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8-year-old Utah boy dies after shooting himself in car while mother was inside store

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/8-year-utah-boy-dies-shooting-himself-in-car-mom-inside-store-lehi/

The shooting appeared to be "unintentional and self-inflicted," police said in a statement.

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.

51 comments

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Carmakazi

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Send me your "dangerous" Glock pistols instead of destroying them.

JoMiran

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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.

Carmakazi

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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.

JoMiran

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I understand your point but I have never had a problem with the safety devices on my pistols. At this point the thumb safety disengage and engage is muscle memory every time I grip or holster my weapon.

Also, I do not mean that mechanical safety devices should replace gun safety procedures or proper discipline. An accessible weapon should never be left unattended with a child. If you own guns and have kids, you should train your kids in gun safety and trigger discipline ad-nauseum.

People do stupid shit no matter what. My uncle almost shot himself in the head with a .38 service revolver while cleaning it. How do you even do that?

deegeese

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Nobody should rely on mechanical safeties, but guns without them are a dangerous consumer product, like selling cars without seatbelts because some folks are cheapskates or think they’re uncool.

Any other industry would have been fixed this ages ago after lawsuits.

magic_smoke

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Mechanical safeties where introduced to prevent accidental discharge when dropped. Glocks, and other modern handguns have other features to prevent this without manual intervention.