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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsLaderika Smith Charged With Murder After 5-Year-Old Girl Fatally Shoots Self In New Orleans
The New Orleans Police Department said in a news release the girl was home alone Sunday, somehow found her mother's revolver, and accidentally shot herself in the head. The mother, 28-year-old Laderika Smith, will be booked on a charge of second-degree murder. Police say her negligence resulted in the death of her daughter.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/24/laderika-smith-charged-5-year-old-shoots-self_n_3489410.html
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but give a 5yr old a .22 rifle and whatever happens is just one of those things . . .
that is, if its a white 5yr old
JustAnotherGen
(32,000 posts)What I tiptoed around - you stated. . .
I'm wondering if anyone is familiar with how this is NORMALLY handed. I don't think this is the 'norm'. Generally what we've seen is that the Local Statutes/State Laws treat this with a "Shame on you" and that's that. Not even negligence charges.
Orrex
(63,260 posts)But apparently it's only a crime some of the time.
Hmm...
kiva
(4,373 posts)and am a huge supporter of gun control. That said, do you really think there's no difference between allowing a child to practice shoot a rifle under adult supervision (OK, that just makes me feel slimy to say) and locking a child in a home and leaving - a home where there is a loaded weapon that the child can access?
JustAnotherGen
(32,000 posts)It's normally toddlers or other children that just open a drawer and pull out the gun and shoot someone else . . . We've seen these a few times.
If it was the 'home alone' aspect - that negligence/abuse/neglect. That's not murder. That Child Protective Services, Parenting classes, etc. etc.
I wonder then - can we now start charging ALL parents that just leave guns laying around for their kids to get - with murder? Why not a national law for that?
ashling
(25,771 posts)Just one of those crazy accidents, he added.
kiva
(4,373 posts)I had missed the story.
mikeysnot
(4,758 posts)seat with a gun "he thought was empty" walks...
kestrel91316
(51,666 posts)I'd like to see negligent WHITE gun owners treated as harshly as this. But we all know that "accidents" are a white thing and criminal negligence is a minority thing.
HarveyDarkey
(9,077 posts)cali
(114,904 posts)malaise
(269,254 posts)Sadly only non-white parents are charged
Scuba
(53,475 posts)n2doc
(47,953 posts)Because obviously if she had been everything would have been A-Ok
marions ghost
(19,841 posts)from happening so much, but definitely a racial double standard here. Yeah it's an "accident" if the victims are white.
This should be the penalty regardless of race.
Involuntary manslaughter for the parents in all cases where a child has access to a gun.