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Comments: 1343 + - Games: Accidental Wii Suicide on Thursday March 11 2010, @11:00AM
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Paul Taylor noted a story that I would have thought to be an April Fool's Day joke a few weeks from now, which makes it only seem more tragic. A 3-year-old shot herself with a gun after mistaking it for a Wii controller.
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Submission: Accidental Wii Suicide by Anonymous Coward
Why be difficult when, with a bit of effort, you could be impossible?
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Suicide? (Score:5, Insightful)
This is manslaughter. Whoever left a gun near a 3-year-old needs locking up.
Re:Suicide? (Score:5, Insightful)
It's also called being a responsible parent, not only for the gun part, but for the Wii part. Who lets their three year-old play shooting games on the Wii? I have a Wii and Xbox360 and my seven year-old does not play violent games. Any games which have any possibility of bad content which he plays are played with me there. He's a damn smart kid but I want to reinforce the right ideas and right values in him.
This father should be hung. Who leaves a loaded gun in the house, let alone on the table, let alone with kids in the house? And you know what? Kids like guns, even before video game consoles. Even if this kid wouldn't have played Wii she probably would have grabbed it.
Parent
Re:Suicide? (Score:5, Interesting)
My best educated guess is that what happened was that the little girl was holding the gun upside-down and looking down the barrel, with her thumb looped through the trigger. Basically imagine holding a gun where the barrel is directly up in the air, and you've got your thumb against the trigger and are holding the bottom of the grip with your fingers wrapped around it. She squeezed to hold it tight, as it natural to do in that position, and shot herself. I've read a few cases of this position in holding the gun causing this accident. It's absolutely terrible.
Parent
Re:Suicide? (Score:5, Insightful)
Chances are very high it was loaded, round in chamber, and with the hammer cocked (and the safety off). The girl was three years old. Are you saying that she had the knowledge (and strength) to make that pistol ready to fire if it wasn't already like that?
Parent
Re:Suicide? (Score:5, Insightful)
You just can't stop stupid with a switch. Like that one gun safety instructor who thought his gun was unloaded and thought he'd make a point by pulling the trigger with it to his head. It was loaded, and he's dead. You follow all of the rules, all of the time, or someday something will go wrong, and you'll be sorry.
Parent
Re:Suicide? (Score:5, Insightful)
"It was proabably the middle of the night, everyone was sleeping. He wasn't thinking, or was thinking that he had put it away far enough, or that he'd wake up before his kid."
And left a loaded, ready-to-shoot firearm in the middle of the room like you would a discarded plate or an old newspaper. There's no excuse. And this is exactly the problem with gun-owning countries - it's the middle of the night, everybody's sleeping, he hears a sound, panics, he's ***not thinking*** straight, and ends up aiming at things with a gun... a banging door, a stray animal, a kid trying to get his ball back when his parents won't know (weird, yeah, that's a weird situation, but it happens), a partygoer who's accidentally stumbled into the wrong back yard, a neighbour who's jumped over the fence to see what the strange sound was in his friend's back garden...
It's a gun. It's used to kill things, and only to kill things. Don't ready it unnecessarily, don't leave it lying about, don't carry it unnecessarily, don't use it when you're not confident of your abilities and judgement, and keep it THE HELL out of the way of children, or even your whole family. For some reason people seem to think less of that than if he'd left an upturned lawnmower, with the safety features dismantled, turned on and plugged in, in the same room. To be honest, I'd have had a LOT more sympathy for the guy in question if the child had done something with a dismantled lawnmower rather than a gun... at least he *could* have a nearly-plausible reason for having the thing sitting in his house in that kind of state.
Even if we take the "home defence" argument - the pillock left the gun downstairs, with ammunition in it after his initial fears were calmed. If there *had* been someone in the house that he didn't see, he's just handed them a free deadly weapon with which to kill him.
Parent
Re:Suicide? (Score:5, Insightful)
To be fair, the father left the gun, but the mother was in the room with the child and the gun at the time of the accident, sitting at her computer. There's plenty of negligence to go around here.
Parent
Re:Suicide? (Score:5, Funny)
There's a loaded Glock 17 and EAA Witness in .40 on my coffee room table right now. One or both of them is always near me or on my hip.
Because you never know when it's needed. The only time it's "unnecessary" to have some form of self defense handy is when you're already dead.
Parent
Re:Suicide? (Score:5, Insightful)
i'm just wondering which war-torn 3rd world country you live in to need 24h firearm-level self defense...
Parent
Re:Suicide? (Score:5, Funny)
America.
