Police: Angry Ohio boy, 4, shoots baby sitter

Police say an angry 4-year-old Ohio boy grabbed a gun from a closet and shot his baby sitter.

news.yahoo.com...

Yes, good proper gun use. Shooting your babysitter. Why we need more guns! This is why we need anti aircraft guns available to the public. I'm sure if the 4 year old had that the babysitter would have been killed and not only injured.

This story just sounds very suspicious. A four year old that could lift and fire a shotgun? There were "witnesses" so I am wondering if maybe the 4 year old is taking the fall here.

wow,and I mean just wow.

Who in their right mind would keep a LOADED GUN within reach of a toddler. I mean,I live in the UK,so maybe I'm a little out of touch with the gun keeping world. But surely it's standard practice to keep these things safley locked away? I know over here,you've got to have a gun cabinet to keep guns at home. Secure and locked.

prehaps it is a case of 4 year old takes the rap for some cowardly scumbag. But,as this baby sitter wasn't killed.and can speak for himself,prehaps it played out as it's been reported.

[edit on 6/1/2009 by Acidtastic]

The article states that "The child has not been charged.".
What about the parents? How is it that a loaded shot gun is left where a 4 year old (or even the 4 yr old's babysitter) is able to grab and use it?

Another teen was injured in addition to the babysitter. So that places at least two teenagers at the scene of the shooting. Oops the four year old did it. I don't buy it for one minute.

Without any details on the shotgun itself. Assume that it was loaded with a round in the chamber. A full size shotgun with a 28" barrel is just about as tall or taller than a four year old. If that kid pulled the trigger it was a random shot or the teens were playing with the gun along with the toddler.

No way he picked it up, cycled the round, aimed and shot at the babysitter.

WHat about the parents?? Shame on them for not keeping the gun locked up and unloaded.

I'll wait for the hand swab results for powder residue.

reply to post by jibeho


Seriously. It's a pain for a 12 year old to swing a shotgun let alone properly pump one.

Maybe if the gun in question was a semi-auto already with a shell ready to go a four year old could pull the trigger but aim it? No way.

I dont like leaving guns around when the pet sitter is feeding the animals. I definitely wouldnt leave some idiot teen in a house with a loaded gun and my 4 year-old child. Now a country teen with some common sense and a streak of responsibility and respect I would expect to have his own gun and I'd trust him/her with it. I'd also trust him/her not to have idiot friends over my house while babysitting.

reply to post by GamerGal
It is Illegal to have a gun within reach of a child. The parents should be charged!!! Period. The child could have shot himself also. Such a shame. This is irresponsiblity of the parents, (STUPID) parents and why there is so much anti-gun protests going on out there. You CANNOT make mistakes like this when children are in the home. Ever hear of a SAFE??? Or a gun with safety's????
I personally am FOR the right to bear arms, especially in this crazy world we live in. If guns were banned, believe me the criminals will still have them. I for one would like to be able to protect my family and not have to wait 20 minutes for the police to arrive, of course if I could even get to a phone to call 911.
This is so tragic. I hope the child parents go to jail. And I pray that little child.
By the way, I am a female.

I have difficulty believing a 4 year old could hold a shotgun up and fire it, even without aiming, without being injured as well. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong, it's been awhile since I've shot a shotgun so my memory is a bit fuzzy, but it seems like I remember the recoil bruising my shoulder since I wasn't holding it tight enough. So how exactly would a 4 year old not need medical attention from the recoil? Seems to me if it bruised a full grown woman who didn't hold it to her shoulder tight enough, it would cause worse damage in a child that would lack the proper upper body strength to hold it tight to their shoulder. Again, correct me if I'm wrong. It may have just been the shotgun I used that was like that and not all shotguns.

I also feel a reminder is needed that it was not the guns fault it went off. The parents should have known better than to leave a loaded weapon in reach of a child, assuming it happened as the article states. Common sense tells you not to leave a gun in reach of a child, let alone a small child who isn't much bigger than a baby. Especially not a loaded one. This child's parents apparently don't have any common sense.

According to the Columbus Dispatch it wasnt loaded.

It was a single-shot 20 gauge. The article doesnt say whether it was a bolt or break action.

Apparently the 4 year old kid, who was never taught to operate the gun, went to a drawer, pulled a shell from a box, retrieved the gun from the closet, loaded it, carried it out aimed and fired.

So the kid is mechanically bright enough to figure out how to operate something he's never operated before and strong enough to hold and aim a shotgun but not smart enough to know shooting somebody isnt the best idea.

Or he's a little psychopath who will grow up to be some killer.

www.dispatch.com...

Originally posted by GamerGal
Yes, good proper gun use. Shooting your babysitter. Why we need more guns! This is why we need anti aircraft guns available to the public. I'm sure if the 4 year old had that the babysitter would have been killed and not only injured.

Are you blaming the gun? Just because many adults act irresponsibly doesn't mean the rest of us should be punished. In the UK they are not allowed firearms but they have a major knife problem.

