An 18-month-old Georgia boy is dead after being shot in the chest with a BB gun and his father has been charged with felony murder, police say.
The toddler’s father, Jesse Sellers, 23, reportedly told police he was playing with the gun when it accidentally went off, MyFoxAtlanta.com reported. Sellers has been charged with second-degree cruelty to children and felony murder.
Police say six people, including three children, were in the home at the time of the shooting.
Witnesses reported seeing Sellers running out of the apartment yelling for help and directing paramedics when they arrived.
Police say the child was taken to Grady Hospital and later died.
Full Disclosure:
When I was 15, I had a pellet pistol. CO2 charged, and .22 caliber, it was not something which should be treated with disdain.
My sister was then dating a young man only a few years older than myself, who treated himself to complete access to our parents' home. He wandered into my room, found my pellet pistol, and took it into my sister's bedroom. Apparently he wanted to see how powerful the air blast was, so he pointed it at the palm of his hand, pulled the charging-handle to half-cock, and pulled the trigger.
After he had been released from the hospital, with stitches on both sides of his hand (the .22 pellet apparently went 'clear through', he confronted me.
"I can't believe you left a loaded gun just laying around!" he said.
I replied: "It was a pellet gun, in my private bedroom, and you have known me long enough to know that I don't have any 'unloaded' guns!".
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I was lucky, and he was lucky, that we both learned valuable lessons from that not-too disastrous experience.
I learned that no gun is safe unless it was locked up.
He learned that every gun should be treated as loaded, that he should never point a gun at anything he was not willing to destroy, and he should keep his finger off the trigger until he was ready to shoot something.
(Sound familiar? As in .. the Three Rules of Firearms Safety?)
Going back to the original story, we are looking at a 'man' (of no great maturity) who considered a mere "pellet gun" as no threat. Consequent to his poor gun-handling skills, he shot and killed his son.
He was obviously 'distraught' by the injury incurred to his child, and I have not doubt that he regrets his 'playful' actions.
Here's a summary:
Guns don't have a history of having "....accidentally went off...". That happens when you pull the trigger. Suggestion: don't pull the trigger, don't kill your child. It isn't the gun; it's the shooter.
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Seems pretty simple in retrospect, but the man-child with his finger on the trigger obviously didn't understand the concept.
While I have always been "for" firearms ownership rights, I'm also the first to concede that there are some people who just shouldn't be allowed within touching distance of a firearm. Firearms, unfortunately, include the Barret .50, machine guns, pistols, shotguns, .22 training rifles, and (sadly, in this case) BB-guns.
So, what's the answer? Is it to outlaw farearms, right down to a bb-gun?
I don't think so. Had this man-child been trained, he would have known better to handle a bb-gun in such a manner that it would "accidentally" go "off:". And at the same time, he would have known to not assume that the "firearm" was unloaded. Finally, he would have made sure that while he was handling the gun, it would at no time have been pointing toward another person.
There are THREE basic rules of Firearm Safety. This dipshit disobeyed all three of them, at the same time, and he killed a little boy.
Here are the crimes he has been charged with:
- Second degree cruelty to children
- Felony murder
Here are the crimes he should have been charged with; unfortunately, they are not covered by existing law:
- being ignorant; he didn't know any better
- being stupid; didn't know he didn't know any better
- handling a loaded firearm when other people were in his presence; see (1) and (2)
Here's a question for the readers: Do you think this will get any where NEAR the publicity that the Travon Martin case received?
NO? Why not? It's not just a matter of accidental homicide, nor of 'black on black' shooting. It's a matter of stupidity, of lack of training, of lack of judgement.
What do you want to bet that this murder (for it is murder, if by in-adventure) doesn't make it to the record books. Doesn't make it to the headlines of any newspaper in the world?s
My personal opinion? I know the guy must be devastated by the consequences of his ill-advised actions. And I'm sure he would do anything to take it back.
I'm thinking that The Reverend Al Sharpton will call for his execution.
No .. probably not.
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