Parent
Your guns are worthless... (Score:5, Insightful)
You're gonna die from a hearth attack or a stroke. Possibly cancer.
Stress does that to ya.
Parent
Re:Suicide? (Score:5, Insightful)
He's an idiot, but I dunno if he really needs jail.
He may not need jail, but he *DOES* need to be disallowed from owning or handling firearm.
I'm sure the loss of his child is punishment enough.
No, it isn't. This guy has proven he does not deserve the right to own a firearm. For the safety of everyone around him, he should be convicted of criminal negligence causing death (or whatever the Tenn. equivalent is) so that he can be banned from owning or posessing a firearm.
Parent
Re:Suicide? (Score:5, Insightful)
Whether he feels bad about it or not there should be a severe punishment for this level of recklessness, negligence and stupidity.
Exactly. Using that judgment, every person who recklessly drives and kills someone should be let off the hook because "they feel horrible about it." The same analogy can be used for any other situation where someone feels remorse for their actions.
Parent
Re:Suicide? (Score:5, Interesting)
Parent
Re:Suicide? (Score:5, Insightful)
This is an issue of deterrence. The person involved in this case is already suffering enough , but the other people who dont think about gun safety need to know that carelessness leads to accidents leads to severe punishment.
Parent
Re:Suicide? (Score:5, Insightful)
Do you really think any amount of jail time is worse than the heart tearing pain caused by the loss of a child through your own fault? I'd say he wishes his son killed him instead right now. Jail time is going to do nothing.
The mistake your making is the assumption that a person who leaves a loaded firearm around a 3 year old child gives a crap.
He should receive a heavy custodial sentence not to make him feel bad, but as an attempt to get people to take a little more care over where they stick their firearms. This idiocy needs to be stamped on hard when ever it occurs even when the end result is the death of a small child.
Parent
Re:Suicide? (Score:5, Insightful)
Parent
Re:Suicide? (Score:5, Insightful)
Parent
Re:Suicide? (Score:5, Insightful)
Can a 3 year old do it in the manner the mother described?
Parent
Re:Suicide? (Score:5, Informative)
Parent
Re:Suicide? (Score:5, Insightful)
What I want to know is why the safety wasn't set on the gun.
I'm also vaguely curious as to what sort of shooting game the kid was playing that involved pointing the gun at himself....
Not unless the gun was modified a bit, or the three-year-old was a teeny little Hulk Hogan. Trigger pull on otc firearms is high enough that your average small child won't be firing it.
Parent
Re:Suicide? (Score:5, Insightful)
If the handgun was cocked, it wouldn't take much force at all.
Bottom line, idiots who leaved cocked, and loaded weapons laying around are the issue (it doesn't even matter if there are kids around or not). He fails the gun safety IQ test.
Careless? There are many things in life you should never be careless about - firearms is one of them.
Parent
Re:Suicide? (Score:5, Insightful)
Parent
Re:Suicide? (Score:5, Insightful)
And when you are careless with your car and you accidentally kill someone you are rightfully arrested and convicted for vehicular manslaughter.
Parent
Re:Suicide? (Score:5, Interesting)
After reading the article, I have to respectfully disagree about this case. It does seem like this is criminal negligence on the part of the stepfather as well as the mother. They neglected to teach their child about the dangers of firearms, and by letting it play with a realistic toy made the situation worse by making it seem harmless. This is on top of the grossly negligent way the firearm was left loaded and unsupervised.
Still, I don't think further punishment is necessary because it won't have any preventative effect. The guy isn't likely to make that mistake again, and the chance that prosecuting him will scare others into being more careful is also just not there. But yes, investigate, find out what went wrong and how to avoid a repeat.
Parent
Re:Suicide? (Score:5, Insightful)
He should be convicted of felony manslaughter.
Wave his jail time, but the felony means he can no longer own a fire arm.
Clearly he isn't responsible enough to own one.
Parent
Re:Suicide? (Score:5, Insightful)
1. The parents purposefully sought out a rare game controller that looked like a real gun FOR THEIR THREE YEAR OLD DAUGHTER
2. Then the father LEFT A REAL LOADED GUN that looked eerily similar to the kid's game controller (by fucking design, I might add) ON THE COFFEE TABLE which is probably EXACTLY WHERE THE FUCKING THREE YEAR OLD KID TYPICALLY LEFT HER GAME CONTROLLER.
3. Then they are shocked and surprised she picked it up and fired it.
I generally would not advocate taking children from their parents but somebody might want to think long and hard about the wisdom of leaving the 1yr old in the care of parents so f**ed up it's not even funny.
