My kids are friends with this girl and her boyfriend. This was such a profound tragedy on so many levels.
The young man who asked to look at the gun usually doesn’t attend church there, he was there to help that day.
The man who showed him the gun is a professional security guard (yes he should have known better and checked the chamber once removing the magazine...but it was a mistake, and we all make mistakes...a mistake that had tragic results.)
The kid wasn’t looking to buy a gun, just going to be in the market for one when he came of age. So there was no “guy selling” going on in the church as some media outlets have reported.
They went into a closet to view the gun. The gun went off and fired through a wall and into the next room. Not that anyone being hit would not have been a tragedy, but that bullet travelled through a wall and into a room full of people at just the right trajectory to hit the young woman (the girlfriend of the guy asking to view the gun) in the back of the head and travel straight through her head doing irreparable damage to her brain. The bullet could have hit so many places but it went straight through her head...the chance of that happening just overwhelms me.
The man who owned the gun is a long time friend of the pastor’s family. The church family had to witness the whole incident (including, of course, the boyfriend, the parents, and many young children.)
She seemed to rally mid week, giving all concerned some hope, but then started failing the last couple of days.
I appreciate your comment because if you look back up through the thread, there’s not a lot of empathy to be seen.
The ripple effect of this event will last the entire lives of those involved...truly a tragedy.
Dawn, I’ve been into guns since I was a child. I’ve probably owned or shot just about everything there is at one time or another. I’ve had a few accidental discharges throughout my life, and just by God’s grace, no injuries. One thing I know from my own experience and from everyone I know, people make mistakes. Every once in while you do something inexplicabley stupid. Even the very best of them. It’s human nature. I try not to ridicule the ones I see in person, or the ones that are unlucky enough to get posted on Youtube or in pictures, but instead try and use them as teachable moments. My heart still aches over the sad story of a girl in Louisiana who jumped out of the closet to scare her parents, or the little boy in Las Vegas who couldn’t hang on to a Glock 18. Now this. There’s no answer. Sometimes bad things happen to good people and innocent children. In the end, Jesus will comfort and wipe away the tears of those who love Him. There’s no greater hope or love than what awaits us.