Tragic accident: Two-year old fatally shoots his mother in an Idaho Walmart

Unattentive mother and safety not on with one in the chamber.

Im certain this is where Im supposed to be sympathetic...at least Im not laughing about it.

This is awful to hear. When thinking about it - what, a woman is too insecure to walk around without a loaded, ready-to-go gun? Then this happens. Sad world we're in.

Fear and ignorance of the power...

of a gun. I'm pro gun rights and CC. But no matter what condition of carrying a firearm, there has to be a fear, meaning a respect for its power, and an intelligence of what owning, and especially carrying a gun is all about. It requires constant awareness.

Would this same lady have an open purse with an unsheathed razor sharp hunting knife sitting next to her child? Would she sit him in the drivers seat with the engine running and then head off? Neither of those actions are even close to this tragedy.

What about a holster that snapped shut? What about a safety? It's one thing to have the gun there but was it cocked and ready to fire? Unless this was an el-cheapo, which I don't see an aware gun owner carrying, the circumstances leading to a toddler having the capability to just grab it and accidentally fire it without some manipulation that requires some fiddling around and hand strength seem outlandish.

I have to believe that this was a series of no-no's put into place by an irresponsible gun owner. Even were a situation to arise that this CC licensed gun owner were to have to pull her weapon, under duress, it is highly probable that she would have shot herself before being able to react to the threat.

If a CC is going to carry with a chambered round, then carry a double action pistol with the safety on. If a revolver, never have a round under the hammer. But whatever the case, "carry" doesn't mean stuffing it next to a wallet and makeup case in an open purse next to a toddler in a shopping cart.

What a tragedy for this entire family, and this child's psyche will be crushed for life, as will siblings and the rest of the family for some time to come.

Unfortunately, the gun-grab nuts will have one more platform to lobby forth with. This is despite there being millions of responsible gun owners and carriers versus a miniscule percentage of accidents that occur on a yearly basis.

Let's call this what it was

Tragic justice.

The 'victim' here was the same idiot that put a fully loaded semiautomatic handgun in her purse with a round in the chamber, safety off, ready to fire.

She reportedly has four kids (including the shooter) already, so she's past qualifying for a Darwin Award. Too bad, because she really deserves one.

As someone mentioned above, this incident took place in Hayden Lake, Idaho. That region has been a white supremacist hotbet of stupid, inbred whackos for decades. That is where racist LA cops retire to chop wood.

Hmmm,

'she was a nuclear scientist'.
[Link]
Idaho shooting victim supported gun rights

Dec 31, 4:00 PM (ET)
By NICHOLAS K. GERANIOS

SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) — Concealed weapons are part of everyday life in Idaho, and that's unlikely to change in the Mountain West state despite a shocking accident in which a 2-year-old boy reached into his mother's purse, grabbed her gun and shot her in the head inside a Wal-Mart.

Veronica J. Rutledge was shopping Tuesday morning with her son and three nieces in Hayden, Idaho, when the young boy got ahold of the small-caliber handgun. It discharged one time, killing her, Kootenai County sheriff's spokesman Stu Miller said.

Miller said the boy, Rutledge's only child, had been left in a shopping cart with the purse. The 29-year-old Rutledge had a concealed weapons permit.

About 7 percent of adults in Idaho had concealed weapons permits at the end of 2012, according to the Crime Prevention Research Center in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania. That ranked Idaho among the top third of states.

Kootenai County, which has about 140,000 residents, has issued close to 16,000 concealed weapons permits, Miller said Wednesday.

"It's very commonplace in northern Idaho for folks to have a concealed weapons permit," Miller said, and most businesses do not prohibit firearms.

Guns were a big part of Rutledge's life.

"She was not the least bit irresponsible," her father-in-law, Terry Rutledge said, in a brief interview with The Associated Press. He complained about people using the incident to attack his daughter-in-law.

Terry Rutledge told The Washington Post that Veronica Rutledge and her husband practiced at shooting ranges and each had a concealed weapons permit. He said for Christmas this year, her husband gave her the purse with a special zippered pocket for a concealed weapon.

Veronica Rutledge lived in Blackfoot, in southeastern Idaho, and her family had come to the Hayden area to visit relatives for Christmas.

She was an employee of the Idaho National Laboratory near Idaho Falls, Idaho, where she was a nuclear scientist. The laboratory supports the U.S. Department of Energy in nuclear and energy research and national defense.

"We're deeply saddened by this tragedy," said Nicole Stricker, a spokeswoman for the lab.

Rutledge graduated from high school in Harrison, a lakeside town in the Idaho Panhandle. She was the valedictorian of her class. She graduated from the University of Idaho with a degree in chemistry.

She had taken the children to Wal-Mart on Tuesday morning to spend their Christmas gift cards, family members said.

Responding deputies found Rutledge dead in the electronics section of the Wal-Mart in Hayden, a rural town of about 12,000 people 40 miles northeast of Spokane.

Colt Rutledge, 32, arrived to the store in Idaho's northern panhandle shortly after the shooting around 10:20 a.m. Tuesday, Miller said. All the children were taken to a relative's house.

Officers viewed surveillance video provided by the store to determine what happened, Miller said.

Like other Western states, gun rights are a big issue in Idaho. State lawmakers passed legislation earlier this year allowing concealed weapons on the state's public college and university campuses.

Despite facing opposition from all eight of the state's university college presidents, lawmakers sided with gun-rights advocates who said the law would better uphold the Second Amendment.

Terry Rutledge told AP that his daughter-in-law "was a beautiful, young, loving mother."

"She was taken much too soon," he said.

This story ...

does not add up at all. For one, were there any actual witnesses who saw the child holding the "small caliber" gun and pulling the trigger? Nieces, other shoppers? If she was a nuclear scientist, she had to have some brains and respect for safety protocols ... know what I mean?

Something's fishy here.

...

Sorry quote "had to have..." instead of "should have"