Toddler shoots pregnant mom while playing with father's loaded gun

[Equinox Moon]

Last edited Wed Apr 18, 2018, 11:09 PM - Edit history (1)

Source: USA Today

INDIANAPOLIS — A toddler was playing with her father's handgun when she shot her pregnant mother Tuesday in a northwest Indiana parking lot, according to media reports.

A 3-year-old girl in the back seat of a vehicle when she shot her pregnant mother outside a Plato's Closet in Merrillville at 3:52 p.m., WMAQ-TV Chicago reported.

The girl's 1-year-old brother was also in the car. Her father was inside the store at the time, the station reported. Police took her father, identified by WMAQ as Menzo Brazien, into custody.

Brazien was held Wednesday in the Lake County Jail on a preliminary charge of child endangerment, the Lake County Sheriff's Department told The Indianapolis Star.

“A loaded weapon with children in the back seat: real careless act,” Merrilville police Chief Joe Petruch told WMAQ-TV. “I hope she survives the gunshot wound.”

Read more: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/toddler-shoots-pregnant-mom-while-playing-with-fathers-loaded-gun/ar-AAw2iJR?OCID=ansmsnnews11

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Mother taken to the hospital, her condition is unknown.

Tragic!

[lastlib]

1. If only the poor mom had had a gun........

...sez Wayne LaPeeError, NRA/Kremlin stooge.

[Binkie The Clown]

2. You beat me to it. nt

[lagomorph777]

16. My immediate thought too "A Good Mom with a gun could have prevented this tragedy."

[sharedvalues]

3. How much profit did NRA and gun corps make on that gun?

Profits for gun corps - the mission of the NRA.

[Exultant Democracy]

4. If only there had been a good guy with a gun. nt

[LastLiberal in PalmSprings]

6. If only there had been a good toddler with a gun. nt

[More_Cowbell]

5. The father was yelling at the mother "Did you do this to yourself?"

Mindless.

[Midnight Writer]

7. It's the toddler that will carry guilt all her life.

I imagine the father will move on pretty easily.

[YOHABLO]

8. So many questions of 'why' but then you realize you live in the U.S.A. .. so it's understandable.

[mark67]

9. I don't understand why there's no legal culpability for the parents in these incidents...

I think there are laws on the books, but the attitude of law enforcement is that "they've already suffered enough."

Any thoughts?

[Vinca]

10. And thoughts???? I feel like putting a fist through the computer screen.

They should be charged - at the very least - with child endangerment. Idiots. Why do they have children in the first place?

[melm00se]

11. I know the NC

has laws on the books of this nature:

§ 14-315.1. Storage of firearms to protect minors.

(a) Any person who resides in the same premises as a minor, owns or possesses a firearm, and stores or leaves the firearm (i) in a condition that the firearm can be discharged and (ii) in a manner that the person knew or should have known that an unsupervised minor would be able to gain access to the firearm, is guilty of a Class 1 misdemeanor if a minor gains access to the firearm without the lawful permission of the minor's parents or a person having charge of the minor and the minor:

(1) Possesses it in violation of G.S. 14-269.2(b);

(2) Exhibits it in a public place in a careless, angry, or threatening manner;

(3) Causes personal injury or death with it not in self defense; or

(4) Uses it in the commission of a crime.

(b) Nothing in this section shall prohibit a person from carrying a firearm on his or her body, or placed in such close proximity that it can be used as easily and quickly as if carried on the body.

(c) This section shall not apply if the minor obtained the firearm as a result of an unlawful entry by any person.

(d) "Minor" as used in this section means a person under 18 years of age who is not emancipated. (1993, c. 558, s. 2; 1994, Ex. Sess., c. 14, s. 11.)

I get a copy and sign an acknowledgement of it every time I buy a firearm.

I am not sure if anyone has been charged under it.

[rgbecker]

12. What's the penalty for a Class I misdemeanor?

Guy gets Jail? Fine? Hospital bill for his wife all because we have to make sure people can buy and have guns without any kind of training or licensing or test of mental competence. A close reading of that law (b) would allow the wife to claim she simply had the gun "Placed in close proximity that it can be used a easily and quickly as if carried on the body." No problem here. Just a very sick country controlled by gun manufacturers and their minions.

[melm00se]

14. Max of 120 days in jail

[lark]

13. Lock him up!

That is my thought and belief as well. He deliberately put the lives of everyone at risk by keeping a loaded, unlocked gun, when a toddler could get it - sheer idiocy and recklessness. Wife needs to file for immediate divorce and take him for every penny he'd ever make, if she is lucky enough to survive.

[agueybana79]

15. I'm not even sad. Natural selection. N/t

[Blue_Tires]

17. Send the medical bill to Dana Loesch...