Toddler Killed When 7-Year-Old Brother Found Gun in Car

I have a vivid imagination. What this means is that I can often put myself into various situations emotionally and get at least a taste of what it would feel like to experience this.

I realized how vivid it could be when something made me think of losing my then-infant son. I shut that train of thought off really quickly because that was about as much fun as you think it is. Actually, it was probably worse.

That memory came rushing back to me as I looked at this story from the LA Times about a toddler’s senseless death.

A toddler was killed in the parking lot of a shopping center in Rancho Cucamonga on Monday in what authorities called a “gun-related accident” involving the child’s 7-year-old brother.

San Bernardino County sheriff’s deputies responded at 3:53 p.m. to a report of a shooting in a parking lot of the Foothill Crossing Shopping Center in the 8200 block of Day Creek Boulevard, and found a 2-year-old boy with a gunshot wound, according to the Sheriff’s Department.

The child was transported to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Deputies determined that before the shooting, the toddler and his 7-year-old brother were inside a truck when the older child found a firearm in the glove box.

Officials did not say whether the boys were alone in the truck.

Officials didn’t say one way or another, but it’s pretty likely that they were alone in the truck or, at a minimum, no one in the truck was a responsible adult. Any adult who saw the gun or knew there was one in the glove box would have put a stop to the plundering. Moreover, most kids won’t plunder around like that unless they’re bored and there’s no one around they think will stop them.

Now, California has a lot of laws about securing guns and such, which clearly didn’t accomplish a whole hell of a lot here.

But folks, you shouldn’t need a law to not leave an unsecured firearm in your vehicle with small children. You just shouldn’t. This is in the realm of “common sense.” Yes, I know common sense is so rare these days it pretty much qualifies as a superpower, but it shouldn’t be and people actually stopping to think for a moment would lead them to realize that no, this is a terrible idea.

I could go into all the ways it makes things difficult for other gun owners, and it does, but more importantly, these are children, for crying out loud. They might be smart for their age, but they’re still kids. They lack impulse control, which means that if they find something they decide they want to fool around with, they’re going to do it.

It’s up to the adults in their lives to keep them from doing something stupid until they learn how to avoid making stupid decisions themselves. Of course, considering how many think disarming lawful people will stop crime, I’m not sure many ever stop making stupid decisions, but that’s neither here nor there. It’s our job to at least try.

Yes, kids will resent it at the time, but they’ll get over it.

What they won’t get over is being killed because you failed to secure your gun.

Now, with that said, I can’t help but wonder how much of this was simply because the gun’s owner couldn’t actually take the firearm anywhere. After all, if the gun is on my person, it’s secured from small hands.Yet California is hostile toward lawful carry. They have to allow it, but they have ways to disallow it. You can get a permit and carry a gun, you just can’t carry it anywhere you might want to go.

As a result, people have to leave guns in the car, which often includes the glove box.

I don’t know if that’s the case or not, but I suspect there’s plenty of blame to go around. I will say that if you live in a state that’s that hostile toward lawful carry and you’re going to have to leave a gun in the car, invest in some kind of vehicle-mounted safe. Please.