Parent
Re:Suicide? (Score:5, Insightful)
and, ideally, a ban on firearms in domestic environments.
I'm not giving up my rights because certain assholes are too irresponsible to educate themselves and their families on proper gun safety.
Parent
What a Tragedy and No Charges? (Score:5, Insightful)
But the fact that there are no charges being pressed enrages me. The article says:
Law Enforcement: If You're a Gun Owner, You Have to Be Responsible
Or what? Someone will shake their finger at you?
Cheyenne Alexis McKeehan was a victim of either neglect, ignorance or willful intent of her stepfather. Which one, no one can ever be sure of. Regardless of the circumstances he improperly stored a loaded handgun in his home in reach of a three year old.
Saying "terrible lapse of judgment" and "be responsible next time" isn't enough for me. This man should be charged with child endangerment so that people take their Second Amendment Rights seriously and responsibly should they choose to exercise them.
Were I a prosecutor, I would push for the jury to see that going through the trouble to find a toy (not regularly distributed commercially here) for your child identical to the loaded handgun that you "happened" to leave on the table one evening is more than suspicious.
If you have children, invest in a home security system before a handgun, folks.
Re:What a Tragedy and No Charges? (Score:5, Insightful)
But the fact that there are no charges being pressed enrages me.
Are you a parent? There's absolutely NOTHING they could do to the guy that would be worse than losing a child. I wouldn't be surprised if he winds up comitting suicide intentionally, with the same gun. I can't imagine how much this guy's hurting right now.
I'd also betting his marriage is over. Yes, charges of child endangerment could be filed, but no punishment is going to change anything; no punishment that state can inflict will come close to what he's done to himself.
Parent
Re:What a Tragedy and No Charges? (Score:5, Interesting)
But the fact that there are no charges being pressed enrages me.
Are you a parent? There's absolutely NOTHING they could do to the guy that would be worse than losing a child. I wouldn't be surprised if he winds up comitting suicide intentionally, with the same gun. I can't imagine how much this guy's hurting right now.
I'd also betting his marriage is over. Yes, charges of child endangerment could be filed, but no punishment is going to change anything; no punishment that state can inflict will come close to what he's done to himself.
I am a parent, and my eyes tear up thinking about a child dying, mine or one I've never met - they are all tragedies. However, in this case the *stepfather* left a gun around that killed a child that wasn't his. He may or may not be suffering, and it should be investigated.
Parent
Re:What a Tragedy and No Charges? (Score:5, Interesting)
Parent
Re:What a Tragedy and No Charges? (Score:5, Insightful)
This is not what law is for.
The parents have been punished enough by the natural consequences of their own actions. What purpose could it possibly have to add an artificial punishment on top of that?
Parent
Re:What a Tragedy and No Charges? (Score:5, Insightful)
Law Enforcement: If You're a Gun Owner, You Have to Be Responsible
Or what? Someone will shake their finger at you?
Or your daughter might accidentally shoot herself. If punishment is intended to deter or rehabilitate you, what more do you think they really need? Any punishment now would just be for the sake of making these people pay.
Parent
Re:What a Tragedy and No Charges? (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm just glad it was their child. The real tragedy is when someone leaves out a gun, and their child shoots someone else's child.
That's pretty fucked up, it's still an innocent child with the whole world ahead of her. Don't devalue a life because of poor decision on the parent's part.
Parent
I wonder... (Score:5, Funny)
Did a dog pop up from behind the bushes and chuckle afterwards?
Re:I wonder... (Score:5, Insightful)
Parent
Re:I wonder... (Score:5, Insightful)
I hope you don't have any kids. I'll bet they turn out to be little crybaby porkers, allergic to everything because they were kept inside like prize housepets, the kind of rotten shits who throw piercing tantrums in public and have to be dragged kicking and screaming to the car just because you didn't buy'em their fifth candy bar of the day.
Parent
Why is the wii controller even mentioned? (Score:5, Insightful)
Why is the Wii controller even mentioned in this freakin' story? The kid shot themselves with a loaded gun left laying around by the parent. This has nothing to do with the Wii, and everything to do with some dumbfuck leaving a loaded gun laying around with a three year old in the house. I don't care what you child does for fun, leaving a loaded gun all willy-nilly where the child can reach it is the height of responsibility.
We don't need gun control, we need idiot control.
