Father Charged After Son Shot Himself With Gun Left In Dad’s Pocket

Being a responsible gun owner isn’t all that difficult, all things considered. Just follow basic firearms rules while carrying and shooting, keep the guns secure when not in use, and don’t be a moron in general.

It’s pretty simple, or at least it should be. 

Unfortunately, it’s too much to ask of some people.

One example may well be a man in Nebraska, at least if the charges against him are remotely accurate.

The father of a 5-year-old boy who accidentally shot himself over the weekend was charged Tuesday for his alleged role in the incident.

Trae Colvin was charged in Douglas County Court with two counts of intentional child abuse.

Court documents state that he told authorities he had come home from work and placed the gun he had in his car into the pocket of his sweatpants. He then fell asleep on his bed with this 5-year-old and 7-month-old children lying next to him.

…

According to the court records, Colvin believes the gun fell out of his pocket while he slept. He said he didn’t hear the gunshot but said it must have woken him up — at which point he saw the 5-year-old “flailing” his arm and blood getting everywhere.

Colvin told investigators that his phone was locked, so he couldn’t call anyone. But he grabbed a towel to apply pressure to his son’s arm.

He said he put the gun in a safe before leaving to go to his mother’s house, where he called the child’s mother to tell her what happened. He then drove to Council Bluffs to pick the child’s mother up from work; then drove them all to the emergency room at CHI Health-Creighton University Medical Center at 24th and Cuming streets so the child’s arm wound could be treated.

The child’s mother reportedly told police that Colvin rarely used his gun safe, which isn’t a great thing to hear after a case like this.

Look, I absolutely understand not leaving a gun in the car. Considering the number of stories I’ve seen where guns were stolen from them? Yeah, that was smart.

It’s everything alleged after that which makes Colvin look like a knob.

First, putting a gun in your pocket is less than ideal in general. It’s not the end of the world if you’re doing it just to transport a gun from the car to the house, but nothing beyond that. Sweat pants pockets are even less than ideal because while they’re great to have, they’re big and don’t exactly retain items in that pocket if you do anything but stand up. Even just sitting can be problematic for some items.

But Colvin reportedly plopped down in his bed, gun in pocket, with two children, and fell asleep.

Brilliant.

Abso-freaking-lutely brilliant.

We’ve all fallen asleep when we didn’t intend to. Many of us have gotten comfortable in our beds while the kids were sitting there playing. Falling asleep then can happen. I’m not faulting the guy for being tired.

I’m faulting him for having an unsecured gun at the time. He could have even just put it on the shelf in the closet, and he would have come out better than he did. He could have thrown it in a drawer on the nightstand and been better off.

He apparently did none of those, and his son got shot.

Don’t do stupid things when you own guns. This does no one any good.

Editor’s Note: The mainstream media continues to lie about gun owners and the Second Amendment, and stories like this just make their job easier.

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