Toddler girl kills self with .308; Parents readily blame Wiimote.

SuperSonicStar* said:

God help us all.

Anyway, back to the topic. Has the man, at least, been tried yet?

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I lost you after "tried".

Remember, 3 years old = Lack of perception. She had little to no way of knowing the gun was real.

falcon said:

I lost you after "tried".

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I believe in this context tried is referring if foul play is suspected and if the father is a key suspect to be featured in a trial.

I will, however, point out court hearings take a few months to arrange, and I personally think there is sufficient evidence to condemn the stepfather as a suspect, so I'd like to see how this pans out.

Ms. Nintega said:

Yes but honestly, who would make a child's mind clogged up enough to think to shoot Herself? What are those parents of hers teaching her?

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Last time I checked, it's a child's nature to use everything on them self. At my age now, if I didn't know that was a gun, and thought it was a wii gun, I'd shoot myself in the leg or something.

Ms. Nintega said:

Seriously, it's pretty far-fetched to think some child willingly just picked up some gun to shoot herself just for the fun of it, even if she thought it was a fake gun.

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Not when you consider the huge difference in weight there would be between the real gun, and the wiimote accessory. All of that unexpected weight, especially considering the child would have had to drag the gun off of a table, could easily have caused her to say, lose her grip with her index finger still on the trigger. The gun spins around the loop, the child loses her balance and begins to fall, the trigger gets pulled by the weight of the gun pressing against her finger...

All in the blink of an eye.

I fully agree that the parents were completely irresponsible here, merely by PURCHASING either the gun, or the wiimote accessory considering their strong resemblance to each other. Nevermind that the gun was placed in reach of the child while loaded, and that the child was being allowed to play lightgun games at all when at an age where such confusion could occur. That even begs the question of whether or not the child had ever been instructed to make sure what she was reaching for was a toy!

There were so many ways that this could have been prevented, the majority of them the responsibility of the parents. But it is also important to note that at least one failure in this catastrophic mess was the responsibility of the manufacturer of the wiimote shell, which as mentioned, was jet black with realistic markings.

Water Pistols used to be shiny, in the shape of real guns, and black. I bet kids used to do this a lot with guns that used to look like Water Pistols.

Virt the Fox said:

Water Pistols used to be shiny, in the shape of real guns, and black. I bet kids used to do this a lot with guns that used to look like Water Pistols.

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I doubt it. When I was a kid, guns were kept under lock and key, and I was taught to never use it.

All of you pretty summed up what I was thinking after reading this. Who in the hell would leave such weapons around such a young child??