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12-year-old accidentally kills sibling in Harris County home
By ANTHONY WILLIAMS Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle
Aug. 7, 2008, 11:23PM

A 12-year-old boy accidentally shot and killed his stepbrother at their northwest Harris County home Wednesday night, investigators said.

The boys, both 12, were playing with their father's handgun at about 10:30 p.m. when it discharged, said Shawn Woelk, a deputy investigator with the Harris County Sheriff's Office homicide division.

Woelk said it's unclear exactly where the boys got the gun. They took it from inside their home in the1500 block of Plumwood and into the attached garage, where the shooting occurred. Both parents were home at the time of the incident.

When Harris County Precinct 4 officers arrived at the home, the mother told them the father took the injured son to Houston Northwest Medical Center, Pct. 4 Chief Mark Herman said. The boy died on arrival, Woelk said.

An autopsy is pending.

Woelk said authorities will present their investigation to district attorney's office, who will go over it with a grand jury. While the shooting was likely accidental, Woelk said the father could be charged with making a firearm accessible to a child, a misdemeanor.

"It's a very good lesson," Woelk said. "This accident was very preventable."

That breaks my heart!...

That's why kids need to be taught early how to handle firearms. This happens way too much.

10mmillie wrote:That's why kids need to be taught early how to handle firearms. This happens way too much.

I does happen "too much". Once is too much in my opinion. It's sad, in and of itself, but even sadder (sic?) is the fact that the anti-gunners will take incidents such as this, amplify them, multiply them and use it against the millions of responsible gun owners.

This kind of thing makes me furious. I hate to blast somone that is going through a terrible, terrible loss, but the bottom line is this was ABSOLUTELY preventable.

What a tragic loss! It is so-o preventable - just terrible!

This made for a sober discussion around the lunch time table this afternoon. All of us with children should be telling them stories like this to continuously educate them on the necessity for care and sobriety with firearms.

And yes, this was preventable and the father is ultimately to blame for this avoidable tragedy. Having said that, I hope they don't charge him. The loss of his son is punishment enough.

ScubaSigGuy wrote:

This kind of thing makes me furious. I hate to blast somone that is going through a terrible, terrible loss, but the bottom line is this was ABSOLUTELY preventable.

This should NOT have ever happened, however, at the same time my heart goes out to the family. What a tragedy.

-geo

I don't have a safe because I don't have the $1500 or so that it takes to get the one I need.

So, to keep guns away from the kiddoes, of which I have many and whom all are trained in firearms handling, I simply put an exterior type door knob on my closet door and I keep it locked. Furthermore, I keep the ammo in a separate location. The only guns that are loaded are the one's that I carry. I'm not so much worried about my own children as much as I am their friends. It's a rare day when I come home not to find two or three extra kids running around.

While this certainly won't help if someone breaks into my house, it will keep any children out of where they don't belong.

TDDude wrote:I don't have a safe because I don't have the $1500 or so that it takes to get the one I need.

So, to keep guns away from the kiddoes, of which I have many and whom all are trained in firearms handling, I simply put an exterior type door knob on my closet door and I keep it locked. Furthermore, I keep the ammo in a separate location. The only guns that are loaded are the one's that I carry. I'm not so much worried about my own children as much as I am their friends. It's a rare day when I come home not to find two or three extra kids running around.

While this certainly won't help if someone breaks into my house, it will keep any children out of where they don't belong.

Very wise.

TDDude wrote:It's a rare day when I come home not to find two or three extra kids running around.

Maybe you should put that extra door lock on an exterior door instead.

This is truly sad and I agree that the loss of his child is punishment enough. I have a young son and like many other boys his age he is intrigued by firearms and loves to go shooting. I put him through safety training as soon as he was old enough to understand and we talk about the responsibility that goes along with that. I've taught him how to disassemble, clean and re-assemble every firearm that he shoots. And just like school we have pop quizzes when were just hanging out. I'll say, "Firearms safety pop quiz"! Then we will go through the motions....When first handed the weapon, Never put your booger picker on the trigger until you are ready to fire, point it in a safe direction (down range, away from people) Then check the loaded condition (I have him check three times to be sure!), and when he is finished with the weapon he lays it down barrel facing down range, unloaded, or hands it back pointed in a safe direction with the slide or bolt open again unloaded.
I try to hammer this in his brain, and even though he always does excellent on his pop quizzes, I still do them to this day. I know that he has respect for them and fully understands how dangerous they can be in unsafe hands, and although I trust him, I do not make them easily accessible or leave him unsupervised. He is eleven now and I don’t know how I could go on without him. I feel awful and it's not even my child.

this demonstrates another general problem with society today....do you know where your kids are and what they are doing?

This is really sad. Many years ago my daughter (5 yrs old at the time) came walking up our hallway with a loaded 1911. I had it where I would have bet everything I owned, that she could not find it. I learned a hard lesson that day, and think of it often.

This is why every parent should know how to "gun-proof" your kids, and do so.