Authorities: 2-year-old boy accidentally shoots and kills mom inside northern Idaho Wal-Mart

Now that poor boy. He not only loses his mother, but grows up knowing he killed her. I hope there's a very good support system in place.

The link doesn't work for me - here's one that does http://www.cbc.ca/news/boy-2-accidental ... -1.2886683

Guns don't kill people. The two year old probably would have used a knife or broken bottle if there was no gun.

Exactly. All that was needed was a good guy with a gun to shoot this little kid and the mother would have been fine.

With a loaded, concealed gun in her purse. Pardon me but this sounds more like a Darwin Award nomination.

Tragic for the child, but you can't be terribly surprised. It was only a matter of time, and it'll happen again.

How so?

How so?

The safety wasn't on so the gun could be fired accidentally; and it was. Ergo she eliminated herself from the gene pool through her own actions.

That the safety was on or off, or that the gun had a safety has not been disclosed.

Are you sure it was a semi-automatic?

Given the number of firearms in the US these sorts of things are staggeringly rare. You would think this would happen more than once a day, you know given hundreds of millions of firearms and over 315 million people.

What's nice for pro gun advocates is that when these type of accidents happen, it's other retarded pro gun advocates that are responsible, so they paint the picture their peers want to see. Why has the type of firearm not been disclosed?

I did some quick reading, and it seems it's very irresponsible to keep any type of gun in a regular purse, because all the other crap in there can cause even guns with safeties on or revolvers to fire. It talked about an off duty cop who dropped her purse in a bar, and her gun went off. She was so embarrassed that she fled, leaving her purse with ID and a hole in it behind.

But not to worry, they make carry purses - ie that have a holster built in. Not only safer but allows for a quicker draw.

So it got me to thinking: We don't allow people to drink and drive. Should people be allowed to drink and carry?

We punish people for negligent use of firearms. We don't punish people for car accidents unless their was some criminal wrong doing behind it.

Any improper use of a firearm will be punished. Like your off duty officer that committed at least 5 crimes if Canadian.

It's very possible to carry a pistol or rifle safely while drunk, to be in possession of it, and not be a risk with it. While drunk and actually intoxicated not just over the limit, it's very hard to safely operate a vehicle on a public road.

Most non gun owners are fascinated by firearms and want to handle them constantly, it's not unreasonable to think they would want to handle them while intoxicated and lacking better judgement.

For long time firearm owners they are just metal and plastic/wood. This is why the military gives it's new members firearms (service rifles mostly) to haul around for months on end. A rifle goes from a neat new thing to just another pain in the ass to look after very quickly.

I'd love to give you a pistol that you had to carry around for 6 months and never let it get out of your reach. I bet after that time you won't care about drinking and carrying.

What is rare? Two year olds shooting their mom?

Yep. People shot by their own gun, not so rare. If I recall more common than people defending themselves with that gun. Also the number of incidents of kids shooting somebody seems to be reported with regularity. People are just not taking gun ownership all that seriously. Using Xorts reasoning on the death penalty, anybody who's gun kills somebody that's not clear self-defense should be executed. That will have them paying attention. But let's be humane. If you get killed by your own gun, we'll waive the death penalty.