least quick and painless.