Father accidentally shoots teenage son at Florida gun range

AP ^ | July 4, 2016 | AP

[PROCON]

SARASOTA, Fla. (AP) — Authorities say a 14-year-old boy was accidentally shot and killed by his father at a Florida gun range.

William Brumby was firing his weapon at the High Noon Gun Range in Sarasota on Sunday when a spent shell casing deflected off a nearby wall and landed inside the back of his shirt

[VeniVidiVici]

’ve had brass go down my shirt and once had a piece of hot brass come down behind my glasses and get stuck between the glasses and my cheek. You may have nerves of steel, but us mortals flinch at that and we instinctively reach with our strong hand...which has a loaded gun in it. I’ve always had presence of mind to stop myself before I broke the plane of the firing line. Most people do. But before we start saying that this poor guy is unqualified to handle a gun, ask yourself what test you want to use to check for proper nerves under stress. Do we want to have to to the local police department so they can hit us with a hot poker to see if we can maintain our composure as proof that we can handle a gun safely when a piece of hot brass goes down our shirt?

Do we want mandatory safety jackets with tight collars when we go to the local range? After all, if it only saves one life is the usual question asked when one of our rights is being eroded.

Exactly. I love all these Monday morning quarterbacks whining about what should have been done.

I walked onto the range once just in time to see a large-breasted woman in a tube top fire her pistol and the ejected brass went right down the middle. She was jumping around when I walked in and I have no idea where her gun was but pretty sure she wasn't holding it.

[Nationale7]

Agreed.

[FreedomNotSafety]

For yourself I would say. You contradicted yourself.

[School of Rational Thought]

Reads like incredibly stupid father. Should be jailed.

[Vaquero]

You preach to the choir here.

Not to you friend. To the generic every man. anyone who needs to see the rules.

[PeteB570]

No - you don’t understand the simple concept that most accidents can be prevented.

[Joe Brower]

This happened at the range where I take my daughter to shoot once a month with her 4H club. She knew this kid; they went to school together a couple years back.

Yes, the dad freely admits his mistake, and it will haunt him for the rest of his life. No charges have been or will be filed. It was a stupid accident, plain and simple.

We can armchair-quarterback all we want, but it's all academic. When one considers how many millions of firearms are used every day in this country, once in a while lightning will strike; it's a simple matter of numbers.

Yeah, I'd like to think I'd do better, too, and in fact I have, but to everyone I can only say this: Let he who is without guilt throw the first stone.

If anyone wants to help this poor family in their time of such dire need, there is a GoFundMe page set up HERE.

[mbynack]

I took my wife to an outdoor range many years ago and she started trying to shoo a bumble bee away with a loaded pistol. The range safety officer wasn’t impressed with her improvised fly swatter.

It’s a shame that this happened. It takes some presence of mind and discipline to remember to put the pistol down before dealing with hot brass down your shirt. Prayer for the dad and the family.

[FreedomNotSafety]

I agree that accidents can be prevented. But you said its not an accident if someone trips over an electrical cord left on the stairs. So moving the cord would prevent someone tripping but, by your logic it would not have prevented an accident.

I would say someone tripping over a cord that someone else did not move is an accident. You do not agree: “An accident is something that could not be prevented.”

But despite saying that you go on to call the trip an accident “If you see a coiled up electric cord on the stairs you should move it because it might cause an accident if somebody else trips over it.”

“If you don’t move it and somebody trips and gets hurt it wasn’t an accident because it could have been prevented by the person not leaving it there or you when you noticed.”

So is the tripping an accident or not?

[NonValueAdded]

I was at the Indian River range many moons ago, sighting in a scope, when someone came in with a fully tricked out AR15. They were about 3 positions to my right and suddenly I was receiving a hard brass rain so I can see how this could happen. Prayers for the family.

[PROCON]

A follow-up story of the tragedy:

Sarasota father who accidentally shot his son: 'The gun didn't kill my boy. I did.’

[PeteB570]

No!

If something can be prevented and you don’t prevent it then it is not an accident.

If you let your kids play in a busy street and they get hit by a car it wasn’t an accident - it’s your fault because you let them play in a busy street.

If you let them play on a quiet side street with a 20mph speed limit and a dude come ripping around a corner squealing tires and hits one of them - that wasn’t an accident either. But it was the fault of the speeder.

If you’re tearing down an old building and pull off a board with nails in it and you drop it on the ground nails up and somebody steps on it and punctures their foot it was not an accident because you caused it when you could have prevented it.

There are real accidents but most “accidents” could have been prevented. So tripping on the stairs would seem like an accident to the one who tripped - but it was caused by the lazy person who didn’t move the cord.

Be aware of what you are doing, notice what’s around you and there will be fewer “accidents” around you.

[FreedomNotSafety]

You have now switched the debate terms to accidents and “accidents”. But putting quotation marks around the word does not change its meaning. So, you are now saying that “accidents” can be prevented but accidents cannot be prevented. Is that public school logic or public school grammar?

So tripping over an electrical cord when someone saw it on the stairs and did not remove it is not an accident. Ok. Then why did you say not removing the electrical cord could cause an accident? Read your own reply. You said not removing the cord could cause an accident or did you mean “accident”?

By your logic not removing the cord could cause someone to trip. This trip is not an accident because it could have been prevented.

Your same logic also means that if the cord is removed then a trip does not occur. But the trip had it occurred by your own words would not have been an accident. So therefore removing the cord does not prevent an accident but it does keep a trip from occuring.

[PeteB570]

Hey, go play with your self Troll.

[lepton]

It’s not simple guilt. It is a reflex over-riding thought. Unfortunately, it happens.

A lot of people quit driving when they see an accident coming. It takes focus and often practice to overcome good reflexes in bad situations.

[FreedomNotSafety]

Ad Hominen attacks. A favorite ploy of the left. Especially the ones who did not go to public schools.

If you are losing the argument attack the person.

[wardaddy]

Have you been?

Not as a hack....that’s not the same thing

[wardaddy]

There is very little many freepers love more than denunciation and condemnation

If I did what that poor man did only Gods cool hand would keep me from killing myself

That and knowing I’d be making bad enough worse on the rest of the family

I always try to impress on my children the finality of guns.....guns which except for stuff like Purdey or like crafted art are just tools

I make them study dead animals they just killed especially the life gone eyes so they get it

Take these tools dead serious

As for gun ranges....I don’t like them at all....too much distraction and commotion and worst ....know it alls volunteering shit and watching your every move just so they can comment like the dingoes here do

Give me a red clay pit or pasture with an escarpment anyday

That what I love about America west of Fort Worth.....almost anywhere outside cities which are few and far between is shoot country

[mylife]

I have had more than one hot casing wedge between my shooting glasses and face, it hurts but not like this.

[glock rocks]

No, I haven’t.