Accidental Wii Suicide

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.

Comments

Suicide?

[Anonymous Coward]

This is manslaughter. Whoever left a gun near a 3-year-old needs locking up.

Re:Suicide?

[skgrey]

Absolutely. I am a conceal-carry holder and I have a number of handguns. I also have a one year-old and a seven year-old. I have an electronic safe which all my guns go in, as well as trigger locks. It's called being a responsible gun-owner.

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.

Re:Suicide?

[Pojut]

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?

Re:Suicide?

[Spazztastic]

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.

Re:Suicide?

[GungaDan]

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.

Re:Suicide?

[Vectormatic]

i'm just wondering which war-torn 3rd world country you live in to need 24h firearm-level self defense...

Re:Suicide?

[Asclepius99]

But what about his other child? Or the fact that the mother was within three feet of the 3 year old girl as she shot herself? Come on, criminal charges need to be filed and these people need to have their other child taken away from them. I support the right for people to own guns, but they need to take responsibility for what they do with them.

Re:Suicide?

[TheLink]

I have a question: how much strength does it require to fire that gun?

Can a 3 year old do it in the manner the mother described?

Re:Suicide?

[Grimbleton]

America.

Re:Suicide?

[killmenow]

So let me break it down like this:

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.

Re:Suicide?

[HaZardman27]

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.

Re:Suicide?

[biryokumaru]

The kind where you're three years old and you don't have a freakin clue what's going on?

Re:Suicide?

[CapnStank]

When I was young my dad would take me out shooting. He has a couple 9mm handguns that I needed the pointer from both hands to fire, but he had a revolver that I swear I could fire by breathing too hard on.

Re:Suicide?

[geekoid]

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.

Re:Suicide?

[element-o.p.]

Trigger pull on otc firearms is high enough that your average small child won't be firing it.

Really? Are you sure about that? I own several guns, and have shot several more. None, AFAIK, have been modified after purchase; the trigger pull is as it was set at the factory. Some of them have trigger pulls that require a decent pull; others have very, very light trigger pulls -- such that yes, a small child could shoot them. I have a 9mm that has a rather hefty trigger pull if it is not already cocked, but when shot single-action, has a relatively light trigger pull. I now own my dad's old .22 rifle that he used to let me shoot when I was about three (with his help, of course). The lightest of the bunch is my .300 Win-Mag rifle, which would probably fire if you sneezed near it.

And yes, for the record, I keep them locked so my daughter can't get to any of them.

Re:Suicide?

[Stick32]

honestly this doesn't sound like a question of the child mistaking the gun for a Wii controller at all. This sounds like the father left the gun out unsafe and unsecured where they're young child who didn't know any better could reach and play with. It sounds like they are just looking for a reason/excuse to blame someone else for what is CLEARLY and SOLELY THEIR FAULT.

What a Tragedy and No Charges?

[eldavojohn]

I am so sorry for the Cronberger's loss of their three year old daughter. What a horrible tragedy.

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?

[mcgrew]

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.

Re:What a Tragedy and No Charges?

[thue]

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?

Re:What a Tragedy and No Charges?

[outlander78]

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.

Re:What a Tragedy and No Charges?

[Spazztastic]

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.

I wonder...

[Anonymous Coward]

Did a dog pop up from behind the bushes and chuckle afterwards?

Re:I wonder...

[Anonymous Coward]

Oh, piss off, you goddamn yuppie. A macabre sense of humor is a healthy adaptation to the mad, mad world we live in. It's naive idiots like you and your angry mobs and your knee-jerk emotional reactions that enable politicians to pass laws that fuck everybody over just because one idiot fucked up.

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.

Shot herself, you mean

[amaupin]

Cheyenne Alexis McKeehan was a girl. Perhaps reading the story, Taco, might have been useful?

Suicide, my ass!

[Rurik]

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!

[ari_j]

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:

1. Treat every gun as if it is loaded - especially if you are certain that it isn't ("unloaded" guns accidentally kill more people than the loaded kind)
2. When handed a gun, double-check that there is not a round in the chamber by visual inspection of the chamber - even if the person who handed it to you had just done that in your presence
3. Never leave a loaded gun sitting out unattended, even for 30 seconds and even if you live alone (it's far better to be in the right habit than the wrong one and forget yourself when you have company or children around)
4. Never point a gun's muzzle at anything you do not intend to shoot - for living beings, at least 45 degrees away, and this rule applies even after you've verified the gun is unloaded

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.

Typical /.

[hargrand]

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.

[Patrick Manderson]

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.

Re:How did a 3-year old pull the trigger?

[suprcvic]

You clearly don't have access to guns or 3 year olds. I'm not sure what particular model of gun it was, but a quick Google of "Smith & Wesson .380" shows me lots of models without hammers but instead strikers that are always cocked when a round is chambered and since the father had "just been investigating a prowler", it probably had a round chambered. Also, my 3 year old nephew most definitely has the strength to hold the gun and pull the trigger, he does not however have the ability to easily tell real from fake.

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.