It's easy to blame, but difficult to get people to behave responsibly.

reply to post by thisguyrighthere


Thanks for posting that!

The story makes even less sense now... So now we're supposed to believe that a 4 year old not only was strong enough to hold up a shot gun, aim at someone, and pull the trigger, but this 4 year old also knew exactly where to find a bullet and knew how to load the shotgun even though he'd never been shown how? The whole darn thing smells fishy to me.

I doubt that a four year old could actually put the butt to his shoulder, but I suppose he could hold the gun 'Hollywood style' and pull the trigger. I sort of doubt it though. Not the gun's fault but the parents should certainly get a good talking to (at the least).

The world will always have guns. It is the parents' (guardians') responsibility to keep guns out of the reach of children. Trying to take guns away merely creates a black market for guns and the honest people will have no defense against the dishonest ones who have black market weopons.

It disturbs me when a story like this is framed as an excuse to try to put the gun genie back in the bottle. It ain't going to happen.

I don't believe the story either, the 4 year old is the littler fall guy for a more sinister motive as he is too young to be charge of criminal voluntary or involuntary manslaughter.

But rest assure the littler boy will eventually talk and tell his side of the story once the get him all by himself and with a nice treat for being a good boy.

reply to post by GamerGal


Though I suppose it might somehow be possible (who knows the kid might have a really high IQ), I doubt it took place as is being described.

The boy, apparently angered that Beavers stepped on his foot, retrieved a shell from a drawer in a back bedroom, grabbed a 20-gauge single-shot shotgun from a closet and loaded the weapon, Ephlin said

This taken from the better source that thisguyrighthere contributed. Yahoo news does not give a story at all.


Seriously that is quite the feat for someone so young and so small. A little critical thinking should show that there was more going on than is being said. A single shot 20 gauge is a big weapon for a four year old to wield. There is no way he lifted the thing to his shoulder or it would be dislocated. I doubt he could lift it and hold it out right either because it is just too large a weapon. I suppose it could have been a “sawed off barrel” though I would bet the media would have been all over an illegal weapon.

Regardless the weapon should not have been accessible so easily by the child. Though I do think they did the right thing by keeping the weapon and ammunition stored separately.

To blame the gun though is ludicrous. I have yet to see a weapon hurt someone without someone using the weapon. It is not like the guns go around hunting people or anything. Seriously the anti-gun issue is foolish. If you outlaw them only the outlaws will have them. Critical thinking tells you that the gun is useless without a human hand and brain operating it. If you want to outlaw dangerous things start with vehicles as they kill more every year than other weapons crimes combined.

Raist

Similar to the gun in question. Break action, single action, single shot. No way for the four year old to accomplish what is claimed. This particular gun is 43" long.

Irresponsible parents. Reminds me of an elementary school classmate of mine who found a loaded .22 revolver in a drawer of his friends house. They were both playing around with it not knowing that it was loaded. The trigger was pulled and one boy was shot in the belly and luckily survived with a damaged colon.

If that is how the weapon look like, I stand by my original post and my opinion, the 4 year old in question didn't not shot that weapon on the babysitter,somebody else did and he is to take blame because his age.

Like I said before he will talk and talk he will.

reply to post by jibeho


I could see the kid firing that from the hip, but seriously doubt he could bring it to his shoulder or figure out how to load it. I suppose stranger things have happened but I call shenanigans on the story at the moment. I also doubt a four year old would harbor that much animosity towards someone who just stepped on his foot.

Originally posted by GamerGal

Police say an angry 4-year-old Ohio boy grabbed a gun from a closet and shot his baby sitter.

news.yahoo.com...

Yes, good proper gun use. Shooting your babysitter. Why we need more guns! This is why we need anti aircraft guns available to the public. I'm sure if the 4 year old had that the babysitter would have been killed and not only injured.

uh--drunk driverzs kill with cars-- no more cars

planes chrash---no more planes

people murder----outlaw people,,,, make living illegal

dogs bite----kill all dogs

my hamster biut me--kill all hamsters

do you realize there are always bad apples,,, and outrageous happenings in many areas of life,,,,, and i love on bad cop threads we always here,,,,yesw there's a few bad aplles,,, but most are good,,,, shouldn't that same argument be applied here

reply to post by Raist


What?

To blame the gun though is ludicrous. I have yet to see a weapon hurt someone without someone using the weapon. It is not like the guns go around hunting people or anything. Seriously the anti-gun issue is foolish.

For God's sake, man, of course the issue with guns is that so few people can be trusted to use them in a safe and responsible manner. The issue has never been anything but the fact that ordinary people cannot be trusted with something as potentially lethal as a gun, or with anthrax, or with whatever other dangerous thing you can think of.
No object is dangerous in itself until some stupid human does a trick with it.
Unfortunately you can't legislate against stupid humans so the next best thing is to restrict their access to stuff that they can kill or maim with.