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.
EDIT: Because the 2A brigade has shown up and god forbid anyone advocates for more safety features, let me clarify that the Glock uses a single action trigger which I erroneously called a hair trigger out of a desire to simplify. Goocks also have some safety mechanisms to prevent it from accidental discharge when drop or when casually handling it. They do not, in my opinion, go far enough. Anyone reading this does not have to take my or anyone else in this thread at their word. Do your research. I did not do my due diligence on Glocks and ended up with two pistols I dislike with a passion. Lesson learned. Also, I am not saying that mechanical safeties should replace proper gun safety and trigger discipline.
I own a number of pistols including Glock and Para-Ordnance. Para-Ordnance is now defunct but I believe their pistols included safety features that should be a requirement for all pistols sold to the general public.
First, let’s talk about Glock. A Glock 17 is a 9mm pistol. It is extremely light and relatively cheap. It also has zero safety features. This pistol has a hair trigger and no safety. The moment you chamber a round, this weapon is hot and itching for an excuse to fire. I bought a pair and I hate them with a passion. They remain unloaded at all times except when I am at the range and literally getting ready to shoot. I might have them destroyed; I hate them that much.
My Para-ordnance pistols (Tac-Four LDA is my favorite) on the other hand have a number of safety features that help prevent an accidental discharge.
- LDA (light double action): This is a type of trigger system. When the trigger is not cocked, you can pull the trigger and it will do nothing. It also means that no round is likely in the chamber. When you chamber a round, the trigger will cock but it still is not ready to fire. This is the difference between “double action”, “light double action”, and a pistol like the Glock. Double action is what you find in revolvers where, if not cocked, the trigger pulls back the hammer before it releases. This can be a very long and heavy pull which is why you see users cock their gun in westerns. The problem with that is that a cocked revolver back to being on a hair trigger before firing, just like a Glock. The LDA system “half cocks” the hammer so that the heavy pull is done with, but you still have travel time where the hammer is pulled back further before release. It is very unlikely that a user will twitch pull the trigger by mistake.
- Thumb safety: This is a fairly common feature on pistols (absent in the Glock) where you can flick the safety on and off with your thumb. An engage safety will not allow the pistol to fire.
- Grip safety: A less common feature (absent in the Glock) where a safety is engaged by default until your hand fully around the grip.
The Para-Ordnance pistols featured all three safety mechanisms I listed above. The Glock have zero safety mechanisms. None. Zilch. Nada. Para-Ordnance went out of business and Glock are one of the most, if not the most, popular pistols sold in the US. Nobody wants to pay for the extra safety features. I think they should be mandatory.
These pieces of shit don’t deserve to exist. They’re an accident waiting to happen all in the name of making a cheap gun. Get yourself a Sig if you want an inexpensive pistol with at least a manual safety.
I know you mean well, but really you have an unorthodox opinion that the vast majority of users, civilian, professional, even at the organizational level, disagree with.
If you’re relying on a mechanical safety on the firearm itself to prevent tragedy, you’re already screwed. Kids can bypass that stuff with enough fiddling. They just make the firearm more complicated to use, which can paradoxically create more mistakes in some instances, especially under pressure. Nothing replaces responsible handling.
I predominantly shoot Beretta 92 pistols. Traditional double action, comes with a manual safety/decocker from the factory. On the one I shoot the most, I purchased a kit from Beretta that disables the safety to make it only a decocker. It doesn’t make the pistol less safe, it is a dangerous weapon either way. It just simplifies it.
If Kia can face a federal inquiry for not installing a “theft prevention device” than it’s amazing that gun manufactures aren’t raked over the coals for lack of safety devices and controls.
I mean I’m not surprised, gun rights matter more than kids right to life I suppose.
Not sure how much I buy this as anyone who can describe a stock Glock trigger as a “hair trigger” doesn’t understand what that term actually means nor do they have a basic understanding of gun safety.
Before ANY sort of mechanical safety is even considered - why the FUCK did this child have access to any firearm. A safety on a firearm was never designed to stop a user who is willfully trying to use the weapon nor is it a child safety device. To imply that’s how it should be used is irresponsible and I highly recommend editing your post to reflect this.
Do you also think we should ban garbage disposals because there isn’t a safety to stop my child from sticking their hand in it? What about a safety lock for the disposal switch? Will that save the child’s arm?
Not sure how much I buy this as anyone who can describe a stock Glock trigger as a “hair trigger” doesn’t understand what that term actually means nor do they have a basic understanding of gun safety.
Yeah, I stopped reading as soon as they said hair trigger with a Glock. Even after you rack the slide you still have a full trigger pull and it certainly isn’t hair while still having a trigger safety lever.
I stopped reading when they said Glocks are dangerous because of their rigorously tested and proven safety features that guarantee the weapon will not fire unless the trigger is pulled.
What a load of liberal crockery man, y’all need to visit the rough parts of town more.
Guns should fire if the trigger is pulled and a bullet is in the chamber. Full stop.
Don’t want to shoot? Don’t pull the trigger. Follow the three rules plus have a good holster, Christ I can’t even imagine having three layers of safeties to go through before my own gun will let me shoot. Sounds like they went out of business for a reason.
I know there’s no left in the US remaining to push for gun rights but that was just an incredible post.
it does not have “zero safety features” and if you educated yourself you would know this. also why do you own one if you don’t like it? that is a weird ass comment. either you bought a gun without informing yourself about it or you did inform yourself and bought it anyway. also you seem not to know what a hair trigger is. the fact that millions of private citizens, law enforcement and military seem not to have a problem with glocks points no the problem not being the guns.
How is “safety against drops or accidental trigger pulls” better than “safety against drops or accidental trigger pulls” + “manual safety” + “full grip safety”.