Shot herself, you mean (Score:5, Informative)
Suicide, my ass! (Score:5, Insightful)
WTF is wrong with you submitter? This is negligent homicide by the family. They left a loaded, cocked, pistol on a table where a three year old can get it. A three year old does not have a concept of life and death, and does not commit suicide. By throwing around the S-word you're taking the blame off the people it truly belongs to: the parents. People who cannot treat firearms with the respect they deserve should not have them.
Already the news is making an issue out of the fact that it's a Wii-related death. It's not. It's a loaded gun left out in the open. It doesn't matter if the Wii gun "looked" real, it wasn't. You can have a real, pink, Hello Kitty revolver there. It doesn't matter. A loaded and cocked gun was left where a curious child can get it.
Re:Suicide, my ass! (Score:5, Insightful)
All of them incriminate the parents equally. There are a few common sense rules of gun safety which get violated far too often. Obeying them religiously is a good idea. For anyone unfamiliar, here are the utter basics:
I don't know how a 3-year-old girl was able to shoot herself. But there are many, many types of pistols on the market, some of which are not much heavier than a Wii controller even when they're loaded, particularly those chambered for .22 Long Rifle cartridges. The real point is that it doesn't matter what kind of gun it was or how a 3-year-old was able to mistake it for a Wii controller (which itself is mostly speculation since, had there been any witnesses to the kid's supposed mistaken thought process, you'd think they would have stopped her from playing with a loaded gun at some point before she shot herself). What does matter is that a child is dead because someone didn't follow the most basic rules of gun safety.
Parent
Typical /. (Score:5, Insightful)
It's good to see that the /. editorial bias is still very much well and truly alive. What's the point of this story (especially posted under games?) if it isn't to exploit one family's tragedy to promote the political ideology of the /. gatekeepers? I guess common decency and good taste are not among their core competencies.
Poor choice of everything. (Score:5, Insightful)
First of all, this wasn't an "accidental suicide", it was an accidental death.
Second of all, putting "wii" in the title is highly misleading and is typical of today's media which is more interested in tabloid journalism, trying to grab everyones attention by assuming all your readers are more responsitive to these kind of headlines.
My respect for Slashdot just went down a few.
"Nintendo" and "Wii" in all the headlines.... (Score:5, Interesting)
... But you have to read the article to see "Smith and Wesson". Unreal.
I can see where the conversation gets muddy when someone commits a violent act after playing violent video games. Not saying anything about that beyond that its at least an interesting topic. But when a TODDLER finds a LOADED GUN ON A COFFEE TABLE and SHOOTS HERSELF WITH IT are we really going to try to blame it on VIDEO GAMES?!?!?!
As a responsible gun owner... (Score:5, Insightful)
Let's get this out of our systems: The parents were horribly irresponsible and deserve to be charged with some kind of crime. In most states (including mine) it is a felony to leave a weapon where a minor can gain access to it.
That being said, as a responsible gun owner, I don't like my son to have guns as toys. Toy guns are safe. Toy guns never hurt anybody. Toy guns teach every bad habit that gun safety teaches you not to do. Kids literally think guns are toys and can be handled cavalierly.
From the time he could talk I have drilled my son that when he sees a gun, what does he do? "Run away and tell a grown up." What if your friend wants to pick it up? "Run away and tell a grown up." What if your friend has it first and wants to show you? "Run away and tell a grown up."
Just read the story (Score:5, Informative)
The dad was an idiot, though. I don't see him recovering. As for it being accidental? I couldn't speculate, but to all of the people saying that a kid couldn't pull the trigger... Kids have two hands, remember?
Re:How did a 3-year old pull the trigger? (Score:5, Informative)
It is pretty suspicious to me though that the article says the mother was just 3 feet away. How can one be 3 feet away from both a 3 year old and a loaded pistol and not realize it? And even worse, what in the hell was the stepfather thinking placing a loaded weapon on a table with children in the house? My gun is never out of my control unless it's locked up in it's safe. As with many other posters, this was gross negligence on their part. I'm not sure I agree with a call for criminal charges though as he's got to live with it for the rest of his life knowing his negligence killed that little girl.
Parent
Re:How did a 3-year old pull the trigger? (Score:5, Informative)
Parent
Re:Gun was owned by STEPfather, not father. (Score:5, Insightful)
Divorced guys know ALL about this scenario. The ex's new boyfriend doesn't have the fact that they are his kids programmed into him 24/7
In my experience, ex's new boyfriend has the fact that they are *Not* his kids programmed into him 24/7, by either the kids (tween-teen), or by the mother (if they're single-digit age).
Parent