An 8-year-old boy has died after accidentally shooting himself with a loaded gun left in a car while his mother was inside an Utah convenience store, police said.
The boy was alone in the car about 7:40 p.m. Monday in Lehi — a city about 30 miles south of Salt Lake City — when he shot himself in the head, Jeanteil Livingston with the Lehi City Police Department confirmed to CBS News. The incident occurred in a vehicle located in the parking lot of a Maverick gas station, police said.
The boy was taken to a local hospital in extremely critical condition. He was later airlifted to a hospital up north and died Tuesday morning, police said.
This is not a mental illness. That’s the Fox News scapegoat, not an actual reason. This is just complete ignorance of gun danger in a country that celebrates giving out firearms like candy without any kind of training or licensing requirements. This is a dangerous lack of gun laws and an ignorant gun owner. Here in Canada, we have lots of guns but a far lower rate of accidents and murders. Pistols are restricted, which means the only places you’re allowed to ever have a pistol is locked in your home, at the gun range, or at the gunsmith, or locked in truck on a direct route between those locations. You aren’t allowed to keep ammo in the same container as the gun, never mind keeping one actually loaded. You know all of this because you had to take a safety course and pass a written and practical exam before you are allowed to own even a .22. The restricted license is yet another course and set of exams.
This is the fault of the laws of the land and the mother’s ignorance. Don’t bring mental illness into it, that’s ablist bullshit.