5-year-old Texas boy accidentally kills himself with napping babysitter's gun
A teenage babysitter was arrested Tuesday and charged in the death of a 5-year-old Texas boy who accidentally shot himself with the babysitter's gun while she was napping, authorities said.
Melissa Ann Ringhardt, 19, of Vidor was being held in the Orange County Jail on a felony charge of abandoning or endangering a child, the county sheriff's office said in a statement. She could face a sentence of six months to two years if convicted.
The sheriff's office said Ringhardt, who lives with the boy's family, left her semiautomatic .40-caliber handgun on a coffee table when she went into a bedroom to take a nap Monday afternoon. When she woke up, she couldn't immediately find the boy, identified as John Read, according to the sheriff's office. She eventually discovered him dead in the living room, it said.
http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/10/22/21084041-5-year-old-texas-boy-accidentally-kills-himself-with-napping-babysitters-gun?lite>1=43001
Another "accident" caused by a responsible gun owner. And the hits just keep on coming...

TheCowsCameHome
(40,253 posts)from accidental shootings.
This means we are well below the average.
But the day is still young.
billh58
(6,653 posts)use of the term "accidental" in these cases is intentional by NRA-influenced police departments and newspaper publishers. The proper terminology would be "negligent shooting" in my estimation.
In this case the gun was not "accidentally" left within reach of a child, it was negligently left within reach of a child which caused his death. How many instances of this careless behavior by "responsible" gun owners occurs with no lethal consequences, but easily could have?
Mojo Electro
(362 posts)More
jimmy the one
(2,741 posts)This one's sad for me, a 19 yr old girl probably devastated over this, an awful legacy for life after being sucked in by pro gun promises of a safer way of living.
I doubt she thinks her gun purchase such a wise idea now.
19 yr old fems shouldn't be carrying loaded guns imo, try pepper spray if you're so innerested in purtecting your vurginity gals.