Just Another Day In Gunmerica: 8-Year-Old Boy Fatally Shoots 90-Year-Old Woman Intentionally

[BainsBane]

The boy will not be charged because Louisiana law doesn't allow charges against children under 10. Still, you would think the kid would have to get extensive therapy or something to learn he can't be shooting people. And what about the parents who left the gun around? Nothing, as usual. Just a dead woman who will not receive justice.

A tragic shooting of a 90-year-old woman in a Louisiana trailer park by an 8-year-old boy is believed by investigators to be an intentional act on the boy’s part.

The Country Breeze mobile home park just outside of Slaughter, (Slaughter?) Louisiana was the scene of this senseless act. According to investigators, the boy was playing the violent video game, ‘Grand Theft Auto IV’ on a Play Station III console inside the mobile home. And then he decided to shoot the 90-year-old woman, Marie Smothers, the boy’s “caregiver”, in the back of the head as she sat in her chair watching television.

The gun was believed to have belonged to Smothers. Why an 8-year-old had easy access to the gun is a question that will probably never be answered. But this is just another example of what happens when you have a proliferation of guns (one gun per person) in the United States, and lax gun control laws. Couple that with the adult irresponsibility of allowing a kid access to a gun and you have a recipe for something bad like this to happen.

As for the Grand Theft Auto video game, one can argue that perhaps the violent nature of the game may have contributed to the crime, but again, a lack of adult supervision was apparent since it has been widely suggested that kids should not be allowed to play the game. Especially an 8-year-old! Many say that the game should only be played by those 18 years or older.

More and video of TV news piece at link.
http://thebigslice.org/just-another-day-in-gunmerica-8-year-old-boy-fatally-shoots-90-year-old-woman-intentionally-video/

[rdharma]

1. It appears that the old lady kept the loaded .38 for "self-protection" nt

[wild bird]

2. She leaves it out where the kid could get to it?

Some self protection.
If you insist on having a gun in your home, at least lock the fucking thing up.

[rdharma]

3. Old folks are often paranoid and don't make the wisest decisions

Older folks suffering from dementia (for example) are extremely dangerous to themselves and others if a firearm is involved.

[wild bird]

4. I'm not really sure on this, but can't someone diagnosed with a debilitating disease,

like dementia or Alzheimer's, have their firearms removed from their home?

[BlueStreak]

5. How often are firearms taken away from people that shouldn't have them?

I'd guess almost never. Hell, we let people drive when they are 92 around here.

[Crunchy Frog]

6. If it was the old lady who left the gun out

then it was she who was criminally negligent. A child that age doesn't have the judgement to handle a loaded firearm responsibly, so the person who left it accessible is the one to blame.

For people with dementia, you would think that there would be some mechanism by which her firearms could be removed from her posession. Did she have any family looking out for her safety? Were they negligent?

Unless the kid broke into the house, the problem was not with the kid. The problem was with a loaded firearm being left in a place where a kid his age could access it.

The kid is probably going to end up damaged for life from this experience.

[CTyankee]

7. I've told my kids that if I start going cuckoo as I get older, they are to put me in assisted

living. I had to do this with my mother when she was 90. She hadn't driven in a couple of years since she had an accident that slightly injured her sister. She had busted the microwave by putting a metal spoon in it. She was frail from not eating properly. The AL facility she was in was very nice. She had things to do, regular and nourishing meals and she was kept safe from any violence. She lived to be 94 and I was so grateful that she had those last 4 years in comfort and safety.