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The Guardian reports that the woman who was accidentally shot dead by her two-year-old son in an Idaho Walmart is described by those who knew her as a gun lover, a motivated academic and a successful nuclear research scientist who worked for Battelle’s Idaho National Laboratory and wrote several papers there including one on using glass ceramic to store nuclear waste (PDF). Rutledge was raised in north-east Idaho and always excelled at school, former high school classmate Kathleen Phelps said, recalling her as “extremely smart. … valedictorian of our class, very motivated and the smartest person I know. … Getting good grades was always very important to her.”
Veronica Rutledge and her husband loved everything about guns. They practiced at shooting ranges. They hunted. And both of them, relatives and friends say, had permits to carry concealed firearms. “They are painting Veronica as irresponsible, and that is not the case,” says Terry Rutledge, her husband’s father. “… I brought my son up around guns, and he has extensive experience shooting it. And Veronica had had hand gun classes; they’re both licensed to carry, and this wasn’t just some purse she had thrown her gun into.” Many locals don't discern anything odd with a 29-year-old woman carrying a loaded gun into a Wal-Mart during the holiday season. “It’s pretty common around here,” says Stu Miller. “A lot of people carry loaded guns.” More than 85,000 people, 7 percent of Idaho's population, are licensed to carry concealed weapons (PDF), “In Idaho, we don’t have to worry about a lot of crime and things like that,” says Sheri Sandow. “And to see someone with a gun isn’t bizarre. [Veronica] wasn’t carrying a gun because she felt unsafe. She was carrying a gun because she was raised around guns. This was just a horrible accident.”
(Score: 2) by darkfeline on Sunday January 04 2015, @12:03AM
>there is usually the position that the people involved in these incidents were not properly trained or respectful of their guns and such things do not happen to people with common sense, people 'like us'.
>I thought this was an interesting example of that it can and does happen to anyone, even if they're more intelligent than the average and have had all the training, the appropriate and responsible exposure to firearms you would hope.
Err, no. Keeping a handgun in your purse is irresponsible, period. What if a purse-snatcher grabbed your purse, then used your gun to shoot you? What if the gun were to randomly discharge, and the purse was positioned so that the gun was pointing toward you or someone else?
I don't even own or have had training in firearms, but it seems clear to me that you should carry a firearm with a discrete safety, the safety should be activated, and the gun carried in a proper holster directly on your person in a position such that it is extremely hard for someone other than yourself to draw it, impossible for someone else to reach it without you being 100% aware that they are doing so, and pointing down toward the ground at all times in case of accidental discharge.
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(Score: 1) by tftp on Sunday January 04 2015, @06:47PM
As I understand, purses with gun compartment were invented simply because women often have no pockets and can't carry a regular holster on a hip without it being too obvious. (That is a requirement for concealed carry.) Men have far more freedom in their choice of clothes.
Just like it happened in this very case? Sure, a child interfered with the gun, but for all practical purposes it was a random event. Next time around the purse could be hit by a corner of a shopping cart, for example, right inside the trigger guard... I don't know how much protection is there. Most holsters (leather and plastic) completely enclose the trigger area, so that it cannot be touched prior to drawing the gun.
That is exactly how most recreational gun users carry the weapons. Aside from a few very specialized designs that intentionally have no safety latch, plenty of people carry the gun on safety and without the round in the chamber. They bias the weapon toward not firing. If necessary (say, if a rancher sees a coyote) the gun can be made ready to fire at cost of one extra second to rack the slide and move the safety latch. Soldiers and police - who may need to shoot instantly - avoid safeties and have the gun ready to fire upon a long trigger pull. CCW people are somewhere in between, as they may need to shoot quickly, but at the same time the penalty for unintentional discharge is very high.